Cbt Vroniutto.

Earl Fortescue, Lord-Lieutenant of Devonshire, lately reviewed the Exeter Rifle Corps; which, composed of two companies, has received the Royal sanction. Among other things, he said he had never feared inva- sion, but he believed the best safeguard against such an aggression would be the knowledge by foreign countries that the people of England are prepared to repel it : and, he continued, "I cannot but feel that the best evidence of that preparation is to be found in the voluntary enrolment of those who are most interested in cultivating the arts of peace, in associa- tions for acquiring the knowledge necessary to encounter the emergencies of war."

It has been decided to moor the Pitt, 72, off the Motherbank, near Spit- head, as a coal-clop/it for her Majesty's war-steamers, in order that the inconveniences of running into harbour for additional fuel may be avoided- The Dean and Chapter of Hereford constitute the first ecclesiastical corporation which has set the example of supporting Art Education, by subscribing 10/. towards the establishment, at Hereford, of an elementary Drawing-school, in connexion with the department of Practical Art. The colliers of the Bolton district have received an increase of wages of from 20 to 25 per cent.

The steam-ship La Plata, with the mails from the Pacific and the West Indies, arrived at Southampton on Thursday. She brings home a sad story. Three days after leaving St. Thomas's, the yellow fever appeared on board, and carried off, in succession, the commander Captain Allen, Mr. Elliott the purser, and seven of the crew. At Southampton, the La Plata was boarded and inspected by Mr. Wiblin, the Health Officer of the port ; who withheld pratique, and refused to allow the landing of the

swab. • A report was handed to him of the health of the persons on bard; from which it ipPeire, that besides the nine -who have died, there were • " twenty-one invalids ill during the voyage, including the doctor— seven invalids from the Great Western, eight from the Thames, and three from her Majesty's ship Highflyer " ; and that they had no disinfecting gold but chloride of lime.

Upon the reception of this report by Mr. Powell, the Collector of Cus- toms, a conference was held with Mr. I..ankester, the Mayor of the town, Captain Austin, R.N., the Admiralty Superintendent of Packets, Captain Barton, It.N., the Company's Superintendent, Lieutenant D'Amnda, &c., which resulted in the determination of the Collector to permit La Plata to remain at anchor in the river, but debarred from any communication whatever with the shore, till a report of the circumstances of the case had been forwarded to the Commissioners of Customs. • It was expected that La Plata would be ordered to the quarantine anchorage at the Mo- therbank, for ten days from the date of the last death on board. In the mean time, the Collector of Customs consented to permit the mails to be placed in a boat, in charge of Lieutenant Gardner, the Admiralty agent of the' ship, and towed down to the lazaretto at the Motherbank, there to he fumigated and returned to Southampton for transmission to the Gene- ral Post-office.

None of the passengers had suffered.

No trace has been discovered of the murderer of Mrs. White, who was found in her bed, at Milton, with the head nearly severed from the body.

Charles Moore, an Irishman' gave evidence against a son of the murdered Blackbands, to the effect that he had uttered threats against his parents. Such auspicious circumstances were noted with respect to Moore, that a con- stable put some questions to him ; he became greatly excited, and admitted that he and four other men had been engaged in the murder. He subsequent- ly signed a -statement to this effect in the presence of the Magistrates. - A young man clerk at a shipping-agent's has been robbed of 30001. in large notes at the Liverpool branch of the Bank of England. Ile had placed the notes on the counter, and had his right elbow on them ; a well-dressed man tapped him on the shoulder, and asked where he could get change for a five-pound note. " There, " replied the young man, lifting his arm from the notes to point to another counter : at that moment some one whisked away the notes. When the clerk discovered his loss, the gentleman pre- tended to point out the thief; and sent the young man on a bootless errand after an innocent person, while the real thief and his confederate got clear off.

Joseph Stringer, an iron-founder at Sheffield, has died under " atmopathic " treatment. He went to Mr. Melling's atmopathic and hydropathic baths, and having told Mr. Melling that he was suffering from rheumatism, had a hot vapour-bath ; afterwards he was enveloped in a cold wet sheet, and sub- etquently a dry one ; a cold wet bandage was wrapped round his body, and his legs were bandaged with wet cloths from the toes to the knees. He was conveyed home in a cab, and died in a very short time after his arrival there. Besides suffering from rheumatism, he had disease of the heart in a very ad- vanced stage, and had been warned of the danger of any excitement ; but he was silent on these matters to Mr. Melling. The treatment at the bath for rheumatism caused a fatal congestion of the internal organs, from the disease of the heart, and a fatal syncope ensued. Surgeons hatIno doubt about the causes of death. Mr. Melling was examined. The Jury gave this special verdict- " That the deceased died in a state of syncope, brought on by intense congestion of all the internal organs ; such congestion having, as appears by the evidence, been produced by the deceased having, at his own request, been subjected tea hot vapour bath, and afterwards to a cold wet sheet and bandages, when labouring under a dis- ease of the heart; of which, however, the person applying the bath was ignorant. The Jury recommend that, in any doubtful case, vapour-baths should not be given without a medical certificate that it would be safe to administer them."

The news received in London on Monday of the floods in the Midland Counties was very lamentable, so far as the destruction of property, stoppage of employment, and the cutting off of communication from town to town, were concerned ; but no large loss of human life was reported. A very wide extent of country, in the low-lying parts, was under water, and people were obliged to seek refuge in the upper floors of houses. Cattle and-sheep in large numbers were drowned, and agricultural produce was swept away. The roads were impassable ; while on many railways the trains were stopped —as the Nottingham, Leicester,- and Rugby line, Bristol and Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Hereford, Newport and Hereford, and part of the Midland. On the latter railway, a large portion of the Crow Mills viaduct, between Wigston and Countesthorpe, was washed away—six arches, with 150 feet of railway.

