ENGLISH AND FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. [From the European Mail, October 8.]

The last Wpst India Mail brought intelligence of fresh earthquakes at St. Thomas, but no lives had been lost. Lady Palmerston, who died on the 11th of September, after a short illness, was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 17th. It is rumoured in well-informed quarters that Sir H. F. Young, who was Lieutenant-Oovernor in 184-7, will succeed Sir Philip Wodehouse as Governor at the Cape. The Celseno, with emigrants for Canterbury, New Zealand, was despatched the other day by Mr. Ottywell. Tho number of Q-overnment emigrants was small — only 115 adults. The Canterbury agent intends sending out another ship early in November. It seems a pity that the Harvard men do not take their defeat in good part, but should attempt to throw an imputation of bad faith upon their gallant conquerors. No one will believe the Oxford men agreed that neither crew should take the others' water, and that they afterwards disregarded the stipulation altogether. There must have been some misunderstanding on this point. Wo do not agree with the critics who state that the Harvard crew could have ■won, nor do we believe that at any time the victory of Oxford was once doubtful. The Harvard men went off at a pace they could not maintain for the distance they had to row, and they paid the penalty for this in the natural reaction, so that when the boats were side by side, the Oxfords, rowing stroke for stroke for some time, but going at their steady regular pace, soon drew away from them, and the race was over. It is very doubtful, moreover, if the Harvard coxswain, even when his lead was greatest, could have taken Oxford's water without the chance of a foul. There never was a fairer race rowed, nor, we will venture to say, one more conclusive as to the merits of the different styles of rowing and the condition of the crews. Tho leger, run on the 15th of September, was won by Pero Gomez (second in the Derby), who completely turned the tables upon his former conqueror Pretender. The latter started first favourite, odds being laid upon him, but he was decisively beaten, and could get no nearer than fourth, at least six lengths behind Pero Gomez. Martyrdom was second, only beaten by a neck, and a complete outsider, George Osbaldeston, was third. Mr. Merry's wonderful filly Sunshine won the Champagne Stakes in a canter confirming the great form she had previously shown. In the Doncaster Stakes, run on the 17th, the Leger form was confirmed, Pero Gromez again beating Pretender rather easily. It is now evident that Pretender would not have won the Derby but for the disappointments Pero Momez met with in the race. At the First October meeting at Newmarket no light was thrown upon next year's Derby, as Sunshine and Kingcroft the two Derby favourites, did not meet. The Great Eastern Handicap was won by the colt by Yedetta out of Amaranth, and the October Handicap by Baron Rothschild's Suffolk. The Cesarewitch will be run for on October 12. Mr. Barry Sullivan re-opened the Holboru Theatre on September 25, with a new comedy, by Mr. Thomas I Morton, entitled Plain English. Judging from the i large audiences that nightly crowd the theatre, one would infer that, financially, it must be a success. The acting of Mr. Barry Sullivan, Mrs. Herman Vezin, and Mr. G. Honey, meets with much applause. It may be mentioned, by the way, that the author of Plain English is the father of the late editor of Sydney Punch. Miss Julia Mathews is just concluding a most successful tour in the provinces. This clever young lady is indeed in great request now. She commences a long engagement on October 25, at the Standard Theatre, where she will once more play the Grand Duchess. The Christmas arrangements are already perfected at Covent Garden Theatre ; and Mr. Augustus Harris intends to produce Adolph Adam's comic opera, Le CMlet, in which Miss Julia Mathews will sustain the principal character. Mr. Jefferson terminated his engagement at Booth's New York Theatre, on September 18. Ho has been wonderfully successful. The treasnrer of the theatre was compelled to erect an extra ticket-office to