The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-20
Foreign Vtems


Oh spot whose very existence had been half
forgotten, but which has lately been made
accessible. Whether because of a general
change in the relative level of the Venetian
lagoons and the mud islands that support the
city, or of a local subsistence of the soil under
the great weight of the Church of st. Mark.
the ancient crypt gradually sank below the
level OF the adjoining canal. After several
Intellectual attempts to resist the influx of
water by raising the pavement the effort was
abandoned as hopeless Somewhere about
1850 the original entrance was walled up; and
Tor more than two centuries the place seems
to have remained undisturbed. Soon after
the Austrians became masters of Venice some
ecclesiastical antiquary called to mind the
fact that the marble coain believed
to contain the body of st. Mark had been
left in the centre of the crypt, supported on
four stone columns. The cathedral authorities
were moved to action; an opening was made
through one of the small windows in the
vaulting of the roof. The crypt was found
half full of salt water, but the precious relic,
supported at a height of five feet above the
pavement, was found untouched. 1t was
solemnly raised into the church, where it has
since remained; the opening was again closed,
and for further period of over sixty years
one of the most curious portions of this won
derful fabric was lost to sight-almost to
memory Thanks to the energetic interven-
tion of Signor Torelli the present active Pre-
feet of Venice, it is now as accessible as when
first constructed When the water had been
pumped out and the layers of concrete re-
moved that had been introduced to raise the
level of the original pavement, there was no
great difficulty in making the structure quite
water-tight by means of excellent hydraulic
cement. the materials of which are found near
Bergamo. The architecture is of great in
terest and will doubtless furnish matter for
NNba Y known
THAT feudalism is not yet extinct in Prus-
sia is shown by an extraordinary incident
\ which has lust occurred near Hohenstein, in
the Hartz The estate of Werna, in this dis
trict, has for centuries been in possession Of
4 the Spiegel family though it was held in fee
Of the Count yon Stolberg-Stoberg. Last
spring the present occupier of the property
publicly denied the fealty, and as such denial,
according to the old feud da4 law, would deprive
the lord of his rights, Count ,'"u otolDerS IN
mediately called upon Herr Won 9ple8el "
give up the estate. The latter refuset and
lade all the necessary preparations for de-
riSise The gate was barred, the laborers on
tIestate were drilled every day. and taught
toVre at target, sentries were posted at
HaRus places and relieved every two hours.
#~SArge placard has been posted up at the
gate with the inscripton:-''No o thoroughfare
for robber-knights' Verbotener eingang fur
Il all6 hauDTllJGr). IL Is Sllu JlaU count OtOl-
berg will shortly arrive with band of armed
men to take forcible possession of the pro-
perty, and people are curious to know how
this medieval scene in the middle of the nine
teenth century will end.
The untutored savages who roam the
deserts of Central Africa little imagine what q
surprise the indefatigable NJ Lesseps is pre-.
pairing for them. During the progress Of the
works at Suez, he despatched a number of
engineers to the Desert of Sahara to ascertain
the exact difference between the level of that
tract of country and the surface of the Red
Sea. The surveying party on their return
reported declivity of twenty-seven metres,
which is presumed to become still greater
further inland. M. Lesseps now suggests the
possibility of letting the waters of the Red
Sea into the interior of Africa by means of a
canal, and thus converting this hitherto
almost unexplored desert into a large inland
lake, which would afford easy access to the
fertile countries surrounding it. The good
consequences of such an achievement, in q
commercial sense, would doubtless be vast;
but to the present inhabitants of the country
t. the project would be fraught with obvious in
convenience.
There are probably no newspapers in the
world which devote SO large a proportion Of
their space to news from abroad as the Polish
papers of Warsaw. Home politics are care
fully excluded from these journals and for 8
very sufficient reason, namely, because the
censors will not allow any unfavOrable criti
cism of the acts of the Government, and it is
very seldom indeed that the Government doe
anything which Polish journalist would fee
inclined to praise. This state of things ha
attracted the attention of the ultra Russian
newspapers of st. Petersburg and Moscow
which express great indignation at the wan
of interest in Russian affairs displayed by The
people of Warsaw; and the result is the fol
lowing extraordinary official decree, whicl
deserves to be quoted IN ert61SO:-
''Some journals published in the capital OF the en-
pire remark, with much reason that the Polls
press of Warsaw affects to Ignore all that relates Il
Russia That press is even unwilling to know
what passes here under its very eyes. Thus, FOR II
#stance, Polish journal in Warsaw has mentioned
even in few words the important event whc
occurred overwhelmingly, the conservation of tn
new orthodox Russian Church in the suburb
<Praga. The director of the censorship hopes thi
4the editors Of the newspapers and other periodical
: 4Of Warsaw will understand the improprety OF pas
ing over in silence events which happen in the en-
pre Of which this country Is but small part
The Pail Mall Gazette says'-That whic
& Is called ''the personal power in France
eeriously threatened for a variety of reasons
but none is more important than the tinancit
reason. A few plain figures will show the NJ
eessity of reform. In 1850 the eXpenditul
~ pf the Government amounted to not quit
|.-|+-a 800 900, 600 francs (about 60,O0O,0 0C
sterling). 1t now amounts to nearly ., 400
boo 900 francs (orabout 600, 900, 600 sterling
~ It has been increased in seventeen years b
poo 900, 900 francs Cor G36, 900, 600 sterling
What should we say to a state of things in tn
country which would show in the budgets
seventeen wears that the expenditure of eac