BY OVERLAND TELEGRAPH.

Otago Witness, Issue 537, 15 March 1862, Page 5

BY OVERLAND TELEGRAPH.

Quincy, 31st Dec, r.M. "VYAHLitE Preparations in Eng7,aki>. — The steamship " Asia," from Liverpool on the 21st December, arrived at Halifax to-dny. She bring five hundred troops. Warlike preparations continued unabated. The Adriatic and Persia have also arrived with troops. The Cleopatra and Parma ere looked for to-day. i Quincy, Ist Jan. Tjik Puksch No-rr,.— Additional news from Europe has boon received by the Etna, whicl} arrived at New York 31st December. A telegraph pn the gdth, from JJerno, Switzerland, says; — The Federal Council has received n circular, addressed by the French Government to the European powers, declaring that the arrest of Mnson and Slidell was contrary to the principles which are regarded as essential to the security of neutral flags, and that the French Government deemed it necessary for the Cabinet at Washington to make concessions. Troubles about the Stone Fleet.—Halifax, 31st December. Passengers by the Asia report thnt the blocking-up of Chsifleston harbour with the stone fleet, recently despatched there, will be likely to Jpnd to difficulties with the European powers. [The rrader will observe that this is nothing hut the gossip of steamship pussenecrs. There is nothing official or tangible about it.— Ed. Altu.~]

Afpkehensions of a General War.— Paris correspondence generally says, that if hostilities between England and America cannot be arrested, they will become general.

Exohange op PKfsoNERs. — Portress -Monroe, : Ist January,— Three hundred and , eighty-four prisoners have been exchanged for an equal number sent to Richmond last week, and are expected to-morrow. G-cn'k iAt ~M'Or/Ki,T,A.N RECOVERING. — General M'UIeIU.I is rapidly recovering from a severe cold. He is attending to all the important business of his oilije. He will be out again in a few days. Mediation Pnoi'osr.i* Brusvnas England anb the U.S.— France has a.ldies.-ed a note to the: American Cabinet, piopj iiy tli.it Russia an I Austria sfiall act us mediators between the United States and England, m relation to the anv.,t of Mii^oa and Slidell, and other matter of dispute. Vkiia Crlv. Caituiiud.— St. Louis, 2nd January, 18G2.--011 the l'it-i (2oth {) o/ December, the Spanish fleet appeared off the C.wtleuf Sm Jn.tn de fjlloa (vera Cruz). The Mexican troops stationed there retired without firing a- gun. The Spanish 'forces immediately oocupie 1 tlie fortress* 1 . Rktuun of Santa Anna.— (General Santa Anna and Uent.ra.l Minunon have both returned to Mexico. Tun Spanish Expedition to Mbxico. — Quincy, HI., 4th January.— Despatches from New York say that tlie Spanish squadron took po.*.e.ssion of San Juan de Uiloa on the Kith December. Vera Cruz was e\ acuated without firing a gun. Havana letters say Santa Anna and Mii-auion are both to go to Mexico.

Rkporti!!) Loss of British Troops.— Halifax, 3rd January.— Rumours are current in this city, not traceable, howe\er, to any reliable source, of the loss of the steamship Parana on the St. Lawj renee, with eleven hundred troops on board. The steamship Bohemia, witb British troops on board, passed Cape Race this tnornintr. Rkpouts op tkouhmjs with England Coktkadictkd.— Tlie Washington rumours current in the newspapers that further troubles may be expected with England, arising out of the blockade of Charleston and Savannah with stone hulks, are entirely without foundation. THE REMOVAL OF MASON AND SLIDELL. The agent of tho Go^ eminent who Mipcrintcnded the removal of M;w>n anil Rlidoll from Fort Warren the British uunlioats returned this morning. No papers were exchanged between the a>>x#it and the British commander, in connection with the delivery and reception of the rebel commissioners. THE FLOOD AT SACRAMENTO. (From tlie Sacramento Union of the l()th in<) It is our duty to record this morning the fact that our city has been visited by the most extraordinary flood ever known mucg the settlement of the .^lat" by Americans. We mentioned yesterday that the American and Sacramento rivers had risen to a point about eighteen feet above low water mark— a point never attained before "o eaily in the season. The rains of Sunday afternoon, of course, melted the snows in tlie mountains, which i.s the prolviblecau.se of the disaster from which our city Iky, suffered incalculable injury. At about eight o'clock yesterday morning it was announced that the levee hail give'i way on the eastern boundary of tho city, and that that portion of the city wn.s being rapidly flooded. It appears th-it daring the night the water had o\erflooded and broken down the levee of the American river east of the City Laundry, and had flooded a large area of country southward from that point. An immense bo ly of water collected in the ancle north of Poverty Ridge, and east of the lei cc whirh runs diagonally fiom It and Seventeen-streets to the vicinity of Suiter Fort. The water commenced to come through the openings of this leveo before six o'clock in the morning, but as the progress of the current was entirely checked by the embankment of the R-street r,ulroad;>6iich a mass accumulated in tho angle an.l along the line of the eastern le\ Be that at about cinht o'clock it commenced to flow over the top, nearly all along the line from R street and the fort, and at various parts north of the fort. AH the streets of the city south of J were flooded by nine o'clock as far west as Eleventh and Twelfth -streets. The tendency of the destructive current seemed to be alone: the" southern section of the city — the It-street levee damming it up and preventing its natural flow towards Suttervile. Before nine o'clock many women and children in one storey houses were entirely surrounded and hemmed in east of Eleventh and Twelfth-streets, and in many instances their calls for assistance distressing. When the water at ton and eleven o'clock reached the low portion of the city, at Fifth and Sixth-street's . north of the railroad, its depth was so great as to set afloat and turn over a large number of houses in that vicinity, Sacramento, 12th Dec, 1861. The following items are condensed from this evening's Hue : — A gang of thirty men, employed on the Auburn railroad, were brought clowii'froin Folsom yesterday afti'rnoon, and were set to work on the tr.ick of the S. V. railroad. The break in this road commences at Hull's ranch, in Brighton, about four miles from this city. From IJull's ranch to Kipp's Cut the road k entirely carried away for two miles, and thence into the city but small sections of tlie track are to be seen standing. In the Chamlxsr of the Board of Supervisors, 'a meeting of the citizens was held yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of establishing some action to prevent the further destruction of property in this city by water. The meeting was well attended, and groat interest was manifested. C. H. S.vift, A. Boyd, L. B. Harris, J. Anthony, and C. Cole were selected to compose a committee to report a plan of ways and means, nnd those present adjourned to meet in the same place at eleven o'clock this niorniutr. Nearly all the physicians in the city offer their gratuitous services to "ali snftercrs from the inundation needing medical assistance. It is reported that owing to the rise in the Sacramento, water was pourinsr in at the crevasse in the levee, just below the Half Way House, during last nitrlit and this forenoon. The Sacramento river in front of the city continued to rise slowly, but there is no reason, just now, to fear an additional overflow. A guage at the intersection of Sixtli and M-streets shows thnt the water within the city limits is slowly but steadily falling. J