We are indebted to the signal corps officer for the use of a Baltimore paper of Tuesday last, the 19th inst. We give a summary of the news contained:
Proceedings in the Yankee Congress.
In the
Yankee House of Representatives on the 18th,
Mr. Dawson.
(Democrat,) of
Pennsylvania, offered resolutions declaring that the war was not waged for conquest or oppression, and requesting the
President to issue a proclamation making known that when any State, now in insurrection, shall submit to the
Federal Government, all hostilities against her shall cease, and such State shall be protected against all Interference with her local laws and institutions.
The resolutions were laid on the table — ayes 79, noes 58.
Mr. Cox of
Ohio, offered a resolution proposing to take the exchange of prisoners out of the hands of
Gen. Butler, and refer it to a Board of Commissioners.
The resolution was summarily laid on the table by a vote of ayes 91, nays 56.
The Senate resolution providing for the appointment of a select committee, consisting of three members of the Senate and five of the
House, on the conduct and expenditures of the war, was passed.
Mr. Smith, of
Ky., offered resolutions declaring that the rebellion is "desperate, wicked, and bloody;" that "the safety and security of personal and national liberties depend upon its utter and absolute extinction;" and that, therefore, "It is the political, civil, moral, and sacred duty of the people to meet it, fight it, and forever destroy it, thereby establishing perfect and unalterable liberty." The resolutions were adopted — ayes 112, nays 16.
In the Senate, on the 16th, the one million men bill, to release the prisoners at
Richmond was discussed.
Mr. Howe, who offered the bill, assured the Senate he was in earnest.
Mr. Trumbull thought one hundred thousand might be raised, but a million was driving it a little too strong.
Mr. Wilson thought a hundred thousand recruits against
Lee's veterans would stand no chance at all. The subject was dropped.
In the
Senate, on the 18th, a bill was submitted and referred, providing for the establishment of a Bureau of Emancipation, under the
Secretary of the Treasury.
The resolution for the expulsion of
Senator Davis, of
Ky., was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
Joint resolutions of thanks to
Hooker,
Meade,
Howard,
Banks, and
Burnside, were passed.
Awful disaster in child Cathedral destroyed by fire--two thousand women burnt to death.
An awful disaster occurred in
Santiago, the capital of
Chili, on the 8th of December. The Immaculate Conception was being celebrated in the church of the Jesuits.
It was about 7 o'clock in the evening and the crescent of light (gas) that formed the pedestal for the
Virgin Mary fired the wood upon which it rested, and the flames sprung wildly over the building.
There were ten thousand persons in the church.
The suddenness of the fire was awful.
The dense mass of women frightened out of their senses, numbers fainting, and all entangled by their long swelling dresses, rushed as those who knew that death was at their heels, to the one door, which soon became choked up. Fire was everywhere.
Streaming along the wooden ceiling it flung the camphene lamps hung in rows there, among the struggling women.
In a moment the gorgeous church was a sea of flame.
Michael Angell's fearful picture of hell was there but exceeded.
Help was all but impossible.
A Hercules might have strained his strength in vain to pull one from the series mass of frenzied wretches who piled one above another as they climbed over to reach the air, wildly fastening the grip of death upon any one escaping, in order that they might be dragged out with them.
Women seized in the embrace of the flames were seen to undergo a transformation as though by an optical delusion--first dazzling bright, then horribly lean and shrunk up, then black statues rigidly fixed in a writhing attitude.
The fire, Imprisoned by the immense thickness of the walls, had devoured everything combustible by 10 o'clock, and then, defying the sickening stench, people came to look for their lost ones.
The silence, after the piercing screams of the burning were hushed in death, was horrible.
It was the silence of the grave, unbroken but by the bitter wall or fainting cry.
Over two thousand souls had leaped through that ordeal of fire to the judgment seat of God.
The writer referring to the fire handles the clergy in the most severe manner, and says the population of
Santiago are fired with indescribable indignation at the monstrous conduct of the priests, holding them guilty of the death of all these victims, and particularly the mountebank
Ugarte, the inventor of the "Virgins' Post-Office" imposture, which required a countless number of lights, pasteboard scenery, &c.
When the fire broke out they blocked up the door of the sacristy, to devote themselves more undisturbed to saving their "gimeracks." They saved a gilt image, some wooden saints, chalices, and a great deal of sacred matting.
After saving their trash they fled away, except one priest, who favored the agonized victims with his absolution.
More than 500 persons of the highest caste perished, the greater part young girls between fifteen and twenty years of age. One mother perished with her five daughters.