At Shrewsbury, the water-works were swamped, mend the town presented the singular feature of being abundantly and yet deficiently supplied with water. In many parts of the town the gas-lights were extinguished for seve- ral days ; the lamp-lighters being unable to obtain access to them. In St. Chad's parish, nearly 300 houses are under water ; in St. Mary's parish, about 100; in Holy Cross and St. Giles's parish, upwards of 50; in St. Julian's parish, upwards of 300; St. Alkmond's parish has few if any houses flooded. The Abbey Church was flooded on Sunday, and there was no ser- vice in it."

A letter from Gloucester, dated Monday evening, says—" The condition of this county is at this moment most imminent. All the Vale of Gloucester, comprising a vast flat district extending on either side of the Severn, is one wide-spreading sea; the water covering the fences, and leaving nothing but the tops of the trees visible. The parishes of Sandhurst, Longney, Elmore, and other villages on the banks of the Severn, are completely deserted, the

inhabitants having fled to the more elevated in of the county. Sunday was occupied by the well-to-do inhabitants n rescuing those in danger by means of boatsand rafts, and in conveying food to those who were kept pri- soners in their houses. The distress which will be occasioned by this flood is wide-spreading, extending from the landlord to the tenant, the labourer, the artisan, and the cottager ; crops carried away, ricks destroyed, cider and perry spoilt, and sheep, pigs, and cattle, carried away by the flood. The town is in darkness, the gas-works being flooded. The scene in the lower part of the city has been extraordinary today and yesterday. The flood has risen to a point higher than it has ever been marked for the last century ; and the truffle between the upper and lower part of the city has to be carried on by means of boats. During the greater Wirt of yesterday and today, the Mayor and some of the clergy have been occu- pied in conveying food, bread, cheese, tea, sugar, &c., to those poor inhabitants who cannot leave their houses, and who are driven to the upper floors by the accumulated waters. The lower part of Westgate Street, the island, the quay, St. Mary's Square, up to within a few yards of the Cathedral, are all under water. The church in St. Mary's Square (the mother church) is in- undated, and the grave-yard to the tops of the tombstones is covered with water. The water is still rising, and it is said there is still much more water to come down the river. It has risen upwards of a foot since my de- spatch on Saturday night, and has flooded some of the warehouses at the

docks, so that much grain will be damaged. Men were employed yesterday and today in pumping water out of the warehouses, and making rafts to rescue the water-bound."

Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire suffered greatly. Both the Mid- land and North-western Railway traffic was interrupted. "In Cambridge- shire, the noted and memorable Whittlesey Mere,' consisting of several thousands of acres of very rich land, which for ages gone by had been wholly covered with water, and within the last year or two brought into a state of flourishing cultivation by the means of drainage, with the aid of a powerful centrifugal steam-pump, has had its banks demolished, and the water has rushed over the rich plain. No means can be devised for draining it in its present state, as all the adjacent lands are in a similar state of deluge." The gentleman who perished by the mail-coach sinking in the Froome was Mr. Hardwick, a solicitor of Hereford, holding several appointments there. Be was found hanging in a wild rose-bush, up to the neck in water ; he was still alive, but died from exhaustion soon after he had been carried to a cot- tage. Other persons suffered greatly, but either got to laud or were rescued in time to save life. Couldrey, the guard, was found hanging to a willow- tree that had fallen across the water. Part of the bridge had been carried away by the flood ; in the darkness of night this was not seen, and horses and coach fell into some twenty feet of water. One horse broke away and swam to shore.

Both Oxford and Cambridge have been so surrounded by. water, that the gownsmen and townsmen. have amused themselves by rowing over numer- ous spots where it is customary only to walk or ride.

A waggoner has been drowned on the Basehurch road, near Shrewsbury, by a bridge having broken down : a rapid stream swept away man, horses, and waggon.

Nearer London, great damage was done by the floods. Traffic was stopped for some hours on the Great Western Railway, between Paddington and Hanwell, by the banks in many places having been washed down on to the rails; and in some parts the rails were two feet under water. At Egham, Windsor, and the vicinity, the Thames trespassed over a wide surface.

The latest accounts represent the floods as having now subsided, or as rapidly decreasing. Part of a tunnel on the Buckinghamshire Railway, be- tween Islip and Oxford, was washed down ; no one was hurt, but passengers had to walk over the hill from train to train. A young man, Mr. Bryan Clark, of Tuxford in Nottinghamshire, was drowned by falling into a deep drain while searching for cattle.

A man employed at a steam saw-mills at GlouceeteNtumbled as he was i carryg a piece of timber, fell under a circular saw which was rapidly re- volving, and was sawn in two.

As an enginemau at a druggist's at York was greasing the shaft of the steam-engine while in motion, his arm got entangled in the machinery, his body was drawn in, and be was crushed to death. The engine had to be taken to pieces before the mangled corpse could be got out.

Mr. William Llewellyn Howe, a Commoner of Jesus College, Oxford, and only son of a widow residing at Cardiff, has been drowned in the Thames at Sandford Lasher. As he was returning to Oxford in a boat with two com- panions, he fell from the vessel, and the current of the " lasher " seems to have whirled him away : during the morning he had spoken of his superior powers of swimming.

The Weir Packet, of Sunderland, has been lost on the sands at Lowestoft, and all hands drowned. The crew of another vessel which was wrecked at the same place were saved by boatmen.

Farming stock, implements, and buildings, worth 20001., have been de- stroyed at Womenswould, in East Kent, by a fire which is strongly sus- pected to have been wilful. The farm belongs to Mr. J. P. Plumptre, and is occupied by Mr. Kelcey. Mr. Plumptre has offered a reward of 1001. for the detpction of the incendiary.