The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

SEPT:

OCT

Dover
York August
Yarmouth
Plymouth
Lichfield
Stockton
Devon and Exeter ....
Derby
;ALB ER.

Brecon .. 19
Richmond
Monmouth 22
Manchester Autumn
Newmarket First October 27

:BER.

Yesterday forenoon, shortly after eleven o'clock,
a fire broke out at the premiees of Messrs. Pewtress
and Co., the well-known pep,,ructakers, situate at
30. Gracechurch-street, nearly opposite St. Benet's
Church. The building extended back to the chapel
of the Society of Friends, in White Hart-court,
Lombard-street, tow temporarily occupied as tlet
banking-house of Messrs. B Imlay, Bevan, and Co.,
during the building of their new establishment.. In
Gracechurch-street it adjoined the shops of Messrs.
Frodsham and Co., the chronometer makers, and
Messrs. Blanch, the gunmakers. Some of the upper
floors were occupied as of 3es by Mr. C. Barrel!, of
the Thetford Agricultural Implement Works, and
Messrs. Appleby. The fire originated in the base-
ment or cellar, in which vas stored a large quantity
of paper, and before any means could be taken to
suppress the flames dense clouds of smoke poured
up from the place, which entirely prevented any
one passing down. The flames rapidly spread,
and thick smoke poured out from the shop front
and the various windows looking into Gracechurch-
street, completely darkening the neighbourhood.
The greatest consternation prevailed among the
large establishments which abound in this part of
the city. Intelligence of the outbreak having been
given to the several brigade stations, the powerful
steam engines from Watling-street, Bishopsgate-
street, and other depots, shortly arrived, and
were soon brought into active operation under the
direction of Mr. Bridges and Mr. It. Henderson, the
brigade foremen. By this time the flames had made
rapid progress and were issuing from the windows
of the upper floors. The firemen continued to play
upon the front of the premises, and as the confla-
gration was subdued in that direction it was disco-
vered that the fire was extending with great fierce-
ness at the back of the property. Flames were
rushing out of the back windows and attacking the
roof of the chapel or bank. As may be imagined,
the greatest anxiety was felt for the safety of the
place and the security of the bullion and books. By
this time there was a strong body of police in
attendance, under the command of Inspectors Kilby
and Duddy, and constables were so posted that the
crowd was kept some distance clear of the approach
to the bank. The hose from some of the steam
engines having been led up the court through the
bank, a good command was obtained over the flames.
The fire, however, continued to rage i❑ the upper
part of the premises, and, scaling ladders being
raised in the front, the firemen ascended with the
hose and directed a vast body of water on to the
flames. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon the fire might
be said to be nearly extinguished, but a great heat
remained within the walls. The damage done is
very considerahle, and is thus officially returned by
Captain Shaw:—No.3o,Gracechurch-street, Messrs.
Pewtress and Co., paper manufacturers ; the ground
floor and basement severely damaged by fire, and
also the upper part of house, and part of roof off;
the building and the contents insured in the Pcceaix
Fire Office. No. 29, J. Blanch and Co., gun makers;
roof damaged, and contents by removal; insured in
the Phoenix Office. N 0.31, Messrs. Frodeham and
Co., chronometer makers ; contents damaged by
removal and water; insured in the Westminster
Office. No. 33, let out in offices ; contents damaged
by water, &c; insured in 'the Unior Office. White
Hart-court.—Messrs. Bevan and Co„ bankers ; side
and back windows, skylights, and lead fiat damaged
by fire, &c.
and

A breach of promise case was heard at Kilkenny
on Thursday. The plaintiff was 27, and the defendant _
just completed his 70th year. He pleaded that he never
refused to marry the plaintiff, and was still ready to do so.
The case was compromised on the terms of his either fulfil-
ling his promise, or paying the plaintiff £l7O within a fort-
night.
[A DVERTISE9IENT.I —Holloway's Pills.—To Purify the
Blood.—With the discovery of this medicine a great prin-
ciple of guidance in treating the diseased body dawned upon
mankind—the necessity of purifying the blood, the " life of
the flesh." This rational treatment gradually superseded
the barbarous bleedings, destructive emetics, and under-
mining mercurial preparations, which had entoiled the pro-
fession and public for centuries. Purification of fluids and
solids is the noble purpose Holloway's medicine was de-
signed to effect, and wonderfully has it accomplished its
end—a truth, at the present day, universally admitted and
acted upon. In loss of appetite, giddiness, partial failure of
memory, bilious attacks, and habitual costiveness, Hollo-
way's Pills exert the most salutary powers in invigorating
any organ which is failing through weakness.