Two thirds of the victims were servants.
Several houses have been noticed by the police as empty, because all their inmales have perished.
The latest information is that 1,700 bodies have been recognized.
Three thousand at least were in the building, and it is not yet known how many have escaped.
A dispatch from
Sandusky, Ohio, dated the 17th, says that a scout had just returned from a thorough reconnaissance towards
Point Pelee, Canada, and reports two or three thousand rebels at
Point Pelee, preparatory to a dash upon
Johnson's Island.
The strictest vigilance is maintained on the island, and several batteries are in position.
Point Pelee is thirty miles from
Johnson's Island.
John Brown, a son of "old
John Brown," who resides on Put- in
Bay Island, has gone to
Columbus to induce the
Government to furnish howitzers and small arms for the protection of its inhabitants.
The long roll is frequently sounded.
It is apprehended that the rebels will attempt to cross on the ice.
From the army of the Potomac.
A dispatch to the New York
Tribune, from the Army of the Potomac, dated January 17th, says that on the evening of the 14th, a squad of the 1st Rhode Island cavalry on picket near Three-Mile Station, were attacked by a body of Rebel cavalry, estimated at 200.
The pickets were forced to fail back with the loss of one captured and one wounded. The assailing force then approached the reserve post, and on being halted by the officer in command, represented themselves as belonging to the 3d Pennsylvania cavalry, on their way to Bealeton Station.
Finding that their story was discredited, they poured a volley into our men, and immediately retired into the woods to re-load, receiving as they fell back, the fire of our picket reserve.
Our men were somewhat sheltered by breastworks, which were repeatedly and desperately charged by the enemy, who was in every instance repulsed.
The fight continued half an hour, when the rebel force retreated.
Twelve wounded rebels were found on Friday morning at a house half a mile from the scene of the engagement, and three were found dead on the field.
Our loss was but two wounded. The wounded rebels state that the attack was made under the impression that a Government paymaster was present with the Rhode Island cavalry, for the purpose of paying off the men on the 15th inst.
The raid in the Northern Neck.
The recent raid in the
Northern Neck of
Virginia was made by the
Yankee garrison guarding the prisoners at
Point Lookout, Md. The result of the raid, as reported by the
American, was the capture of 25 prisoners, 60 horses, 20 mules, 65 head of cattle, and 100 head of sheep.--The expedition embarked from
Point Lookout on the 12th, under command of
Brig. Gen. Marston.
It consisted of 300 infantry and 130 men of the 2d and 5th United States cavalry.
During their raid they visited
Warsaw, Richmond county Lancaster Court-House, and Little Waltham.
At the first named place they found a large quantity of Government stores, consisting of pork and bacon, which were destroyed.
At
Kilmarnock, ten miles from Lancaster Court-House, they destroyed an extensive tannery, and a large stock of leather, oil, hides, machinery, &c.
Miscellaneous.
A letter from the blockading fleet off
Wilmington announces the loss of the executive officer, I engineer, and 17 men from the
Montgomery, and I ensign, the captain's clerk, and 7 men from the
Aries, while attempting to take possession of the blockade running steamer
Dare, which had been run ashore.
The particulars of the capture have been published in the Richmond papers.
In the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania the motion to dissolve the injunction heretofore granted to restrain the
Provost Marshal from taking drafted men was granted.
Hendricks and
Hart, two Yankee newspaper correspondents, have reached New York, having been "paroled" for ninety days by the
Confederate authorities.
Capt. W. W. White,
Provost Marshal of the Eighteenth Pennsylvania District at
Williamsport, has been dismisses the service and arrested and lodged in the
Old Capitol Prison for alleged frauds in the business of his office.
The Confederate steamer
Florida is lying in port at
Brest, France, making ready to leave.
She is lying near the U. S. gunboat
Kearsage.
Col. Wm. McNeir, for many years official printer to the Maryland Senate, died in
Philadelphia on the 17th inst.
A banquet was given to the veterans of the Irish Brigade in New York on the 16th.
Gen. Meagher was the principal speaker.
Col. Fish has retired from the post of
Provost Marshal of
Baltimore and
Major Hayner appointed to the post.
Robert J. Walker writes from
England that there is a great revolution of opinion there in favor of the
Yankees.
A fire occurred in New York on Saturday week destroying property to the amount of $1,250,000.
Gens. Hancock and
Burnside are to recruit their old corps to 50,000 men each.
A court-martial has been called for the trial of
Surgeon-General Hammond.
Gold was quoted in New York, on the 18th, at 158¼a159.
