17 FEBRUARY 1883, Page 3

The floods all over Europe are very bad, but they

are insig- nificant, compared with those of America. The Ohio, in parti- cular, has risen sixty-seven feet, and Cincinnati, with many other cities, has been submerged. The factories have been closed, the people are out of work, and it is said even the criminal classes keep order, being appalled by the destruction,—and being also, perhaps, aware that under such circumstances Respectables think Judge Lynch very wise. It is said that the loss of pro- perty in Cincinnati alone exceeds $3,000,000, and the loss of life is very great. The Mississippi has also risen to a dan- gerous height, and the calamity is aggravated by the conscious- ness that the tremendous masses of water which in America are called rivers are practically beyond human control. A Bill to -regulate the Mississippi would be like a Bill to regulate the fires of Etna. No explanation is offered cf the floods, which, over such vast tracts, can hardly be due, as in England, to increased drainage.