POST.—The Tercentenary Commemoration of
Shakspere has assumed a definitive shape both in
Londo❑ and at Stratford-on-Avon, and we have
now before us the programmes of the two commit-
tees. We will not go into details for the sake wis
drawing invidious distinctions, but itis not in human
nature to shut one's eyes to a gigantic disparity, and
therefore we cannot help seeing that it is not in
Lon

..radon—the centre of wealth,art, science, talent,
and dramatic resources—that the Poet of England
will be properly honoured, but most happily, as most
properly, in his own little picturesque town in the
centre of the great central plain of England. The
proceedings of the London Committee are a decided
failure. Whether it was that the committee was not
well selected, or that the committee left all to their
secretariee, or the secretaries acted without the
committee, or both secretaries and committee
were at fault in the original conception of the kind
of festival, or petty jealousies crept in, or mere
hangers on saught to push themselves into notoriety
by assuming a leading part in the proceedings—we
cannot tell. What we have to guide us in forming
an opinion is that, and only that, which every one
may see in the public advertisements. There we
learn that on the 23d of April, under the auspices
of the London Committee, the foundation-stone of a
statue to Shakspere will be laid somewhere in Lon-
don, probably iu the Green-park, on a mound which
has no single recommendation for the purpose but
that of being a mound. We have looked at the spot,
and, unless we are smitten with blindness in the
matter of art, we say that nothing will look
more uncouth and out of place, whether seen
from Piccadilly or Constitution-hill, than such
an erection as the British public is now asked
to raise to the honour of the Bard who has
done more to show the wonderful facility of our
language, more to enrich our literature with apt
quotations, more to supply ideas and materials for
thought, than any of our best writers, not excepting
Addison and Bacon, Johnson and Swift, Burke,
Macaulay, and Tennyson. This and a public din-
ner, and the free opening of the theatres, is ail that
the London Committee can do, not merely to corn
memorate Shakspere, but to repair the neglect of
three centuries. Even as to this memorial we are
quite in the dark. Tne foundation is to be laid, but
he slime foundation will do fora pillar, a temple, or
a drinking fountain. We have no designs, no de-
scrip ion, no estimate of cost, no certainty of the
completion of anything, but the public is asked to
give its money in the assurance that some use will
be made of it, and that something will be built.
We have seen a good deal of this sort of raising
of funds for undefined purposes, and this erec-
tion of monuments to men who, however deserving,
do not always kindle the same enthusiasm in the
mind of the public as in that of a few generous ad-
mirers. We remember, for instance, the instructive
history of the Nelson column. The design originated
with a few enthusiastic gentlemen, who thought
that all England felt about Nelson as they did—and
such was the feeling of that England which wit-
nessed the exploits of the hero. But the result
went to show not how much, but how little, the
English people in a succeeding generation cared
for the memory of Nelson. The scheme went beg-
ging, and would have been begging to this day had
not Parliament come to the relief of the
undertaking. and Nicholas Emperor of Russia
contributed £5OO to the accomplishment of
it. But is this the way to honour great
names ? Would not the cheapest conceivable
trophy erected by real admirers be better a thou-
sand times, if heartily subscribed and duly paid for,
than a more pretentious structure that left its pro-
moters in debt, and proved only how its friends had
either over-estimated the generosity of the public or
had failed to secure its confidence ? Will it be any
tribute to his memory to tout for contributions?
This is a question of great moment, not only to the
London Committee, but to those who aro disposed
to carry out its projects. If we turn to Strat-
ford, we see at all events something definite,
practical, and suitable. A statue is to be erected
to the Poet in his native town. Various
plans are laid out for holding high festival. There
are to be a banquet, various perfcrmances of the
Poet's plays, a concert, a ball, readings, and exhi-
bitions. The first talent of the day is enlisted, and
gratuitously enlisted. Our best actors are to per-
form, our best vocalists are to sing; and distin-
guished men in art, politics, literature, and science
are to lend their help, or grace the proceedings with
their presence. The future interests of the rising
generation of Shakepere's native place are not to be
overlooked, and the surplus of the proceeds, which
promises to be large, is to be applied to the im-
provement of the Grammar-school of Stratford.
What strikes us as most remarkable is that in Lon-
don all is coldness, apathy, and blundering. In
Stratford all is energy, enthusiasm, and prudence.
There can hardly be a doubt which movement is
most in honour of the Poet, and we shall be sur-
prised if we have not to record that the chivalry of
the country has gravitated to the central England
demonstration.

