ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The tide of Australian emigration wai iJlreasing in volume and impetuosity* The following paragraph is from the Times, October 14th: — "Notwithstanding the great number of emigrants who hare been sent oat by her Majesty's Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners to oar Australian colonies during the present year, the applications at the office, in Park-street, Westminster, from persons soliciting to be sent out under the Government regulations, are more numerous than can possibly be complied with. Tbe persons applying are chiefly agriculturists, mechanics, and women (needlewomen, servants, and &c). The Commissionefs have, howeter, decided i npon sending out a few more this year (exceeding 2,000) of the Above classes, the most required in our colonies; and the next ship appointed to sail ~Mhe //op*, of 600 tons, to be followed by others' thatb>v«^been contracted for that purpose by GovernmentT~-sCi^h respect to ' fortune-seekers' to the gold diggings,'although now in the middle of October, there are no less than 40 ships getting ready in the St. Katharine's, London, West and East India Docks, ringing front 400, 600, 600, 800, to 1,500 tons each, appointed* to sail during the present month to Port Phillip, Geelong, I Melbourne, Western Australia, Adelaide, Sydney, New South Wales, &c,; and from Liverpool 10 first«class ships with adventurers to the ' golden regions/"

| Spanish Banditti. —The robber band commanded by El Chato continues its lawless exploits in the province of Cordova, traversing tbe country, now in smaller groups and now united, and carrying off wealthy persons for the purpose of obtaining large sums for their ransom. A letter from Baena, in that province, of the 14th i instant, says that, on the 9tb, a band of eight robbers came from Percaoa, and seized a farmer, whom they carried off, asking 6,000 dollars for bis ransom; they then went to Santigilio, and on tbe morning of tbe 10th to Albeudin, where a party of cavalry of the Civil.Guard, consisting of a serjesnt and eight privates,- had, arrived the night before. The robbers were indifferently mounted compared with tbe Civil Guard, and there seemed an excellent opportunity to rid the country of these bandits, and, as the Civil Guards came put in pursuit of them on the plain of Salera, where they were visible, tbe people of the villages came out to see the encounter, but, strangt to say, the robbers were allowed to escape. They crossed a stream, and were seen for some time on the neighbouring heights, and the Civil

Guards after them, and at the farm of P^n '■ jon the Utter are stated to have been wifthio rap.ket shot of them. The robbers bal (WbtualJy »c boldness, on crossing the Granada rAn<\, to --top a gentleman, whom they made to dWesaouot -roia the mare be was riding, and one of/tbera mounted upon it. After proceeding in/ ibis way for two leagues from Albeudin they »etc fioally lost sight of in the Sierra de Luqus, M A call is made on the Duke of Abumeda, duectot general of the Civil Guard, to cause ao inqufry mto this case, the blame being generdly lai* on the Serjeant who commanded the det»cbojKaut. The Diario de Cordova saya (hat four oS this band, armed with daggers, and pistols, Surprised a rich proprietor of Palroa d<fl iW, named Civico, on ibe uight of the ,I,2th, but/be managed to escape, through the/cries and/flfurts of bis servant, who was wounded, and 'Jfie robbers made off; and, it appears by tip JGranadino of the 15th, that they have inf«u<-' tfhe province of Granada, five or six of there l;a fallen on an officer of the Savoy Reghnetit who had advanced some way before his coujpap^n* on an excursion they were making to the Siern, Tbeybound bim and carried him off to a pa,M t where tbey robbed him of his purse, | wat<cii, Mid some of bis clothes, taking the horse hrj/ was tiding, of course, and further demanding < 12,(?30 reals for his ransom, a sum, which, perjceiting the next day that there were people apparently in searc'a of their captive, they reduced to 4,000, and at last set him free io the eveiling, from fear of being discovered. It was reported /that some of them had been taken up. —Madrid Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle. Tub Prussian Rifle. —l made many enquiries among officers who had served on outpost duty during the war on a subject which is at present attracting much attention —the real value in the field of the German Zundaudel firelock, or needle musket, with which the German, and especially the Prussian, Light Infantry, or Jager corps in the " Schleswig-Holstein " army, were provided. They all agreed in stating that they had beard of instances of meo^ being hit at the distance by estimation, of 1,200 ells, or about half an English mile, but