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Grey River Argus, Volume XXIII, Issue 3909, 9 March 1881, Page 2

A telegram from Birmingham says: — " The following letter, -written partly in red and partly in black ink, and embellished with skulls, crosa-bones, and coffin, had jnst been received by Superintendent Wilcox, cf the Birmingham police force : — ' Blood. William Wilcox, you had better put police on the track. Mr Bradlaugh will by some unknown hand be put to death. The fire in hell is wriggling about in ita great frenzy and fury to burn hio body to ashes. . . . If he does not repent soon it will be to late ; many bullet 3 are being moulded to penetrate the head o£ the determined atheist. This is from one who knows you. The hand which wields this will have no part in the plot against thatman, Bradla'igh, but you be on the alert. You shall see what you shall see. When I saw you it was in Sheffield — Blood— Death— Yours, Richard J. S." At midnight, on January Bth, a fire broke out at the now University boathouse, on the Isis, Oxford. Water was plentiful, bat owing to the position of the building, which i 3 approachable only by the towing path and through meadows, no appliances for extinguishing fire could be used. la the course of an hour the roof and outer walls had given way, and evtry vestige of some thirty-seven boats, which belonged to the University and College boat clubs, was destroyed. The boat-house was erected at a cost of nearly L2OOO, and the boats is contained were volusdgat from LISOO to L2OOO. Among them were the trial eight-oar boats, most of the summer eights, and a few of the torpids. The origin of the fire is unknown. j Some excitement was caused on January Bth by a report that an attempt had been made to burn down the Custom House, London. It appears that about half-past seven in the evening an officer passing through a room in the tea department of the building discovered what appears to have been|an attempt to set fire to the place. The room contains ranges of shelves from floor to ceiling crammed with papers. Against one of the wooden pertitiona a hamper of loose paper had been placed and set on fire. The hamper was partially burned and the shelves charred, but the fire had not had time to make any serious progress, and it was at once extinguished. Mr William Simpson's design for the new Afghan medal had been accepted, and will shortly be prepared at the Mint. Mr Simpson, who is the well-known artist of the Illustrated London News, prepared the design at Gandamak, in Afghanistan, and sent it home for approval. His medal was oval in shape, with the Queen's head on one side and an Afghan figure on the reverse. While staining his design, the War Office has, however, decided in favor of the old familia shape, and rejected the oval in favor of the round. The medal will be suspended from a green a red ribbon. The Bucharest correspondent of the Times telegraphs on January 6th : — A curious result following the recent earthquake which passed under this city ia worth of notice. The soul of Bucharest is a rich, black, porous vegetable mould, very springy under pressures and carriages passing in a street cause a strong v^b^itinn in tho firljucont hoiiaon. The (rauia riotol Biiiilev&id, however, vras an exception to thi^ general rule, and iv my ro',;m, facing tho priv;ctpi'.l street, on which there ia a heavy traffic, I never coukl feel any sensible effect from paaa-

ing vehicles. During the recent earthquake the windows and crockery in less massively constructed buildings rattled ' very sensibly, whereas there was no | audible sound produced in the hotel mentioned. Since the earthquake shock however, this state of things has changed entirely, and every vehicle passing the hotel causes vibration the whole building. The singular part of this change consist in the fact that the effect produced by the vehicle is precisely the same as that accompanying the earthquake. It is not a jar las previously produced" in other buildings, but a sawing motion similiar to tlvat described in ray telegram relating to the late ahock of earthquake. This movement is so great as to cause pictures to ayay backwards and forwards on the walls, and it is equally perceptible in the rear! corner roomg farthest from the street. The hotel is of brick, covered onts!ide with mastic Which would show at onc^ any crack in the walls. I have carefully examined the exterior of the builjling, and there is not a crack in it Hence this change in the solidity of the structure appears to be due to some effect produced in the earth underneath the building by the shock of earthquake.