DEPARTURE OF THE BALTIC FLEET.
On the 4th of April the first squadron of the Baltic fleet for the naval campaign in that sea set sail from Spithead. This fleet was probably the most powerful that had ever appeared upon the seas.
FINANCIAL OPERATIONS FOR THE YEAR.
In the middle of April the government effected, with great ease, a loan of sixteen millions sterling to carry on the war. This was followed by similar transactions.
SEVERITY OF THE WEATHER.
The first days of the new year were unusually warm, the temperature ranging 11° above the average. On the 9th the thermometer marked 50°; but on the following day fell to 26°, being the commencement of the longest and most severe winter experienced for many years. On the 14th a period of very cold weather set in, and continued without intermission to the 24th February; some of the days in the middle of February being from 15° to 18° below the average. From the 24th February to the 6th March the weather was more moderate; but on that day the cold again set in, and the weather continued to the 26th June to be cold, nipping, and miserable beyond record. In January, on several days, the mercury was as low as 13°. In February it was, on many days, as low as from 3° to 10°. The coldest day in London was the 18th, when the thermometer marked 7°; the lowest temperature recorded by authority was 0° 8 (or not quite 1°), at Berkhampstead; at Belvoir Castle it was 2° 5. During this long period, the wind was almost uniformly north-east. Rain was very deficient; but snow fell on the 9th January, and on every day, at one station or other corresponding with the Meteorological Society, from January 13th to February 28th, from March 8th to the end of month, and frequently to the middle of May. It was replete with snow crystals, and unusually dense, eight inches of snow producing one inch of water. Hail and fogs were frequent all over the kingdom; and aurora were numerous. The effects of so ungenial a season upon the mortality and health of the population were as evil as could be anticipated. The deaths greatly exceeded the average. In the winter quarter 134,605 deaths were registered, or 20,000 in excess of the average; and this excess was distributed over the whole kingdom. To the immediate effects of the cold must be added the great dearness of all the necessaries of life. Wheat, which in March, 1853, was 45s. 7d. a quarter, had risen in March, 1854, to 79s. 6d., and in 1855, to 69s. 11d.; and the sale had fallen from 1,236,493 quarters to 780,232 and 1,143,999 quarters. Potatoes ranged from 105s. to 110s. per ton, at wholesale prices.
The cold weather covered the ornamental waters with ice, and gave opportunity for the healthy and exhilarating exercises proper to the season. Those who ventured before the ice was well formed ran considerable risks, and many persons were immersed; but the only disastrous accident occurred on the 20th of January, when four lads were drowned in St. James’s Park. The ice everywhere was crowded with performers on the slide and the skate, both male and female, and with innumerable spectators; the long-continued frost also brought forward many splendidly-equipped sledges. The Thames was encumbered with large masses of frozen snow or ice, which had formed on lakes and ponds communicating with it. These masses, in their passage up and down, were ground together by the tide, and made a loud murmuring noise, which could be heard at a great distance. At low water these masses became jammed together, so as to form a rough and dangerous passage from shore to shore; while the stranded pieces formed miniature icebergs. Within the limits of the tide the whole mass was in motion; but above Teddington the river was frozen over, wherever any obstruction occurred above locks and weirs, and afforded a secure passage. At Richmond there was nearly three miles of continuous ice transit, and for some distance above Teddington Lock and Kingston Bridge. All navigation was necessarily suspended. In the Pool numerous accidents occurred from ships being swept from their moorings and crushed by the ice, or driven on shore.
On the night of the 22nd of February a very singular spectacle was got up on the Serpentine. Late in the evening a fine “brass band,” attended by near a thousand torchbearers, suddenly marched on to the ice on the ornamental water in Kensington Gardens, and struck up popular airs; as by a signal, large fires were lighted on the ice, tents were erected, and barrels of beer were broached. Suddenly, several hundred skaters, each bearing a lighted lamp at his waist-belt, emerged from the crowd, and shot under the bridge on to the Serpentine, and commenced quadrilles, polkas, and divers figures; in a few minutes their erratic motions were illuminated by red, blue, crimson, and green fires, lighted on the banks, and by rockets and other lights. This fantastic and beautiful exhibition was repeated on another evening.