that these instances were very rare; that a man at that distance subtends to too small an angle to allow of any effective aim, and if in motion, as the skirmisher ou an outpost always is, no aim at all can be adjusted with any certainty on so email a moving object ai a man at that distance. Within the ordinary range of the common musket —and a brave light infantry man soon runs over the distance between their range and his —the needle-musket man is under the disadvantage that his piece requires more care and nicety in reloading, is more liable to derangement, which makes it useless, and in the rough work of advancing and retreating singly through hedges, ditches, andbtoken grouud,, the common rough musket is the weapon in which the toldier has most confidence. It will go off without failing him after firing all day, but the ! needle-gun and rifle get furred and choked, and cannot be reloaded easily after a few discbarges. The conclusive fact that the musket of long range has not, as yet been brought to any efficiency in ordinary warfare, is proved by the loss of men ou the outpost service not having been greater on the Danish side than on the German, the first armed with tjbe ordinary muskets with detonating locks, the others with the needle guns. There wa»a£r«sat deal of «pgjspst -£ght£2j£»nd occasionally great loss of roen on bo'thnoe*, but the returns of killed and woundtd do aot chow that the one side had a more efficient fire-arm than the other in those skirmishes. The observation ,of one officer who bad served a private during the first two years of the war, and had Ueeo much on outpoit duty, struck me as tree to nature, viz., that the soldier taught to confide in a long shot, and a firearm which must be carefully loaded and tatiusted at a distance, will be as much disconllrted when an adversary approaches within bis range, as the soldier accustomed to the musket of ordinary raoge would be at the approach of an entmy it a much shorter distance, and that the trite formation of a soldier, even for outpost duty, » w accustom him to confide in his charged bayo net; and to advance to that steadily and rapidly. —Laing's Observations on Denmark and the Duchies. • \

Persia.—•Constantinople, September 23. — Erzeroom post has brought letters to the 9th instant from this city, and to the 28th August from Tabreez. On the 15th of August an attempt to assassinate the Shah of Persia had taken place at Teheran. The Shah, accompanied by his Prime Minister.and by a'numerous suite, had quitted that day Kasri Millak on a hunting excursion, and had reached the skirt of a wood near Malveranda, when six ill-dressed Persians, with petitions, approached the Shah, who at once drew in the reins of bis horse, and took the papers held out to him. It is usual in Persia, on similar excursions, for the Sovereign to proceed alone, and keep his Ministers and attendants at a distance of several hundred yards, and when he stops tbey do likewise. The petitioners were of the aect of Babi, and, after delivering their papers, two of them seized the bridle of his horse, and the other four surrounded the Shab, and loudly, and with menacing gestures, demanded redress for the insult done to their religion by having put their chief to death. The Shah courageously ordered them off, but before his suite came up, two of the fanatic ruffians drew their pistols, and fired at bim, two balls of which took effect; the first wounded him in the mouth, and the second slights Jy grazed hi« thigh. Immediately after tnwattempt they took to their heels, hotly pursued by the attendants. Three contrived to escape in the wood, one was cut down by the Multezim or Rikiab, and the other two were seized and conveyed to Ttbmn, for the purpose of obtaining a clue to the conspiracy. The Sbah's wounds were so.slight that the next day he proceeded in grand pomp to the moique, in order to offer bis thanks giviug for hit miraculous escape. On his return to the palace, the Ministers and the Russian and English Ambassador*, and tbe Charge d' Affaires of the Porte, in full costflme, congratulated him. Public rejoicings also tooK, place, and the city of Teheran was illuminated at\nigbt. On tbe 16th August, intelligence had been^«eived of tbe seiseizure of the three assassins whoVj&d effected their escape, and concealed themselvef in the wood. They were discovered in a well, and were drawn out and cut to pieces, according f-o the orders given by the Prim* Minister. I The great floods, which made ftrch havoc on the Rhine and other rivers, were te^tible at Chamouni. The Arve rose to a gti**t height, and poured along with awful fordV; sweeping away chalets, stock, crops, bridges! mills, and

