-- • THE SNOW-STORM.

Sslow began to fall heavily in the North of England on Friday; and several coaches which should have arrived in Loudon early on Satur- day morning did not reach town till the afternoon. The snow con- tinued to fall without intermission ; and by Monday night it had spread over the greater part of the country in all directions ; but, it appears to have been most heavy in the neighbourhood of London, and in the counties of Kent and Sussex. In the Metropolis the streets were al- most impassable for heavy waggons; but Monday being kept pretty generally as a holyday, the inconvenience on this accouct was the less. The omnibuses and coaches had additional horses ; but the snow was so deep, and had drifted so much in the neighbourhood of Chelsea, Twickenham, Richmond, and Hounslow, that few vehicles made their way into London from those suburbs. In the mean while, great anxiety was occasioned by the non-arrival of mails and coaches. During the whole of Monday only one coach, namely the Wonder, from Shrewsbury, reached that very extensive coach-inn, the Bull and Mouth ; and up to twelve o'clock on Tues- day, only three mails, those from Poole, Portsmouth, and Ipswich, had arrived. Some coaches attempted to go their regular journey... but were almost all obliged to return. St. Alban's was full of carriages of va- rious descriptions, with mail-bags, guards, coachmen end passengers, unable to proceed. Notices were posted at the Inland Department of the General Post-office with all the particulars received ; but they consisted of little more than lists of mails not arrived, and not heard of. By degrees a few mail-coaches made their way to town; and the accounts they brought proved how extensive and formidable were the disasters occasioned by the storm. The Post.uffice alai coach offices were crowded with persons anxiously inquiring for fr.erids arid letters. Great embarrassment was occasioned by the want of expected remit- tances, and many bills were protested. Only three serious personal accidents are reported to have occurred in London. Oee man bloke both his legs, and another his arm, by a fell; and a boy had his eye knocked out by a snow-ball. An old MMMI was IMMIld on Thursday morning, in a loft in Whiteehapel, frozen to death. Goat distress pre- vails among the poor, especially in the neighbourhood of Chelsea, Bat- tersea, Hammersmith, and Richmond, which lately stall red so much from the hurricane. Tbe fishermen, a ho reside on t he banks of the river, and in Battersea marshes, are in a fear lest their hut. should be swept away when the snow thaws, mud in the mean while suffer dread- fully from cold and hunger. The waternien nod bargemen cannot work their craft. The men in the employ of the market gardeners are, of course, thrown out of work and wages. Subscriptions have been raised for the destitute by the wealthy residents in Chelsea All the mails except five from the interior of the country had arrived on Thursday night ; four of them, bringing the French letter-bags, were conveyed by a steam-packet from Dover. Those from the interior, furnish reports of the *Meat and depth of the snow, and the suffering It occasioned in widow parts of the country. Their accounts are generally of the same character—coaches buried in snow-drifts, horses falling down, hazardous journies through fields and cross-roads, mail- bags sent on in post.chaises and on horseback, passengers half frozen, and in some instances supplied with warm beds and good cheer by charitable neighbours. We shall select a few of the more remarkable incidents ; but must first mention the most deplorable and terrific calamity of which we have as yet had any account. It occurred at Lewes, at noon on Tuesday-- An avalanche of snow glided from the Cliffe Hills at the the back of Mr. Hilltnan'a lime-kilns ; and falling over the precipice which towers above this part of the town, dashed in the roofs and entirely destroyed fivehouses, burying the unfortucate inmates under a mountain of snow. The scene which followed was terrific and distressing in the extreme. The report of the falling mass drew thousands of people to the spots; and so great was the excitement which pre- vailed, that a quarter of an hour expired before silence could be established. Every hand that could lift a spade set to work without delay to extricate the unhappy creatures perishing beneath the ruins. A Mrs. Robinson was dug out with a child at the breast, the mother dead. The unfortunate woman on the first alarm had escaped; but, rendered desperate by the strong affection of a mother, rushed hack to her house to save her other children, when the ava- lanche poured down upon the whole funnily and hurried them alive. A Mrs. Taylor.was dug out alive, hut with very slight hopes of her surviving, as she was all but dead. Her eldest daughter and five other children have also been taken out of the snow.

