2 AUGUST 1845, Page 8

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FaancE.—The celebration of the Revolution of 1830 began in Paris on Mon- day, with religious observances in honour of those who perished. Tuesday was the day of rejoicing: there was a kind of fair on the Champs Elysees and at the Barriere du 'Irene; a concert in the garden of the Tuileries, and at night an il- lumination, with fire-works. M. Guizot left Paris on Monday, for Val Richer, his seat in Normandy. N. Duchatel supplies the place of M. Gnizot at the Foreign Office during the absence of the latter.

Captain 011ivier has been appointed Governor of Senegal, in the room of Cap- tain Bouet Willaumez.

The Moniteur publishes the Estimates for 1846; in which the ordinary and ex- traordinary expenditures are fixed at 1,434,439,406 francs, and the Ways and Means at 1,355,045,651 francs. The same paper gives a report, addressed by the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce to the King, on the execution of the law of 1841 relative to the labour of children in manufactories. That law is applicable in 75 departments; the number of establishments subject to its provisions amounts to upwards of 5,000; and no fewer than 70,000 children under sixteen years of age are employed in. manufactories. Inspectors have been appointed in 253 districts, to take care that no child under eight years of age be admitted into the manufactories; that child- ren from eight to twelve be not forced to work more than eight hours and those from twelve to sixteen not more than twelve hours in the twenty-four. I'M children have regularly attended the public schools; and in some districts, where none existed, the manufacturers themselves have caused them to be instructed at their- own expense. The working of the law up to the present period has been per- fectly satisfactory, and bids fair to be attended with the most beneficial results.

SWITZERIAND.-A sensation has been created by the death of M. Len, of Ebresol, a distinguished member of the Catholic party of Lucerne. "N. Len," says the Paris Presse "was found dead in his bed', a ball having passed throngk his breast. The murderer had entered the window by means of a ladder. A quantity of straw and other combustible materials had been collected round the house, evidently with an intention of setting fire to it had the ball from any cir- cumstance missed its intended victim. No clue has yet been discovered to the murderer." The Catholic palters concur in regarding the case as one of assassina- tion; while the Protestants insist that it was one of suicide. One paper re- ported that the murder was committed by Redlinger, a servant, who had quar- relled with IfL Lou about a money account; adding that he had fled, and had been arrested: but that statement was at least premature. Many Protestants,, however, were obliged to fly from Lucerne to escape the popular fury, and several arrests took place.

SrAni.—The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has prepared an address te all similar bodies in the kingdom, calling on them to petition the Cortes about the admission of Cuba sugars into the English markets. Should England persist in excluding them, the Barcelona merchants recommend recourse to re- prisals, and propose to prohibit the importation into Spain, Cuba, and other Spanish colonies, of various articles of English manufacture, such as linens, cloth,: hard-ware, muslin, machinery, &c.

INDIA AND CntaA.—The over-land mail brings intelligence from Bombay to the 20th June; but the Indian advices are destitute of novelty, all having been anticipated by the last Calcutta mail.

The latest date from China is the 6th May. The British troops had been with- drawn from Kolungsoo, in accordance with the terms of our treaty, on the 284 March; and the Chinese had taken possession.

A strange occurrence had taken place. An English merchant having built a vessel of seventy tons, gave the command of it to a Chinese named Fowqua, to enable him to levy a species of black mail on the native smuggling-boats engaged' in the opium-trade. Suspicions were excited; Fowqua was seized by the Chinese- authorities and tortured, and he denounced a hundred persons as being implicated