trees. The peasants were in despair. Report speaks of many lives lost ; which is bat too probable. A correspondent of the Times at Chtroouni famishes tht following graphic picture of tl»a phenomena. • •♦ On Friday morning, tbe 17tb, the aspect of the Arve, as it tora through the village, hurrying forest-trees, plsnks, and fragments of wooden bridges on its turbid waters, and momentarily rushing higher and higher up against its banks, was enough to excite the gravest apprehensions. All tbe people in the village turned out by beat of drum to help each other in the approaching calamity. Ere nine o'clock, a.m., the river had burst its banks, and flooded the whole of tha lower part of the valley, sweeping away the flax- crops of the poor cottagers left out to dry, and covering their scanty supplies of food and com with thick layers of white mud composed of the debris of granite and shale rocks, which will take years to remove. The increasing force and power of tbe torrent was marked every miuute by the greater size of the treet and timber it bore along, and, by-and-by the mosr painful feelings were excited by the appearance of the planks and roofs of chalets whirling down in its waves, which boiled and chafed in huge masses of water resembling liquid mortar." " The sound of the huge boulders which it forced along, as they struck the rocky bottom, literally shook the ground, and filled tht air like growling thunder ; and the long reverberations of the avalanches mingling with this horrid tumult, the crash of trees and timber, and the hissing of the toppling watera of river and cataract, formed an awful chorus, Tbe anxious faces of the villagers but too well revealed the amount of the destruction that was taking place, as, surrounding their priest, who stood with uncovered head beneath the teeming clouds, they gazed from the bridges io hopeless despair at the torreut below. At the Hotel de Londres, strenuous efforts were made to preserve the bridge which led from the garden across the river to the road ascending towards the Cascade dcs Pelerins ; and large beams of wood, and trees stripped of their branches, were conveyed with great labour, and placed so that one end was fixed under the bridge, and the other weighed down by large atones and balks of timber, rested on tbe ground -. but, in spite of this eccentric engineering, it was plain to those who watched the progress of the flood that the erection could not long withstand tbe furious tide that beat against its buttresses* Before eleveu o'clock the waters bad rushed into the hotel garden, and in a few moments after the stone buttresses and foundations were sapped and over* thrown ; and with a tremendous crash down came the bridge into tbe Arve, which, whirling it round and round like a straw, speedily hurried it out of sight." " On walking by the monntain-side, abore the valley, the appearance of the torrent was frightful. Enormous pine-trees, ash, and beeches of great bulk, were to be seen struggling to rise out of the race, and lifting their dark roots and branches for an instant, but to be whelmed again by the stream, the course of which was marked everywhere by ruined mills and half-drowned chalets. Women, gathered on the hill-side, stood wringing their hands and weeping as they looked on their submerged homes, their friendly roofs just peepiug above the water ; or, with their husbands, fa&etfsj -and too*) bwtetheir humble household goods to some securer elevation. All the population agreed in saying that they had never heard of or seen such a deluge before. The small millers whose houses stood by the roadside were of course the great sufferers. In every ease their dwellings were destroyed, and their property carried away ; and it was melancholy to see some of those great stout fellows crying like children as they beheld the fruits of years of industry and toil swallowed up in an instant for ever. A more touching subject for a painter than one of these sad groups perched on a rock over their home, and lamenting over its loss, as they watched the Arve scaling its walls, till it gurgled through the windows, and tbe whole ' building sank with a crash, could not be imagined." A subscription had been raised among the visitors to alleviate the sufferings of the peasants. An Earthquake in England. — On Tuesday, intelligence reached town by electric telegraph that an earthquake had been felt in Liverpool and its neighbourhood that morning. The weather for the last 7 few days had been wet and sultry, even out of doors being unusually warm. On Tuesday morning (says the Liverpool Mer~ curyj about half-past four o'clock persons in all parts of the town, but more especially in tbe outskirts, and at Birkenhead, felt a rocking or heaving of the earth. In some cases persons were awoke from a sound sleep, and jumped on the floor, expecting an attack from some nocturnal marauder. In other cases, children screamed