20 APRIL 1895, Page 3

The Austrian Alps and part of Venetia have been visited

by a severe earthquake. The shocks, which began on Sunday night, and continued with intermissions till Wednesday, were felt over the whole of Southern Austria, North Italy, and even as far as Hungary. Laibach, the capital of Carniola, was the place most seriously affected. The fact that the shocks took place at night, and were accompanied by subterranean noises, caused a reign of terror in the town, and for two nights the inhabitants slept in the streets, in spite of the bitter cold. Scarcely a house in the town was left undamaged, and a large number of people were killed and injured. In Venice the earthquake was severely felt, though happily the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's appear to have escaped without fnjury. A large number of visitors, as is usual at Easter time, were stopping in the town, and many of these insisted on sleeping in the open air. The Piazza San Marco resembled a vast military camp. At Fiume and Trieste there was also a good deal of disturbance, and at Trieste the statue of the Emperor Charles is reported to have been twisted round on its pedestal, and now faces opposite to where it faced before. What an omen that would have been considered three hundred years ago !