The Hon. R. F. Wade, Of Ohio

Benjamin Franklin Wale was born in Springfield, Mass., Oetober 27, 1800. He workcd as a farmer or laborer in summer and school-tencher in -winter, tiil 1826, when he began to stndy law in Ohio, and in 1828 he was admitted to the bar in Ashtabula couuty, where he has ever since resided, In 1835 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Ihat county, and in 1837 to the State Senate, to which he waa twice re-elected. In 1847 ho was chosen President Judge of the Third Judicial District of the State. In 1851 he was elected United States Senator, and re-olected in 1857 and 1863. In the Senate Mr. Wade was a steady opponent of all measuresfavoringslavery. In 1852 he voted, with only uve otlier Senators, to repeal tho Fngitive Slave luw. He al so spoko and voted against the bilí to abrógate the Missouri compromise ; against the Lecompton constitution f or Kansas, in 1858 ; against appropriating 30,000,000 for the acquisition of Cuba, aud agninst all tho compromises between the North and South proposed after Mr. Lincoln's election in 1860. The Homestead bilí he advocated for years, and it was in his charge when it was flnally passed by the Senate in 1862. From the outbreak of tho civil war, in 1861, Mr. Wade labored incessantly for a moro vigorous policy; was Chairman of the joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, and urged the enactment of a law to confíscate all the property of leading secessionists and emancipate their slaves. As Chairman of the Territorial Committee, he reported a bilí, in 1862, abolishing slavery in all the Territories ot the Government, and prohibiting it in any that might afterward be acquired. After the assassination of President Lincoln, in 1865. he became President pro tempore of the Senate and aeting Vioe President of tho United States, and in March, 1867, he was elected President of the Senate. In 1871 he was one of the commission sent to San Domingo to report upon its proposed annexation to the United States, a scheme of which he approved. - American Cyclopedia. titarviiig Chinese. The latest cews of the awful famine desolating the northern provincea of China is brought by the stoamer Oceana, ■which recently arrived at San Francisco from Hong Kong : The extremely cold weather that has prevailed has had a fatal effect on the refugees, many of whom havo been frozen to death, while thousands are sufforiug from insufflnient accommodationa and lack of foor!, which caiinot be supplied in quantities to meet the demand. Charles Budd, of the China Iuland Mission, at Mocluing, who has recently visited the province of Shensi, writes a heartrending account of the suffering he üiis witneesed. The Government's effort to snpply food and assistanee is to a great extent uullified by the dishouesty of officials. Ohildron aro soM by hundreds by their starving parents. In tlie large cities of Houching and Puchingrisings havo ocourred among the people rendered desperate by seeing their Tivts and children starving bef ore their faces, and niany olher outbreaks are reported. Iu Houching the people beheaded a Mandarin for speeulating on their necessities. Cold has been unusually severe throughout the country for several weeks. A terrible disaster oecurred at the Tienstiu Bouge House, in which the stricken refugees from the northern provinces liad assembled. The building took firo, and of nearly 3,000 people in the building only about 100 escaped.