in the enterprise. -

The Hong-kong Register reports a remarkable mutiny on board the schooner Arid, on the voyage from Amoy for Victoria, with 100,000 dollars in specie. Mr. Macfarlane, the commander, was called up at night by Mr. Wilkinson, the mate; and going on deck, he found the schooner in possession of the mate and gunner, who had mutinied. They asked Mr. Macfarlane to join them, apparently with the- view of setting up as pirates. At the risk of his life he refused. They spared- his life, and were about to imprison him in the hold; but, as an indulgence, he was confined in his own cabin. A Chinese servant, however, told him that the- Manilla men who formed the crew were still faithful: he communicated with them next night, they released him, and they all attacked the mutineers. The fight was. soon over; the mate being knocked down with a rammer, and also cut with knives. The gunner took refuge in the cabin; raising the hatch which covered the maga zine, and threatening to blow up the ship. Mr. Macfarlane had by this time got possession of a fowling-piece, one barrel of which was loaded: with it he fired, and wounded the gunner in the thigh. The wretch cried out for mercy, but still- threatened to blow up the ship. A lasso was got ready and thrown over his head, and thus the crew hauled him on deck and secured him. The mate died of his wounds. The gunner was taken to Hong-kong, examined before a Magistrate, and committed for trial.

TEXAS—The mail-steamer Acadia, which left Boston on the 16th July and' Halifax on the 19th, arrived at Liverpool on Tuesday. The only important poli- tical intelligence relates to Texas, whence the latest date mentioned is the 16th June. On that day, both branches of the Texan Congress had unanimously adopted resolutions in which they rejected the proposition of Mexico to make peace on condition of refusing annexation; they accepted the proposition made by the United States for annexing Texas to the Lmon; and they sanctioned the Con- vention summoned by President Jones, for framing a constitution as a preli, minary to the annexation. The Convention was to meet on the 4th July.

The papers publish a long diplomatic correspondence between Mr. Donelson" the United States Chargé, d'Affaires in Texas, and Mr. E. Allen, the acting Secretary of State, all on the subject of annexation. It extends from the 31st March to the 13th June; but the interest in it is .quite superseded by the an- nouncement of the result. The point of surviving interest is the distinct pledge given by the Government of the United States to march troops into Texas should Diode° assail the Western frontier of that state; and it is added, that troops were already prepared on the frontier of the Union.

UNITED STATES.-A few scraps of .gossip we borrow from " Publicus," the- Philadelphia correspondent of the Morning Chronicle.

The first bears upon what is stated above. "Four steamers have been char- tered by the United States Government, at New Orleans, to bring down two regi-- • meats of United States troops from Fort Jessup, and to convey them to Matagorda, Texas, to be posted on the frontier lines between Texas and Mexico—probably on the Rio Grande. By the time this reaches you, Texas will be in a state of mill- " tall occupation by the United States.

A large company of settlers for California is assembling' at St. Louis; where public meetings have been held on the subject. Emigrations of this character will settle the question in California. It will soon be the nucleus of a great republic. " A few days since, the steamer Marquette exploded at New Orleanst killed nearly thirty persons' and wounded many others. The captain and engineer of the Marquette have been arrested on a charge of negligence, and are committed to take their trial for manslaughter.

"A large gang of Negroes recently made their escape from Maryland towards Pennsylvania. On Monday last they were pursued, and thirty-one were recap- tured; but not until a volley had been fired upon them, which killed one and wounded eight. "A man named Avant, and his confederate Powers were hung by the mob a few days since without any form of trial, at Marianna:Florida. They were noted robbers and murderers.

"A planter, his son, a slave, and two other persons, were shot in an affray with a neighbouring planter, on the Wachita river, Louisiana, a few days since. A daughter of a neighbouring gentleman was also killed. The principal murderer as in custody."

