The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-11 00:00:00

THE GREAT FIRE IN QUEBEC.

About one o'clock in the morning of May 24 the alarm
sounded from the box in the vicinity of St. Roch's Church,
which called the fire brigade promptly to the spot. Before
the water could be obtained the flames, fanned by a strong
easterly wind, had communicated to a number of houses
in. Crown and Queen streets, and it became evident that
no effort could save St. Roch's from a conflagration
equal to those of 1845 and 1865. The people in the
vicinity commenced moving their furniture, &c., to places
of safety. The sight in some cases was most appalling.
Women with barely a stitch of clothing were met at every
turn, most of them carrying their children, and rushing
about in a wild and insane-like manner. As the wind
rose the flames gathered strength and intensity, leaping
from one building to another, sweeping before them
everything of a combustible nature. The wind blowing at
the time from the east directed the tendency of the flames
toward the Marine and General Hospitals, running
through Queen and King streets, down as low as Prince
Edward-street, which is near on a line with the water's
edge, and at the time our reporter left, half-past three a.m.,
fears were entertained of the burning of the Marine
Hospital. In an upward direction the fire had
gained as far as Jacques Quartier Hall, and St. Francis-
street, and in this direction carried everything be-
fore it, up the street known as old Bridge-street. The
projecting eaves of the hall caught fire in several places,
but owing to their height a sufficiently strong pressure of
water could not be obtained to reach the spot where the
fire had caught. Ladders were spliced and hose raised,
but not before a great deal of time had been lost. When
we left this section the water was playing, and there re-
mained a probability of saving the building. At Old
Bridge-street, which runs from Vallier-street to the river
St. Charles, a number of citizens, directed by priests, set
to work to tear down all' the fencing, galleries, railings,
and small buildings that could be disposed of by hand.
The fire continued to sweep along with terrible force
through King and Queen-streets, where there were over
fifty houses burning at one time. It is clearly established
that the principal cause of the calamity is the failure of
the municipal authorities to carry out the law relating to
the construction of wooden buildings. The moment the
fire commenced to gain headway it would exceed super-
human efforts to control or check it. The street in some
places exhibited an awful appearance. A perfect whirl-
wind of fire might be seen in every direction, there being
no efficient obstacle to offer as a barrier to the progress of
the flames. Rain began to fall about half-past four. The
military were sent down about the same time, and the
fire was at last checked. It is estimated that five hundred
buildings are destroyed. Loss, half a million. Baldwin's
large wooden building, in which two large vessels were
under construction' is burned, but the fire was prevented
from spreading to adjoining yards.

THE GREATEST OF ALL FUTURE
POSSIBILITIES.

•
The sun is beginning to be an object of great anxiety to
many scientific men. Spots on that orb are not at all
uncommon, as may be ascertained by anyone who will
take the trouble to look at it through a bit of smoked
glass. But these phenomena have of late assumed an
appearance which astonishes astronomers, and is calcu-
lated to alarm that class which fancies it can detect por-
tents of the future in the heavens. There are great gulfs
now to be seen in she sun, each much larger than this
earth which we think of so much consequence in the uni
verse. They increase at a prodigious rate, and sometimes
seem destined to work a convulsion similar to that which
has undoubtedly overtaken other solar systems. Suns
as vast as that which lights and warms this
world have been shattered to pieces or die.
appeared, and only the philosopher in his
roving glance over the sky has detected the
change. The inhabitants of other planets would not
notice the disappearance of the planet we inhabit, any
more than we can see a speck of sand carried off by- the
wind on the sea-shore. It is not a mere theory, but an
ascertained fact, that the sun is always in a highly fluid
condition—as one recent writer describes it, "a hurricane
of flame, the disturbances of which might, perhaps, be
best represented to our imaginations by the occasional
explosion of a planet or two of nitro-glycerine." It is,
moreover, subject to "magnetic storms," produced, as
many suppose, by the movements of the planets around
it. The great disturbance which is now going on was pre-
dicted months ago by scientific men. That we are much
more concerned in the event than many people suppose is
quite certain. Self-registering magnetic instruments
have revealed the fact that whenever a spot breaks
out on the sun, the earth thrills under a mysterious mag
netic influence. In one case, a few years ago; it is upon
record that telegraphic machinery was set on fire, and the
" pen of Bain's telegraph was followed by a flame," at
the very instant a sudden burst of light shewed itself in
the sun. "In the telegraph stations at Washington and
Philadelphia the signal men received strong electric
shocks." In fact, the electric condition of the earth was
changed, though by what precise agency none can fully
explain. We are at onse lost in a region of conjecture,
and can only feel that the fate which was foretold of old
for the earth may at any moment overtake it. The
forces are all in existence by which, in the solemn lan-
guage of Holy Writ, the " heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat ' • the earth also, and the works that are therein,
shall be burned up." Once in every eleven years the sun
exhibits the stupendous phenomena which are
at present engaging the attention of philosophers.
In the year 1859 " chasms and abysses," simi-
lar to those which are now reported, were
seen by many observers. Their recurrence was predicted
for 1870. Great disturbances in the world have usually
accompanied these outbreaks, though why it should so
happen is another of the unfathomable mysteries of the
universe. In 1848 there were magnetic storms, and we
had the French revolution. Again in 1859 they occurred,
and we saw wars and rumours of wars in Europe. The
electrical condition of the atmosphere is thought to exert
a greater influence upon the minds of men and nations
than many are willing to believe, or than any one is able
to explain. The telegraphs denote the changed condition
of the earth, but they cannot indicate the extent of the
change. In the language of the astronomer whose de-
scription of the sun we have just quoted, "the pens of
our telegraphic wires may some day trace in flame a hand-
writing more ominous of human destiny than was the
handwriting which, during Belshazzar's feast traced a
warning on the wall of:the fall of the Babylonian dynasty."
—New York Times.