and hid their faces under the bed clothes ; while in a few instances persons in bed simply felt a rocking motion, like that of a cradle bed. The Thermometer, which varied from 50 to 60deg. Fahrenheit, was unusually high for tbe season of the year, and during the night the barometer rose nearly a quarter of the circle, although heavy rain had fallen. The greatest force of the earthquake was felt along the line of the river, and particularly at Bootle, a village at the north end of the docks. At Birkenbead also, and in tbe villages on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, considerable vibration of the earth was noticed. The Times' correspondent, who resides at Aigburth, was awakened by a peculiar trembling sensation. All his joints appeared to be loosened, and for a moment it seemed as if he had been attacked with a violent fit of ague. The .parson who usually obtains the Times' despatches from the Transatlantic steamers war, awaked flout half-past four o'olock by a rumbling noiie, and thinking it was the gun of. the American steamers, he arose, dressed himself, and went down to the pier. At Seacombe, on the Cheshire side of the river, a gentleman was so much shaken while asleep, that, on awakening, he imagined for the instant that some one waa concealed under the bed. In many houses on both sides of the river, cupboard doors were banged open and other noises caased. At Manchester, Congleton, Baogor, Holyhead, and Carnarvon, tbe shock was most distinctly experienced, and in all at tbe same time. A gentleman at Sale (six miles' from Manchester) who has resided nine years at St. Domingo, and is not unacquainted with such phenomena, was awoke by it, and recognised the sensation immediately. It was like tbe vibration felt in a baJly built bouse when a

heavy laden carriage rattles past. The crockery rattled and the sensation lasted about balf a minute. All speak of the motion as a lateral *i» bra iory cue, ami some sta'e that it was accompaoied by a loud, hoarse, rumbling noise, not unlikd distant thunder. Tl c shock was severely felt at Chester, end along the Chester and Birkenbead railway. At Shrewsbury it caused great alarm ; it shook the houses in the town and suburbs, making tht windows rattle, and in many instances cautiDg people to leap from their beds* In Mardol, several very large cheeses were rolled off the shelves, in the ahop of Mr. Williams, * cheesemonger, A dairyman, residing near the race-course having occasion to visit hit cattle, was proceeding across the yard with a lautern in his hand, when he felt the ground rock under him. to such a degree that he coald hardly keep hi» feet ; but in the county gaol, which teemed to be in the immediate lice along which the shock passed with most severity, the scene was for a short time truly alarming, the prisoners not*knowing to what to attribute the sensation which they felt, shouted in great alarm. The turnkeys, on, the other hand, attributed the noiss in the first instance, and-the rattling of doors and windows, followed by the shouts, to a combioed attempt of the prisoners to escape. A portion of wall adjoining Marshall's Thread factory, near the Castle Forest Gate, fell, and another portion of wall at the goods station of the railway terminus sank considerably. The bells of the .Abbey Church, were momentarily shaken. At Wellington, also, and Oswestry, and other places adjoining, the earthquake was distinctly felt. It is singular, that, though the shock was perceived on both, sides of the Irish channel, nothing of it was experienced on board ship. On the Irish coast it was quite as intense as on our own. At Kingston, Bray, Kilruddery, Dalkey, Glengarry,Howtb, CloDtart, Glasnevin, and other places in the vi* ciniry of Dublin, the vibration was felt. At Howth, a scientific gentleman dreamt that the end of the world had come, and on awaking, found himself lying on the floor having been pitched out of bed. The writer t ( a letter, resident at Wicklow, says : — 'The house rocked in a most fearful manner, the bed pitched like a ship at sea, the clock B topped on the mantel piece, jugs and basins danced a fearful jig. Commencing from the shore of Dublin and .Wicklow, and taking nearly a circular direction, the tbock appears to have beeo sensibly felt as far as Gloucester. The last shock of a somewhat similar description, which was experienced with various degrees of intensity in Lancashire, throughout the greater part of the county, and the adjacent districts of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Cheshire, Flintshire, and the Isle of Man, took place a few minutes before oue o'clock, on the morning of Friday, March 17tb, 1843. That appears to have beea milder than this, which, besides creating considerable alarm, fortunately seems to have done no* damage.