CANADA.—Quebec had again been swept by a terrible conflagration, which has destroyed another third of the city. The accounts are somewhat less copious -and graphic than those of the previous fire; but even the very general description given suggests a fearful picture. We begin with an extract from the Quebec Mercury. The fire broke out at a house in D'Aignillon Street, occupied by Mr. Tessier, about ten o'clock on Satur- day night, the 28th June, soon after the last of the family, a maid-servant, had retired to rest. This was just the point where the fire had stopped on the 28th y."The tocsin immediately alarmed the citizens; many of whom (it being Saturday night) had sought early slumbers after their week's toil, anticipating for the morrow the peaceful enjoyment of the Sabbath, amid the comforts their industry of the six days of labour had enabled them to procure. The military, police, and a number of citizens, with some fire-companies, were promptly in attendance; but a sufficient supply of water could not be obtained. Nothing dis- heartened, all present vigorously exerted themselves to prevent the fire from ex- tending, and several sheds and hangards in the vicinity of Mr. Tessier's fell before the sturdy strokes of axes wielded by firemen and soldiers. The fierce flame, however, gradually overmastered them. The intense heat drove them from their work, and in half an hour several blocks were in ruins. A shower of burning parks and flakes of fire, carried by the wind in every direction soon demonstrated the necessity of employing other and speedier means of checking the progress of the flames than water or manual labour. Accordingly, powder was sent for, which was soon on the spot, and a street selected at some distance from the burn- ing houses in which to commence the work of demolition; bid, so rapid was the advance of the flames, the blocks intended to be blown up were hopelessly on fire before the artillerymen could return from the magazines with ammunition. Houses in every direction were now seen to be on fire, some far distant, others near—this especially on the North side of the main street, St. John Street. The wooden roofs facilitated ignition; and piles of dry deals, standing in various open lots, readily took fire from the burning embers which fell upon them, and in their turn added fresh strength to the flying mass of destruction. The efforts of the military were -next turned towards the preservation of the higher portion of St. John suburb and that of St. Louis."

"On this occasion," says the Quebec Gazette," the wind was as strong from the North-east as it was to the West on the 28th May, and the weather very dry. At both times the fire began to the windward of the densest wit of the suburb, and was carried throughout the thickest part of the dwellings to the leeward. The fire has destroyed nearly the whole of St. -John's and part of St. Lewis suburbs, from St. John's Gate and the North- west angle of the walls, along the brow of the Coteau St. Genevieve nearly to the Tower No. 4, and up to a couple of streets below St. Lewis Road, a num- ber of houses in the scattered streets near Tower No. 3 having escaped, and a few near the Cote d'Abraham, and three or four in the vast extent destroyed. We have heard of only one or two lives being lost. [One man was killed, and -one died afterwards of his hurts.] Although it was in the night, most of the inhabitants, warned by the rapid grogress of the fire of the 28th May, made their escape in time with part of their moveables. It was only about eight o'clock on Sunday morning. that the flames were exhausted towards the Tower No. 4, by there being notliing more to burn, and by blowing up a number of houses North of the St. Lewis Road. The scene of desolation, distress, and affliction, and the extent of the calamity, are nearly as great as after the former -conflagration; the value of the property destroyed probably greater. The population of St. John's suburbs was about ten thousand, and the population of St. Roche had mostly found refuge in St. John's suburbs. Quebec is now reduced to the Upper Town within the walls, and the Lower Town from the St. Charles, below Hope Gate to Cape Blanc, on the St. Lawrence, the extent which -it occupied, but then more sparsely built, after the destruction of the suburbs daring the siege of 1775. The remaining houses in the suburbs are about as many as they were half a century ago."

"Beginning," says a public document, signed by the Bishops of Montreal and Quebec, and others, "as on the former °erasion,. at the extreme wind- ward point of the suburbs, and fed by a gale of wind from the Eastward, (to which quarter the wind had changed in the evening of that day., after . -blowing from the Westward for nearly a fortnight,) the Tire spread with irre- sistible fury through the length and breadth of both suburbs. The build- ings almost entirely of wood, fell before its rage with even greater rapidity than those on the 28th May. In eight hours, of more than 1200 dwell- ings, two places of worship, three school-houses, and numerous stores and out-houses nothing remained but blackened chimnies, roofless walls and piles -of ruins. 'The burial-ground of the Protestant population has been traversed by the fire, and its wooden and marble memorials of the dead to a great extent injured or destroyed ; and in passing through this district, which lately con- tained the homes of 9,000 inhabitants, neither man, woman, nor child, is now to be met, except a few stragglers, from curiosity surve • the desolation. Several thousands of those whose dwellings had been destroyed in the last conflagration had here found shelter by the kindness and hospitality of their chari fellow- citizens; and were thus agam driven forth, involved in one commo with those who had harboured them. The morning of Sunday the 29th June /dawned upon more than 15,000 people whom the flames had left without shelter or food, scattered with the effects they had been able to save over the fields and open spaces without the walls, or flying to the neighbouring settlements. As -on the former occasion, a third part of the city has fallen a prey to the flames; -and Quebec on the landward side is reduced to limits not much larger than it .possessed when Wolfe fell before its walls."