Altogether six persons were dug out alive, and six dead. At Brighton, a young man was frozen to death, and in the neigh- bourhood of that town several persons were dug out of drifts, almost dead. The storm seems to have been nowhere more severe than on the road from London to Brighton, and in the vicinity of that town.

The mail could not leave Brighton on Monday night ; but the bag was put into a chaise with the guard, and a King's messenger, who was ordered to London ; but the post-chaise, although it had four horses, could not get fur- ther than the Dairy. The King's messenger returned into Brighton ; but the guard ptoeeeded on horseback with the mail bags. accompanied by one of the post-boys, also on horseback, and two men on foot, with ropes and poles to guide and assist them along the first post; and so they intended workieg their way. A fetv minutes before this guard started, the guard of the mail down, which ought to have been here at half-past three in the morning, arrived on horseback, having been obliged to leave the mail-coach at Piecombe, only eight miles distant. He was so benumbed by the cold that he was obliged to be led home. He got into Brighton by a circuitous route over the hills, with the assistance of guides furnished by the surveyor of the road, The non- arrival of the mail at Crawley induced the postmaster there to send a man in a gig to ascertain the cause, on Monday afternoon. No tidings being heard of man, gig, or horse, for several hours, another man was despatched on horseback; and after along search, he found the horse and gig completely built up in the snow. The man was in an exhausted state. After considerable difficulty, the horse and gig were extricated, and the party returned to Crawley. The man had learned no tidings of the mail, and refused to go out again on any such exploring mission.

The road from London to Dover was blocked up nearly all the way. At Canterbury, the streets were filled with snow, the shops closed, and business entirely.suspended. The Dover mail sent out on Wednesday night only reached Rochester, and then turned back. Beyond, the country is deeply buried in Mow, and there has been no communication by horse or foot downward since Sunday. By Chatham Lines the snow is from thirty to forty feet deep. Applicatien having on Tuesday been made to the Commandant of the Forces stationed at Chatham, by the surveyor of roads, for assistance, all the military were ordered out, and about six hunched men have ever since been em- ployed in cleaning the roads. They are in incipally Sappers and Miners, and commenced with the road upwards, which in the hollow of Gadshill and other vales was very deep in snow. About a mile and a half beyond Aylesbury, the Devonport mail was stopped. The leaders dropped down, but rose again ; the near wheel-horse fell and could not be got up The coachman went back on one of the leaders, and returned with a pair of post-horses. The only good they could do was drawing the wheel-horse out of the snow ; they could not get him on bra legs. The post-boy was scat back, and returned with four more post- horses ; and four fine waggon-horses were gratuitoualy furnished by Mr. Long, an extensive farmer' residing close by. With their combined assistance, the mail, after being delayed three hours, was got loose by daylight.

Going North-west, we have the same accounts.

About a mile from St. Alban's, on the London side, a chariot without horses was seen on Tuesday nearly buried in snow. There were two ladies in- side, who male an earnest appeal to a mail-guard, whose coach had got in a (hat neatly at the same spot. The ladies said the post-boy bad left them for Sr. Alban s, to get fresh cattle, anit had been gone two hours. The guard VMS unable to assist them ; anti his mail beingextricated, he pursued his journey for Lendon, leaving the chariot and ladies in the situation where they were first sesta We have not heard what became of these ladies, but of course they were soon relieved. The roads to Bath, Bristol, and Exeter, were covered with deep snow.

The Bath and Bristol mails due Wednesday morning were abandoned eighty miles from London, and the mail bags !nought up in a post-chaise and four by the two gliards, who reached London at six o'clock yesterday morn- ing. For seventeen miles of the &SWIM they had come across the fields. The guard of the M lay's after mail states, that they left on Monday night, and were at five different places buried in snow, and had to be dug out In one place, a kind hearted farmer, after lending his team and men to release the mail, insisted that its coachman, passengers, and guard, should partake of . refreshment at his firm close by. He placed before them cold fowls and bacon, with good home•brewed ale. and added a glass of brandy and water each, by , way of a digester, as he called it. . The Duke of Wellington W11•4 proceeding in his chariot from Marlborough to Balthington across the fields, when he .• got stuck ;' but was extricated with the assistance of the road .surveyor. I In the North-east and North, the same obstruction to travelling were

• experienced.