accommodate the crowds that this gentleman nightly attracts. Clarence Holt is now part proprietor of the Royal Theatre, at Croydon. Lady Don has been doing a round of her favourite characters in Portsmouth and other provincial towns. The press seems unanimous in pronouncing her acting and singing excellent, and it is said she has been drawing overflowing houses. Professor Anderson and his talented daughters have been once more before the English public at Greenwich ; and Wizard Jacobs has been performing at Herne Bay, Scarboro', and other fashionable water-ing-places. An epidemic of murder seems to be sweeping over us. Hardly a day passes that the papers do not record one or more frightful examples ; and the last, a double murder at Wood Green, is perfectly horrifying. A man who distrusted the fidelity of the woman he was living with, met her returning from town with the man he expected to be her paramour. After knocking the man down at the station, he dragged the woman to her horne — in the face of bystanders whose protection she implored — and there shot her dead, and savagely beat out her brains before the onlookers. He then rushed to the mau'B house with whom he had seen her ; broke open the door, and with furious blows dashed in his skull ; two " musicians " whom the wretched man had hired for the day, fleeing at the murderer's approach, leaving the unhappy victim to his fate. Near Paris, a more horrible tragedy has been enacted — a whole family, mother and six children, having been murdered in the most cold-blooded and deliberate manner. De Quincey would have quoted this as a striking instance of murder raised to the dignity of one of the fine arts ; for the coolness and energy of the murderer were extraordinary. The murder, both in its design and execution, will always rank among the first illustrations of the art ; and, indeed, for completeness and daring, is almost unmatched in the records of crime. The murderer, Traupraann, is barely twenty years of age, but has long been noted for his extraordinary strength and daring. He had become intimate with a family named Kinck, well-to-do people at Roubaix,. in French Flanders, and he appears to have deliberately concocted a plan for murdering the whole family, and then possessing himself, by personation and fraud, of all the property they possessed. He waß favoured in this scheme by the desire of the father to leave Roubaix, and settle at Alsacs. This Jean Kinck, the father, did leave his home, and has not since been heard of j but Traupmann, in all probability, could account for his whereabouts, as shortly afterwards the latter wrote from Paris, in the name of Kinck, to Roubaix, instructing the mother to come to Paris, and bring her family with her, for the purpose of settling at Pantin. A son, Gustave Kinck, who was not with his mother at Koubaix, was also telegraphed for in the name of his father, to come to Paris. He came, and waß "disposed of" by Traupmann, who afterwards met the mother and her five children, persuaded them to go with him in a cab to Pantin, "to see papa ;" took them out by twos and threes to the edge of a trench prepared for them j murdered them one after the other ; threw them in and covered them up, some of them while living! His intention evidently was to have accounted for the disappearance of the family by reporting that they had gone to America ; and afterwards to have returned, representing himself to be the son Gustave, aud so, by forged documents, have obtained possession of the property, valued at £4,000 or £5,000, of which the elder Kinck was possessed. A more horrible and daring massacre was never perpetrated ; and it seemed almost impossible that one single assassin, only nineteen years of age, could have carried it out; but there is no reason to believe that he had any accomplices. The body of Kinck pere has not yet been discovered. There are not many possible events which would excite the sensation which these wholesale murders have produced. Thousands upon thousands of people have nocked to the scene of the murder ; and I it has been with great difficulty that the supposed murderer has been saved by the police from the summary vengeance of the excited mob.