I.IIIIES —President Lincoln has called on the
:::tates of the North to raise 260,000 fresh troops for
:ho service of the Federation. That such a host
should be required in the fourth year of the war
might to open the eyes of the American people to
the magnitude of the task they so lightly undertook.
If it does riot, the spectre of a political revolution
beginning to rise in the confusion of the struggle
must warn the North of the perils into which the
war is bearing it. Mr. Lincoln, as a candidate for
re-election, has lost much of the advantage he held
over his rivals. The extreme Republicans intend
to adopt Gen. Fremont as their leader, with a policy
of Abolition that, if successful, will sweep away the
Federation itself. In the fiery furnace of civil war,
the American Constitution, in its present form, is
to be recast, the distinctions of Sovereign States
and their independent rights are to disappear.
Territories larger than European kingdoms are to
be reduced to the position of counties, and a power
is to arise much nearer a monarchy or an empire
than the Fathers of the Republic ever contemplated.
The Confederates will " cree te a nation" in a eery
different sense than attached to the words when
they were uttered. The North is to be fused into
one State, to prevent it splitting up into a group of
confederacies. If the next President is elected on
the policy of destroying the Federation the war was
commenced to maintain, it will be one of the most
extraordinary instances of events overruling human
purposes ever recorded. But the bold " platform"
of the ultra section of the Republicans may be only
Put forth as a test of public opinion. If it secures
support enough to be carried out, the discontent rol
the people with the existing political system must
be deeper and stronger than it has eve- appeared.
How the war can be conducted w
t ite a recognised
party in the North is tearing -:„awn the
whole fabric
of the Government. 18 difficult to perceive. It is a
matter for speculation whether the Federal Constitu-
tion will survive till the end of the conflict. The call
for 200,000 fighting men is a suggestive illustration
of the results of the recent military operations. The
Government has shown that Gen. Sherman's expedie
tion damaged or destroyed much Southern property ;
but General Seymour's march into Florida to dis-
cover the Union sentiment supposed to be there
concealed hes been a disastrous failure. Close on
these discouraging events in the South and West
comes the requisition for another large army, in
addition to the enormous number of men the war
has already consumed. Greater sacrifices, in-
creased expenditure, are demanded of the nation
which is always assured it is on the eve of some
signal triumph. After three years of war the
Southerners are found to be stronger in all the
means of' defence than they were at the commence-
ment of the struggle. The march of General Sher-
man led into a territory abounding in all the neces-
saries of life. For the past two years cotton has
not been cultivated, as it cannot be sold, and the
available labour has been turned to growing corn.
The mere means of subsistence the people of the
South can easily procure, and they submit willingly
to the deprivation of those luxuries which can be
obtained only by importation. As every measure
of the Federal Government, besides the repeated
invasions by its armies, has been calculated to
make reconciliation impossible, the war spirit of the
South burns more fiercely than ever. The conflict
now has ceased to be for political independence so
much as for the defence of life and property. Con-
quest by the North now would probably be equi-
valent to a confiscation of all the cultivated land of
the Southern States and its division among the
soldiers of the armies of the Federation. The
measure is at least proposed, and indicates the feel-
ing by which the extreme Abolitionists are now
animated. The mere proposal will strengthen the
South in its resistance. If adopted, even in one of
Mr. Lincoln's useless proclamations, it will give a
different character to the war, and reduce it to a
struggle that has scarcely had a parallel in the
had lhistory of civilisation.

Yesterday afternoon the protocol putting an end
to the English protectorate of the lonian Islands was signed
at the Foreign-office. Immediately afterwards Lord Rus-
sell and Mr. Tricoupi, chargd d'affaires of Greece, signed
another document, stipulating pensions in favour of lonien
and other subjects whose services to the lonian Islands had
entitled them to that recognition.
Persons who have been in the habit of paying weekly as
borrowers of Sewing Machines will do well to apply at once
and become members of Messrs. Watts and Co.'s Sewing
Machine Clubs. By so doing they will not only save the
money they now foolishly throw away, but at the same time
secure to themselves the possession of one of the best and
most celebrated sewing machines in the world. Every in-
formation given on application; or by letter addressed, with
a stamped envelope, to Messrs. Watts and Co., 12, Beaufort-
buildings, Strand, London, W.C., where meat re are
en-
4Ciled daily between 10 and 1; Saturdays, 10 azicit,