The Norwich mail was stopped six miles from Barham; and four other stage- coaches were blocked up Ms the same road. The Louth and Boston mail-bags of Monday, were brought to town by the guard, between six and seven o'clock on Monday night. The guard states that

the bags came to him at Boston in a post-chaise ; and the repot t was, that the mail-coach, seven miles from Louth, had got off the road, and went over into a gravel pit. A horse was said to be killed by the accident, and the guard severely bruised. The bags were brought up the whole of the distance from Boston by a post-chaise and four ; and even to effect this, it was found necessary to take cross-roads, and between Puckeridge and Hertford to pees into the Ware road.

The guard of the Hull mail came in with the mad due on Monday on Thurs- day afternoon. The coach had been left beyond Lincoln, buried in snow, and

from Lincoln the journey was performed in • post .ohaise. Petween %non and Stevenage the chaise was fast stuck in snow, and a delay of two hours and a half took place before it could be dug out. At IL.Idock the guard was again stopped by a drift, and was obliged to return to the inn and wait till the road could be cleared.

The last account of the Leeds mat leaves it fixed between Melton Mowbray and Northampton. Two passengers from it got over to Stamlord, and conti- nued their journey by the Glasgow mail.

Letters from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manchester, Hull, and Shef- field, state that in all those places snow had fallen in great quantities, and great alarm was occasioned by the non-arrival of the London mails. A writer from Newcastle-under- Lyne says- " On Monday, the London and Liverpool mail was stopped near Newcastle- mader.Lyne ; but it was subsequently cut out of the snow, and dragged out of

the spot in which it had become imbedded by several strong draught-horses. Its appearance, as it entered Newcastle, was very singular ; large masses of snow adhered to it, and altogether it looked as if it had been overwhelmed and buried in some drift. Seventeeu coaches (and it is probable that the estafette and eight fast coaches, running between this town and the Metropolis, are of the number) are stated to have stuck fast at or near Dunchurch, which is about a stage south of Coventry. The road between this town and Leeds, and that between here and Birmingham, are free from any considerable obstruction; but we understand that, in consequence of the stoppage near Dunchurch be-

coming known yesterday morning at Birmingham, the proprietors of the coaches running between that town and the Metropolis determined not to run their coaches ; and we are assured that not one coach left Birmingham for the Metropolis during yesterday."

The storm extended to Scotland ; there having been a heavy fall of snow in Edinburgh on Saturday, which continued till Wednesday; but as yet few particulars have been received from that quarter.

Yesterday morning, all the mails due had arrived except the Glas- gow and Halifax ; so that by this time the roads are tolerably clear. The stage-coaches recommenced running on Thursday ; the mails have been regularly despatched since Wednesday.

In France, there was a great fall of snow on Sunday ; so that the road from Calais to Paris was rendered nearly impassable. A letter from Calais, dated Monday, says-

" Two of the couriers, with the horse estafette from the capital and the postillions, were stopped by the snow ; so that the peasantry were obliged to get them out, and the letters taken by men 072 salts to the Maitre des Postes, to be

sentfo.avard with as little delay as possible. The diligence to Paris was upset near Montreuil, and several of the passengers severely injured ; also the dili- gence from Valenciennes, Calibre', and Lille, which was drifted from the road- side coming up Mont Cassel, and with difficulty extricated out of the snow by horses and the country-people. The mail-cart to St. Omer, besides the driver and two passengers, it is feared has fallen into one of the numerous canals that abound in this quarter, as no tidings have been heard of them, and as the country for nearly thirty miles is under water from the overflowing of the canals. Great praise is due to the police and military authorities of this town, Gravelines,

Dunkirk, Bergue, and St. Omer, as a number of soldiers and pioneers of each of those garrisons are employed in clearing the roads and cottages, well provided with spades, pickaxes, barrows, &c., to open a communication with the respective towns ; for which they are to receive extra pay and rations from the municipal authorities. For the last two days, not a packet has been able to put to sea, although there are several Government messengers here with important despatches for London. If the steam- packet can leave to-day, she will; but it is very doubtful, as the wind is blowing hard in the harbour. Several vessels are reported to have been wrecked on the coast yesterday."