The sudden melting of the unusual falls of snow is
pro- ducing great disasters in Germany. The Elbe, the Rhine, the Vistula, and the Warthe, on which Posen stands, have all overflowed their banks, and are sweeping through the low- lands, destroying the villages as if lakes had burst. It is stated that 75,000 persons are already homeless, and that the loss to the country will not be less than 220,000,000, even if the city of Posen, which is threatened, is able to hold out, The misery inflicted by the calamity in Eastern Prussia, where the population is always poor, is indescribable, and the danger is not over, only part of the snow having yet melted away. The Emperor Frederick is exerting himself to send relief, engineers, and sappers ; but even a Government like that of Germany is powerless before these great natural forces. We may judge from the scene on the Vistula, which does not rise above the plain, what the destruction was on the banks of tb,e -Yellow River, which does,
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