The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-29 00:00:00

INUNDATION AT ROME

A sad calamity has befallen the city of Rome. The
Tiber, suddenly swollen by rain such as is only witnessed

under the tropics, and impeded in its course towards
Ostia by a south-east wind, has just flooded two-thirds of
the inhabited streets, and destroyed pr,,perty, both in
town and country, to a melancholy extent. This century
bad not seen a simi'ar inundation, that of 1805 being far
less extensive or disastrous. As far as the eye could
reach, from the Pinciau hill to the foot of Monte Mario,
from the Sonte :Tolle to the contrescarpe of Castle St.
Angelo, became at once a vast lake, interspersed with tops
of trees and farm roofs, cattle swimming, and floating
wagg us. Not only the accustomed low quarters of the
Piazza Navona and Pantheon, but the Corso and Con-
doff were submerged, and the well-known magnificent
area of the Porta del Pupolo became a deep pond impas-
sable to carriages. It was a singular sight to look down
from the Pincian on this extemporised basin, reflecting
calmly the surroundi,g churches and monument

a, and

receiving into its abundance the rather superfluous con-
tributions of the four Egyptian Lions who kept up the
farce of their quadruple jet d'eau throughout. The cen-
tral obehsk of itharnses, which rose in quiet grandeur over
the waters, seemed, after many thouaand years, to have

got a glimpse of his native Nile at its work of fertilization.
Un'ortun tely, mischief, unmixed with any compensating
result, ensues from these visits of the Roman ricer.
The reports from the various quarters (or islands) of
the ce y have as yet brought no tidings of *drowned men,
though horses, pigs, and kine have perished in numbers,
and the misery of the poorer classes can hardly be esti-
mated unless by the knowledge of their exclusive tenancy
of all ground-floors, in Rome the upper stories being
alone inhabited by the wealthy. But the unfortunate
Jews are in the worst predicament of all other denomi-
nations, their disadvantageous quarter being not of their
own selection, and hence it became only an act of com-
mon honesty in the government to behave as it has done
by them to-day ; supplying them at once, and in the first
rank with food and necessaries. Foi this purpose domi-
ciliary visits were made to all bakers, and fashionable
hotels, and every loaf carried off to the Ghetto. If any
good could possibly be elicited from the present sad
occurrence, it would be perhaps the forcing the Pope's
attention to the folly and unchristian policy of his pre-
decessors in cooping up the remnant of Israel here into
a space of the town so confined and so objectionable as to
nearly resemble the hold of a Brazilian slave-ship on the
middle passage.

THE TRIAL TRIPS WITH THE OVERLAND

INDIAN MAIL.

(From the Augsburg Gazelle.)
The first moiety of the six trial journeys arranged by
the British Government for the conveyance of the Indian
despatches through Germany is now completed; and it
will not be considered inapposite to take a comprehensive
survey of the events of those journeys, and tc.. glance at
the further consequences that may result from them.
The ordinary consideration of this subject, as an interest-
ing competition for the honour of the greatest celerity,
as an adventurous neck-or-nothing "steeple-chase," is
equally absurd and incorrect. As regards England, the
object is nothing less than the securing of a second route,
—one at least equal in point of celerity to that through
France, in the event of a political quarrel with the latter
country ; as regards Germany, the restoration of the old
middle-age Venetian-Hanseatic commercial road, the
construction of a new public road along the banks of the
Rhine, over the Alps to the Adriatic Sea and the East,
and also the freedom from useless intermediate traders ;
as regards Holland, a more direct and rapid connexion
with its East Indian colonies; and as regards Belgium,
and the western and southerly part of Germany in par-
ticular, a most important conveyance of goods, passen-
gers, and letters, which is already increa-ing in import-
ance. We can assure our readers, from the best sources,
that the English Government and the East India Com-
pany are perfectly satisfied with the results of the trial
trips hitherto undertaken with reference to Germany ;
and their zeal for this line is far more increasing than

diminishing.
Toe Cracow affair, far from restoring the entente
cordiale, has only served to show that a fissure has been
rent between the two Cabinets by the Spanish marriages,
which cannot he filled up again by all the opposite argu-
ments of the public organs on both sides.
Tic English statesmen are determined to command a
second Continental postal line "at any price," and they
will assuredly call it into existence, no matter whether
via Trieste, Ancona, or Brindisi. Hitherto, all the facts
have told in favour of Trieste, where the Austrian Lloyd
has s.) powerfully united its efforts to those of Waghorn,
and is, moreover, perfectly prepared to offer all the
pledges of a regular service.
Unfortunately, however, the unhappy idea seems to be
cherished 'in Vienna of conducting the overland route
through the capital, and the construction of the Bruck
and ,s3.l.barg road seems to be rejected altogether (?).
The establishment of the Trieste route may be wrecked
in this opposition -alone, but on no other obstacles.
Switzerland and Naples receive the project with open
arms, and the railroads jest decreed by the Pope will
help the undertaking amazingly. Austria would then
have once more to regret that she had not embraced it at
the right time, but opposad to the unalterable geographical
features of the country a centralization mania in this case
utterly impracticable.
We hope, however, that the energy and tact which
have hitherto been manifested in the execution of the
great state roads by the genial Baron Kubeck will not
abandon him on this occasion, and will point out to him
right speedily the only way in which the carrying into
effect of the beautiful idea of an Austro-lndian com-
mercial road is possible. Here we will lay before our
readers a correct summary of the three trial trips hitherto
attempted, together with the preliminary trials, from
which it is clearly to be seen how the sea and land
journeys of the French and the Waghorn couriers were
effected.