The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-11 00:00:00

ANOTHEIt ACCOUNT.

At four o'clock the fire was still raging with unabated
fury. The wind, which was blowing fresh all the night, had
increased almost to a tempest, and the immense area was
one body of flames. The remaining wing, the east, shared
the fate of the others, and with it the houses and shops in
Sweeting's-alley, forming cart of the main building. The
firemen again got on to the roofs of the houses on the op-
posite side of Sweeting's-alley with their hose and branch
pipes connected with eight powerful engines, and directed a
plentiful supply of water over the shops and houses below
them, by which they were kept cool, and prevented from
igniting. The eastern wing of the Exchange, like the
others, was soon reduced to a heap of ruins, the flames
spreading from floor to floor, and from one story to the
other. Tho roaring of the elements, the falling of huge
timbers, and the noise of the engines, occasionally inter-
mingled with the shouts of the firemen and assistants, were
almost deafening. The firemen never flagged in their ef-
forts from the commencement of the fire, but in vain—the
Exchange no longer exists—it is entirely destroyed.
The walls in the interior of the Exchange fell with a
tremendous crash, carrying away with them the numerous
statues of the Kings and Queens who have reigned in Eng-
land from the time of William the Conqueror. The shell
of the lofty tower still remains, but it is feared it will fall,
and should it come down in the direction of the houses op-
posite on Cornhill, the destruction of property will be fear-
ful. It is but right to state that every precaution has al-
ready been taken by the City authorities, and no one is
allowed to pass along Cornhill. At five o'clock the fire was
still raging, but all apprehension of danger to the surround-
ing buildings was at an end. The works of several engines
at this hour, were so contracted by the frost, that it was
impossible to work them. Crowds of persons are assem-
bled in all parts of the city, and nothing else is talked of
but the destruction of the Royal Exchange. The shops of
the news-agents and booksellers, and the offices of the
stock-brokers, are consumed.
Several accidents occurred during the fire, and one man,
who received very severe injuries by the falling a chimney
at the south-west angle of the building, was removed to the
hospital.

Serious as the loss of this noble building must be to our
merchants and citizens, and the nation at large, the serious
interruption the dreadful calamity must occasion to busi-
ness will be ten times more so. All the books and papers
connected with Lloyd's, the Royal Exchange Assurance,
and other mercantile companies, are, with few exceptions,
destroyed. The thoroughfare over Cornhill and Thread-
needle-street must necessarily be closed, and a great many
business transactions will be suspended. There is no cal-
culating the great inconvenience which must be the re-
sult of this great event as far as business it concerned, and
the merchants and traders will for a time be deprived of
their old meeting place. There is, however, too much
enter Prize and sterling liberality among the citizens and
the mercantile community to suffer the inconvenience to
exist long, and although the destruction of the Royal 'Ex-
change will ever be regretted, we hope that a new Ex-
change will he erected, more commodious than the last,
and with greater facilities for the transaction of business
than the last afforded. It is of course well known that
the Gresham Committee, named after the founder of
the building, Sir Thomas Gresham, are the trustees of the
property, and to them will the public look with the greatest
anxiety for the erection of a new Exchange, worthy of our
great metropolis and the nation at large.
It is rumoured among the crowd that the fire had been
in operation for a considrable time before any engine was
brought to the ground, which the intensity of the flames
and the almost irresistible fury with which they proceed in
their destructive course, would seem to corroborate. The
destruction of this building will, no doubt, produce a great
sensation, not only in the City, but throughout the king-
dom, associated as it is with so many recollections of the
commercial prosperity and greatness of the country. The
business of this City, the great emporium of the world,
will this day feel a check—the facility fur making com-
mercial appointments upon the general trade of the coun-
try is for the moment removed, and this will prove for once,
even in the busy commercial haunts of the City, a dies non.
The Lord Mayor and many gentlemen connected with
the Royal Exchange and the Gresham Committee were to
be observed in places of imminent danger directing the
operations of the firemen, many of whom exhibited great
and daring feats of intrepidity. Many surmises were afloat
among the assembled multitude as to the origin of the fire
and place it originated at. Some asserting that it emanated
from Lloyd's Subscription-room, and others at the Royal
Exchange Assurance-office ; but how, or by what means,
was a mystery, although it was rumoured that it was sup-
posed to be the work of an incendiary.
A lefty mast-like piece of timber that surmounted the
building known as the Grasshopper, the armorial bearng,
we believe, of the Founder, Sir Thomas Gresham, seemed
for a short time to avoid, or resist the flame, but that, with
the remaining portion of the roof, at length fell in, and it
was curious to mark the sudden increased outbreak of the
fire at the moment, as it arose as if in exulting triumph at
its success in destruction. The present is scarcely a time
to speculate on the loss to the public or individuals which
will accrue from this calamity. Without a more intimate
knowledge of the particulars than can at present be ob-
tained, it is impossible to conjecture what quantities of
valuable documents may have been destroyed.