Tho Emperor's health is much restored, but the rumours as to his contemplated abdication persist. It has been stated over and over again that his Majesty bus for some time been suffering from a, malady which must slowly, though surely, terminate his life in a few months, and some of our contemporaries write as if this time was nearly up, and his life could not possibly bo preserved much longer. We hare reason to believe that this is a mistake ; but no doubt tho serious illness his Majesty has suffered has made him extremely anxious as to his son's succession, and it is likely that he would not hesitate at any step which might increase the security of his position. The idea grows and strengthens that the peace of Europe is not likely to be disturbed. The state of the Emperor Napoleon's health is such that his accompanying tho ai-my in person is quite out of the question ; and war, even successful war, if he were not with the army, would weaken rather than strengthen its position in France. Lord Clarendon's emphatic declaration at Watford, that "since the close of the Prussian and Austrian war in 1866, Europe had never had a fairer prospect of maintaining the inestimable blessings of peace," had been received everywhere with confidence, and has had a most reassuring influence upon the public mind, not merely in this country, but also in France and Europe generally, which is marked by the notable and continuous rise that has since taken place in tho French Rentes. Very serious rumours are afloat as to the condition of the Emperor of Russia. Mental alienation, melancholy madness, is attributed to him. His Majesty is said to seclude himself for days together, refusing to see any one whatever. The Pope has made a decided hit at Dr. Cumming. His Holiness " had seen from the newspapers that Dr. Cumming of Scotland " had been inquiring if he would be allowed to be present at the Council and argue in support of his own opinions. With great condescension tho Holy Father explains in a letter to Archbishop Manning, which has been published in all the papers, that the absolute infallibility of the Head of the Church and of all Councils cannot be allowed to be brought in question at the forthcoming (Ecumenical ; but that if Dr. Cumming wishes to avail himself of the opportunity of this Council to renounce his errors (Dr. Cumming's errors !), and "to satisfy the wants of his soul by withdrawing from a state in. which he cannot be sure of his salvation" — (Dr. Cumming *' not sure of his salvation ! ! ") — ho can, " return to the Father from whom he has long, unhappily, gone astray," who will "joyfully run to meet him." All which reads very much like a joke,* and, not improbably, is partly so intended by his Holiness. It is the " retort courteous ;" and it is not easy to see how even Dr. Cumming can do more than draw a moral from it for tho benefit of persons exclusively of his own way of thinking. It is difficult, if not impossible, to argue effectively against such pretensions ; but the Doctor is very unwilling to retire. The explosion of petroleum in a lighter, at Bordeaux, on the 28th of September, caused the destruction of nearly twenty ships that were lying at the wharves. The lighter was drifted by the flood-tide among the shipping, and, unfortunately, the authorities attempted to extinguish the flames by submerging the boat. The consequence of this ■was, that large patches of burning oil floated on the water, and, being carried by the vising tide, set fire to many distant vessels that otherwise would have been safe. The extent of the damage is estimated at ten millions of francs. Broadhead, of Sheffield trade-union notoriety, having been refused a license for a public-house by the magistrates, on account of his crimes, determines to leave the country, and calls on his friends to subscribe to pay his expenses. A painful sensation has been created by the sudden disappearance of Lord-Justice Clerk Patton. He was staying at G-lenalmond, his country-seat in Scotland, and went out for a walk on the 20th September. From that hour he disappeared. Many circumstances led to the suspicion of suicide j a razor and a bloody neck-tie were found on the banks of the,Tay; and, after long and careful search, the body was dragged from a deep pool in the river. There is no doubt that Mr. Patton destroyed himself, and under circumstances which render the occurrence doubly painful. Unfortunately for himself, . the Judge was Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate for Scotland under the late Government, and it was necessary that he should have a place in Parliament. A seat became vacant at Bridgwater, and his allegiance to his party left him no alternative but to offer himself as a candidate. It has been proved within the past few days that he knew nothing of the bribery which, there is little question, was used to secure his election ; but it was a confirmed and settled practice at Bridgwater elections that money should be distributed right and left among the electors, and Mr. Patton probably allowed his judgment to be blinded, left things entirely in his agent's hands, as many honourable men have done before him, and shut his eyes to what he might have seen. The Commission now sitting, however, haa dragged such, malpractices to light, and has tarnished the repute of all who were concerned in them. The LordJustice Clerk was summoned to give evidence on the 22nd as to his expenditure in 1866, and the supposition is that the prospect of his being fixed with moral responsibility for corruption, was too much for his sensitive mind, and that he sought shelter from " the proud man's contumely " in suicide.