Thirteen hundred dwellings were destroyed, rendering homeless at least six thousand persons, and this in addition to the numbers deprived of a home by the previous conflagration. About thirty streets are in ruins; and the amount of in-

surances effected is thus stated—Canada office, 40,0001.; Quebec ditto, 15,2001.; Montreal ditto, 3,5001.; Pheenix ditto, 1,0751. "The Canada, I am assured," ' says a private letter, "will redeem its obligations; its capital, I believe, is 100,0001., and by the conflagration of the 28th ultimo it lost 50,0001." The loss inflicted by the two fires is thus stated—

Houses Houses

Streets. Burned. Blown up. On 28th May 38 1,630 2 On 28th June 33 1,302 13

71 2,932 15

The total population thus rendered destitute cannot be estimated at less than 20,000 souls. There is no clue to the cause of this fire. Some insane person is said to have prophesied that it would occur on the 28th June, and lie had been arrested. Re- ports of incendiarism of course abounded; but the Quebec Gazette imputes the calamity to the combustible materials of the buildings and to careless habits en- gendered by long fortuitous impunity. The journalist, however, now saw occa- sion to warn the inhabitants against the mischiefs of too great a state of panic. Steps were at once taken to whitewash houses in order to render them less com- bustible. In the very paper recounting the disaster, we read of another house set on fire, on the next day, by a spark from the pipe of a man who was white- washing the roof, and smoking while he did so. The inhabitants had made no delay in giving prompt aid to the sufferers, and seeking help. Provisions were issued to the poor. Lord Metcalfe had an- nounced that he would give 5,000/. currency from the public chest, in anticipa- tion of an indemnity from the Provincial Parliament, towards building temporary shelter for the honseless; and towards rebuilding the city, he had promised to ask the Legislature for authority to contract in England a loan of 100,000/. currency., guaranteed on the revenues of the province. Such are the reports: his published correspondence with the Mayor only made it certain that he was pondering the best means of affording help. The Corresponding Committee of Quebec had issued an address to the inhabitants of the British empire, asking for aid: it LS the document from which we have quoted above.

Lord Metcalfe had been seriously indisposed, but had sufficiently rallied to attend to his official duties.

CUBA has also been visited by a conflaeration. "A severe calamity," says the Aurora, "has befallen the rich city orNlatanzas. At half-past eight o'clock a.m., the bells of the parish-church announced that the richest part of the city was seized by the flames. In fact, the fire had burst out, as we are informed, in a carpenter's shop in the Marina, where a large collection of timber supplied abun- dance of fuel to the flames. The fire immediately extended to the adjacent build- ings, which were all of wood, and of such age as to be highly combustible; so that the conflagration extended rapidly toward the Royal Customhouse, on the opposite corner, and to the house of Don Bartolome de is Mater, which was soon seized by the devouring element, threatening to consume the whole town. It is three o'clock in the afternoon, and we have just left the scene of the catastrophe; and while the ruins of the edifices of the whole Marina are consuming, the prin- cipal block and another adjoining it have disappeared. A great part of the con- tiguous blocks in the West have also been destroyed in part. We may truly say that what has been the general depot of the great part of the commercial wealth of the city has now been made a prey to the flames."