The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-12 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid journals of the 6th contain nothing
of political interest. A royal decree in the Gazette
re-establishes the community of monks called the
Gcronimos of the Escurial. They are to be sup-
ported out of the royal estates, and are to be ex-
clusively employed in taking care of and preserving
the magnificent building of the Escurial, which of
late years has been greatly neglected. It is on the
special request of the King Don Francisco that the
appointment of the monks has been made. The
surveys of the railway from Avila to Segovia, an
embranchment of the Valladolid line, have been
completed. Reports had been received from the
Captains-General of Cuba and Porto Rico to the
Bth and 14th ult. ; they stated that perfect tran-
quillity prevailed in both islands, and that t heir
sanitary condition was excellent.

EXTENSIVE CONFLAGRATION, AND IMMENSE SACR
OF PROPERTY AT BRISTOL.—BRISTOL, May 11.—Os le of
the most extensive and destructive fires that has; oc-
curred in Bristol for the last half-century broke o nit at
an early hour this morning, at the extensive auger
refinery of Messrs. Eyre, Stock, and Co., in the Old
Market-street. The origin of the catastrophe is
wrapped in the most profound mystery, no one being
able in any way to account for its occurrence ; and
the loss to the proprietors of the firm, as well as to
some of the leading fire insurance companies, will be veil'
great. A night watchman, who is kept on the pre-
mises, states that at three o'clock this morning he went
over them, and found everything right. At a little
after four o'clock he observed fire near a stove, at
part of the factory where the workmen usually depo-
sited their coats and hats. In this stove no fire had
been kept for some time past, nor had there been lights
of any kind in the place. As soon as be discovered the
fire the night watchman gave an alarm, and the po-
lice engine, and those of the Norwich Union, West
of England, Sun, Crown, Imperial, and other offices
were speedily on the spot. The fire, however,
spread with the utmost rapidity, and the whole of the.
extensive premises were soon wrapped in one mass of
flames, which towered to an immense height, overtopping
the great stack of the engine-house, and illuminating
the prominent objects of the city to its furthest extremi-
ties. The process of refining is carried on in different
compartments, and it becoming soon apparent that the
bulk of the premises would be destroyed, the efforts of
the firemen and others were mainly directed to saving
the boiling house, in which was machinery of an exten-
sive and costly description, and also some warerooms,
in which were stored a large amount of manufactured
stock. Happily these exertions were in a great degree
successful, for although an immense range of buildings
running through the entire depth of Old Market-streetnd
Jacob street, were reducedto a heap of ruins, the boiling-
house and much of the refined goods were rescued from des-
truction The spectacle presented by the conflagration when
at its height was of the grandest kind. The peculiarnature
of the materials imparted to the flames a hue of the
deepest crimson, while the smoke ascended in black
inky volumes, that greatly heightened the brilliancy of
the fire. The loss has not as yet been correctly aster'
tained, but it is believed it will fall but little,
if anything,
short of 20,0001. The building which was saved was,
with its machinery, insured in the West of England
Office for 4,0001. The only insurances on the destroys
portions of the property, were 5,0001. in the Imperial,
in the Globe, and 2,0001. in the Birmingham
office. The immediate money loss is not the whole
tent of the calamity, as from 100 to 150 workipenwoll_Dbe
thereby suddenly deprived of their weans of livelihood'