The Archduke John may be termed the Duke of Sussex
of the Imperial Family of Austria. His life and character present numerous points of resemblance to those of that late member of the Royal Family of England. A simplicity of tastes, sometimes scarcely: compatible with so exalted a station, a left-handed marriage, and strong political sympathies of too free a cast for the Government of the day, marked out the lives of both these princes for an unusual amount of disfavour at Court and of popular regard. Military renown and political influence were denied them, for Hohenlinden and Wagram gave but a melancholy interest to the Archduke's youthful achievements; but both of them were liberal patrons of science, and the one rose to be President of the Royal Society of London, the other founded the Johannenm of Gratz. Let, then, an English reader imagine, to complete the parallel, and to apply it to the present circumstances of Germany, that the commotion which attended the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 had grown into a formidable revolution; that every constituted authority of this realm had been shaken; and that in the midst of these great perils Parliament had thought fit to invest the Duke of Sussex with the indefinite powers of a Protector, as the last hope of the salvation of the empire; and this hypothetical example may convey some idea of what is now expected of the worthy Archduke John.— Tines.
We learn from Tabreez, via Erzeroom, under date of the 10th of May, that his Royal Highness Bahman Meerut, the Shah's brother, who was lately dismissed from the Governorship of Adzerbijan having been offered an asylum Russia by the Emperor, was to start from Tehran about the middle of May for Tabreez, to join his children' with whom he would forthwith proceed to Tiflis, the capital of cnorgia. Thus Russia has struck a blow at Persia, without any armed demonstration, or spending a single kopek. Once Bahman is in Russia, there is no knowing to what extent he will go towards obtaining the crown of Persia on the decease of Mehemet Shah, its present ruler; whose impaired state of health, from the incurable disease under which he is labouring, renders his life very precarious; and Bahman Meerza having immense treasure, the Russians will no doubt support him in anything he may attempt.—Morning Post.
On the evening of the 17th, when the French steamer was eighty miles at sea from Constantinople, which she left in the morning, she saw a light in the horizon as if Constantinople were on fire. Intelligence has since arrived that a Are did break out on that day, at Pere, which destroyed 8,000 houses before it Ceased.
The whole of the Russian town Orel, of 1,237 houses, was burnt down on the 7th of June. Four churches, four bridges, and upwards of 3,400,000 roubles' Worth of other property, were destroyed.