The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-29 00:00:00

THE GALE AND ITS DISASTERS,.

During the past week the weather has been of an ex-
ceptional character, and the variations of the barometer
have forewarned the weatherwise that mischief was
at hand. On Saturday and Sunday most destruc-
tive gales occurred all round the western coasts,
inflicting much serious damage. From Liverpool many
disasters are reported, and the state of the Mersey is
described as most extraordinary. At high water on
Sunday morning the tide was no less than 23ft. 10in. in
height, and, owing to the wind, it remained even at low
water Bft. above its ordinary ebb. The appearance of
the river is compared to that of a gigantic steam
boiler, and old residents in the vicinity put the storm on a
level with the remarkable gale in 1839. Happily, no serious
casualty occurred in the river, the American steamers and
others at anchors riding out safely. Off the
North-west lightship, however, No. 9 pilot - boat
was run down by the Royal Mail steamer China,
belonging to the Cunard line. Several pilots are missing,
the exact number being yet uncertain. In the various
docks round Liverpool great mischief has been done, and
every vessel which arrives has a fresh record to bring. The
City of New York, from Halifax, had the misfortune to lose
abag of mailswashed overboard opposite the Rock lighthouse.
The destruction on land has also been very great. At
Bolton the walls of a new Baptist chapel in course of
erection were blown down, at a loss, it is thought,
of £l,OOO. A still more serious accident is reported
from Rochdale, where service was being held in
a newly-erected Sunday-school, on Sunday afternoon,
when the building was completely blown down, and many
persons were buried in the ruins. Portions of walls and
houses were blown down in many places, and the tele-
graphic posts and wires much injured. More remark-
able was the effect produced by the force of
the wind upon the railway wires. The progress
of the trains was actually delayed by its violence, and
the train from London due in Liverpool at 6 p.m. on
Sunday afternoon did not arrive till nearly an hour later.
The great quantity of rain which has lately fallen has
produced another element of disturbance in the prevalence
of floods. The Trent has overflowed its banks and sub-
merged the neighbouring meadows. The erection of the
new bridge at Nottingham has again been stopped in con-
sequence, and as the old Trent bridge on the Nottingham
side is giving way through the saturation of the ground,
traffic has become very unsafe. The Ribble, which has been
much swollen during the whole of this month, has also
overflowed its banks. Hundreds of acres in the Croxton
and Mawdesley districts are now under water, and low-
lying lands in other parts are also inundated, to
the injury, it is feared, of the young wheat. The waters
of the Thames at Windsor and Eton have flooded the
Windsor racecourse, the playing-fields at Eton, and
several other parts.

It is said that a third letter from Earl Russell
to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue on the state of
Ireland will be published early in January.
Birmingham was on Saturday and Sunday threat-
ened with Irish riots. The row indeed began. But the
polico arrangements were so good that the disturbances
ware quelled. The local journals hint that Fenianism has
someth'ng io do with the affair.

DEATH OF MR. CHALMERS. —We regret to record
the death of Mr. Chambers, the inventor of the Chalmers
Target, which took place on Saturday morning last. Mr.
Chalmers has left behind him works that cannot but make
him remembered and regretted by the British public. He
has been cut off just as his target is about completed and
his Channel Railway scheme likely to come into notice.
It is hoped that these labours of his life for the public weal
may not be slighted by those in posiiton to reward them.
Mr. Chalmers leaves a widow with two daughters and two
sons.

The metropolitan correspondent of the Sheffield
Independent says ,—" I am glad to learn that there is a pro-
bability of Mr. Beales's appointment to a County Court
Judgeship. Whether one agrees with all that he has re-
cently done, or otherwise, there is no doubt that ho laboured
hard and successfully in the cause of reform, and that in
c( nuection with it ho has made personal sacrifices of no
ordinary nature. These labours and the loss of his Be-
icing Barristership will only be modestly rewarded by
such an office as that which, according to rumour he is des-
tinod to fill,"

Several of our contemporaries "are given to
understand" that there is no foundation for the state-
ment in a paragraph copied from the Examiner, to
the effect that Mr. F. J. Scudamore, the Second
Secretary of the Post Office, is about to be removed
to the Treasury, to work in conjunction with Mr. Stans-
feld. The mistake has probably arisen from the fact that
Mr. Stansfeld has recently joined the committee to inquire
into the state of the office of her Majesty's Customs, which
was appointed by the late Government, and of which
Messrs. Scudamore and Forster, C. 8., were originally the
enly me-übers.

how far election bets are valid was instanced in a
case which came before the judge at the Blackburn Coutty
Court. The plaintiff, a factory operative, named Abraham
Knowles, had bet a weaver, named Thos. Hall, 20s. previous
to the elections, that Mr. Gladstone would not have fifty
of a majority of Liberal supporters. The money was
placed in tho hands of a fellow-operative, named
George Haworth, as stakeholder. On the result of tho
elections throughout the country showing that Knowles
bad lost, Haworth handed the money to Hall, tho
winner. Knowles, however, demanded his money back, ac-
knowledging he had lost, on the ground that the bet was an
tuilawful one, and not being able to get it he put up Ilaworth,
the stakeholder in court. His Honour said, as the law stood,
he must give a verdict to plaintiff, although, according to
plaintiff's statement, he was not in e_csity_entitled tole
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