The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-26 00:00:00

GREAT FIRE AT ESHER.

On Friday night one of the most extensive confla-
grations that have occurred in the county of Surrey for
many years past, broke out in the Royal Paper Milo at
Esher, the property of Mr. William McMurray. These
male, which ara situated fifty or sixty yards from the South
Western Railway. corer several acres of ground.
The fire was first discovered at a quarter to ten o'clock on
Friday night. A workman named Blake, in passing along,
perceived a small body of fire in the second floor of a por-
tion of the premises termed the rag warehouse. This pert
of the property was; only about forty feet wide ; but it
ran the lull extent backwards of the whole structure, and
contained several thousand tons weight of linen and other
rags. Blake at once procured a pail of water, which he
threw upon the fire and left the place, thinking that he
had extinguished it; but almost immediately afterwards
the flooring of the story over it gave way, and it became
apparent that a fire of a very formidable character was
burning up stairs. The man having raised an alarm, those
who were at work at the time (about 12 or 14 in number)
made a hasty retreat from the mills, and proceeded to call
the engines, but before any assistance could arrive the
flames took possession of every floor in the rag department,
and as they rushed out of about 30 windows they made, noise
equal to the fall of water from the adjoining mill-stream.
From that part of the premise• the flames extended to an-
other range, red as the engine, beating houses, the hy-
draulic press houses, the weighing departments, the rooms
in which the rags undergo the last process before being
m►de into paper—in which eight steam engines were em-
ployed. From thence the work of destruction laid hold of
the millwrights' and engineers' shops.
A large number of engines speedily arrived. They were
forthwith set to work from the mill-stream, and vast tor-
rents of water were thrown through the windows into the
blazing pile in order to check tke flames. Myriads of sparks
and sheets of flaming paper were carried by the high wind
for miles over the surrounding gardens. At length the
whole of the premises described as on fire, nearly 140 feet
long, presented one tremendous sheet of flames. A build-
ing upwards of 150 feet, and t::ree stories higher, was also
doomed to share the same fats as the other departments.
This immense building contained nearly SO large windows,
and the flames having entered by means of one of them,
they fired the contents, consisting of many thousand tons
weight of paper.
Every one now looked upon the fire with fear and dismay,
for so great was the heat that the men in charge of the
engines could barely approach near enough to work without
endangering their lives. The fire raged all night with little
mitigation. The origin of the disaster is unknown. The
buildings were insured in the County Fire-ofilee, but how
much of the stock was insured could not be learned.

SUNDAY, 6 P.Y.
There still remains a vast body of flame in the ruins ;
and as there are some hundred tons weight of rags and
paper burning, there seems no chance of getting the
coat igration entirely extinguished fur a day or so longer.
The property destroyed will amount to a very serious sum ;
by those bait competent to form an opinion, it is feared that
the total loss will exceed 109,0001. Upwards of 20 persons
will be thrown out of employment.

INDICTMENT OF TWO FEMALES FOR

SHOPLIFTING.

At the Quarter Sessions for the Borough of Colchester,
Mrs. &this Webb, of Great Bentley, and Mies Elisabeth
Holby, of Thorpe, whose connexions are highly respectable,
were indicted on several charges of shoplifting. The case
excited the greatest interest, and during its hearing the
court was crowded to an extent never equalled on any
former occasion. _ _

Mr. Watford prosecuted, and Mr. Parry was specially
retained for the prisoners.
It appeared in evidence, that the prisoners went together
to the Colchester Bazaar, on the 10th of this mouth, and
made some trifling purchases. Two pairs of stockings, two
handkerchiefs, a pair of plush cuff., a quantity of velvet
trimmings, and other articles, were missed by the prose-
cutor, having been stolen, and ware subsequently found
concealed under the bed and mattress an the room
kept for ladies on market days at the Sea Horse Inn.
Mrs. Webb, it was proved, dined with her husband (a
respectable frequenter of the market) on the same day ;
but Miss Holby was not with them then. Upon the
articles being found, Miss Holby exclaimed, " My sitter is
innocent. I alone am guilty. I alone am responsible."
She was very much affected.
The articles having been produced end identified as the
property of Mr. Marsden, the proprietor of the bazaar,
Mr. Parry addressed the jury for the prisoners. He ob-
served that, with regard to one of them, he was extremely
pained as to the course he was compelled to take, but, after
the admi.sion she had made, it was impossible for hire to
struggle against the fact, that in a moment of temptation,
either der-sled by the finery of the establishment, or uncon-
scious for the moment of the consequences of what she was
doing, she did commit an Act which must bring upon her
some punishment. In a moment of agony, feeling the
misery she had brought upon herself, and was likely to
bring upon her sister, she confessed her guilt. The learned
counsel then contended that Mrs. Webb had not committed

a single set that looked like that of a guilty. woman, and
het position, with t• e prospect of soots becoming a mother,
was one that must cause the jury a greater anxiety to
rescue her from the disgrace of having her first child born
in a gaol.
A number of witnesses having been called to character,
The jury acquitted Mrs. Webb, and found Miss Hnlby
11 guilty, who wee sentenced to four months' imprisonment
and hard labour in Springfield Gaol.
A second indictment against the prisoners was with-
, drawn.