apology for acts designated crimes or misdemeanours by
the penal code, and provocation to civil war. The
Presse has been also seized for publishing the letter
above alluded to, and for adding an article signed E. de
Girardin. The latter paper is prosecuted under the
charge of making an attack on the respect due to the
law, and an apology for acts designated crimes or
misdemeanours by the penal code.

In the provinces the government appears to entertain
the utmost jealousy and suspicion of republican
opinions. Spies and informers are in constant employment;
and charges of conspiracy are built upon the
slightest grounds. Of this some amusing instances are
mentioned. Some coal merchants were lately drinking
together in a wine shop, and over their wine they sang
a well-known song, the burden of which is, "Aux
armes! Courons aux frontières." The parish priest
passing by, thought he heard the words "Aux armes!
Courons aux fonctionnaires," and denounced them as
conspirators against functionaries. They were actually
tried upon the common accusation of "exciting hatred
in citizens towards each other;" but a conviction, it
would seem, is not so easily obtained in the country as
in Paris, and they were acquitted.

Absolutism has been restored in The Austrian
Dominions. The "Vienna Gazette" of the 26th August
contained a series of decrees by the Emperor, abolishing
the national or Parliamentary responsibility of his
cabinet, declaring their responsibility to be solely
personal towards himself; and thus sweeping away the last
fragment of the Constitution, and establishing absolute
rule all over the Austrian territories.

The Prussian Government continues its measures to
extinguish the independence of the press. The "Cologne
Gazette," a paper of great ability, a supporter of
constitutional order, has, in consequence of the threats of the
government, determined, for the present, to abstain
altogether from political writing.

The Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia met
at Salzburg, on the 30th of August, and proceeded to
Ischl to hold political conference. The meeting
between the King of Prussia and his nephew, the young
Emperor, was cordial, and without ceremony. Twice
they conferred tête-à-tête. Prince Schwarzenberg and
M. Von Manteuffel had repeated interviews; occasionally
inviting M. Von Meyendorf and General Von
Rochow to their council. The Emperor invited several
Prussian officers and other distinguished individuals to
Verona to witness the grand reviews.

The principal intelligence from Italy relates to a
dreadful Earthquake, which has dealt destruction over
the peninsula from Point Campanella below the Bay of
Naples, along the whole range of the Apennines, through
the upper portion of the Basilicata and the whole length
of the Terra di Bari on the Adriatic coast. The date
of this visitation was 14th August. At Sorrento, on
the western extremity of the line of disaster, several
houses were thrown down; at the eastern extremity,
the town of Bari was almost destroyed. All the houses
were either reduced to ruins or swallowed up; with the
loss of hundreds of lives. In the upper Basilicata,
which is in the centre of the perturbed district, the
catastrophe has been immense and terrible. A letter
from Naples, dated the 24th August, says:—"I have
received several details relative to the dreadful disaster
which occurred on the 14th inst. in the province of
Basilicata, in this kingdom, and about one hundred
miles from the capital. A list of more than fifty villages
is given in which greater or less damage was done; in
more than one place the principal buildings having been
destroyed, and in all several lives having been lost amidst
the ruins of fallen houses. The greatest sufferer,
however, was the town of Melfi, a place containing 10,000
inhabitants: three-quarters of the city are in a mass of
ruins; the Archbishop's palace, the college, the
municipality, the barracks, and the police-station, having
been all levelled to the ground. The known deaths
amount already to 700, besides 200 wounded, among whom
the principal families count victims. I have not time
this morning to give all the minute details, but it is
sufficient to say that a rich and populous district has
been completely destroyed, and the loss of life has been
immense. It does not appear that the ground opened,
but all the injury was done by the houses falling from
the repeated shocks of the earthquake, the rapidity of
which was such that the persons in the houses and
passing in the streets had not time to escape. The King
on receiving this dreadful news immediately ordered a
sum of 4000 ducats to be sent from his private purse;
to which the Queen added 2000, in addition to the sum
of 5000 ducats contributed by the Treasury. Temporary
hospitals have been erected, and detachments of sappers
and miners have been sent to the different places to
assist in clearing away the ruins and disinterring the
unfortunate victims. Private subscriptions have been
opened in the towns near to the place where the
catastrophe has occurred; and, no doubt, the active
charity of the city of Naples will not be deficient." A
medical officer, despatched by the Neapolitan government
to the scene of the earthquake gives the following
account:—"The village of Bavile has actually
disappeared. I found all about this district large fissures,
partly filled up with houses. A man who escaped told me
it appeared to him that for a minute he was being tossed
about in the air; the earth appeared, as it were, endowed
with a breathing power, and then came a different movement
—a shaking to and fro. Here some military had
arrived to excavate. There was a strong stench of
decomposing bodies. This place was really deserted by
the inhabitants, at least I saw very few. How shall I
give you an idea of what was once the town of Melfi?
The cathedral is down, as are the college, the churches,
the military depôt, and 163 houses—98 are in a falling
state, and 180 pronounced as dangerous. The military
have arrived, and are working away. Our medical staff
is by no means strong enough. More than a thousand
bodies have already been dug up; I need not add, all dead.
The wounded are over 600, and present every variety of
flesh-wounds and fracture. Sixty-five boys of the
college of Melfi are supposed to have perished. The
calamity took place when most of the population were
sleeping, as is the custom in Italy, after dinner." At
the police-office in Naples, on the 27th August, they
replied to inquiries—"Up to this day the returns of
dead bodies dug out of the ruins from all towns and
villages is 857; but the excavations have only
commenced.

The Madrid journals contain an account of the
christening of the infant child of the Duke and Duchess
de Montpensier in the palace at Seville. The ceremony
took place with great pomp, and the Cardinal Archbishop
of Seville officiated. The Duke d'Aumale was god-
father, and not fewer than twenty-six names were given
to the princess—amongst them were those of Marie
Amelie. The Duke de Montpensier, as delegate of the
queen, subsequently invested the royal child with the
ribbon of the order of Maria Louisa.

The government of Louis Napoleon has urged on
Queen Isabella the expediency of restoring Narvaez to
the head of the Spanish cabinet. Christina, however,
resists this change.

The American mail has brought accounts from New
York to the 10th inst.. There was intelligence at New
York from California reaching to August 1. The
accounts from the southern mines are satisfactory,
especially in regard to the quartz veins. The burnt
district in San Francisco has again been covered with
houses, during the four weeks that have elapsed since
the fire. Few traces of the conflagration remain in the
lower part of the city, and the light wooden buildings
that are destroyed are being replaced by substantial
erections of brick.

In Oregon, several skirmishes have taken place
between the United States' troops and the Indians, in
which the latter were defeated with considerable loss.
It was supposed that the Indians were not inclined to
further hostilities at present, and the American camp
was accordingly broken up.

A terrible storm has visited the southern part of the
United States, particularly along the Gulf of Florence,
and has been very disastrous to the cotton, sugar, and
tobacco crops. The cotton crop in Alabama had suffered