The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-05 00:00:00

'1 r
SEPTEMBER 5, 1848. [
PRIGE SD.

Seventeen whole blocks, the pier, the Columbia-street
market, two bridges, and near one hundred boats, are
destroyed. Most of the boats were heavily laden.
We regret to learn that several lives have been lost.
Two men were drowned in the basin, near the foot of
Maiden-lane. They were floating on a raft, and in the
midst of the conflagration fell off and sunk. The owner
of the steam-boat William Seymour, Benjamin Wake-
man, is missing. A man named Hardely, an Irishman,
died from over exertion. A man named Johnson, and
several others, are missing.
Some 8,000 or 10,000 barrels of flour were burnt on the
pier. The loss of property in the basin was immense.
The loss is roughly estimated at two millions of dollars.
We fear our local insurance companies are overwhelmed.
The property on the pier was insured abroad. The
Swiftsure and Eckford Towboat lines lose tremendously.
Hundreds of our business men are utterly ruined. Four
buildings were blown up with powder.
At midnight the fire was burning in forty places, but
it is completely under control. There is no wind, and
the rain has ceased.
The Argus says:—No estimate of the value of pro-
perty is yet attainable. We hear of two forwarding
lines that estimate property under their charge to the
amount of 90,000 dolls., all consumed. Another line
suffers to an amount of from 60,000 dolls. to 80,000
dolls. The loss of flour afloat, and in store, is not less
than 10,000 barrels.

The area of the fire embracer, many acres, perhaps
fifty or sixty, of the most compact and valuable part of
the city. It includes at least twenty squares. Amidst
the ruics which everywhere meet the eye, it is difficult
to trace the outlines of the former state of things ;
but those familiar with the city will perceive the ex-
tent of this most calamitous visitation, by a few ge-
neralities.

Broadway, from the intersection of Herkimer, to the
south corner of Hudson-street, on the west side and to
Van *hawk's variety store, on thasuist side, near half
,a mile, is, with all its structures and stores;inclfifildrffib'
Eagle Tavern, the Townsend House, and the United
States Hotel, level with the earth.

From Broadway to the river, including the ranges of
lofty stores on Quay-street, throughout nearly the entire
space above mentioned, all is a heap of ruins.
All the cross streets entering Broadway, Herkimer,
Bleecker, Lydius, Hamilton, Division and Hudson, west
as far Union and Dailies-streets, are swept away. Amaz-
ing effort preserved Goold's great carriage and coach
establishment ; everything on the surrounding streets
being demolished.
North, the flying cinders, with which the air was
filled, caught the Columbia-street market, and of that
large structure nothing remains. The adjacent buildings
were saved by the prompt efforts of the two Schenectady
fire companies. But the scene of the most striking and
absolute desolation is the pier. Scarcely a vestige of it
remains. Throughout its entiro length, from Hamilton-
street to the cut opposite the Boston depot, it is utterly
consumed, including the wharves, warehouses, nearly all
the shipping in the basin, and outside the pier, tow-
boats, barges, canal boats, huge floating warehouse arks,
with all their valuable and vast contents of goods and
products, the three bridges at Columbia, State, and Ha-
milton-streets, lumber yards, flour stores, in short,
everything that floated or teemed with life and value in
that great mart yesterday morning.
The scene in State-street beggars all description.
Thousands, flying from the conflagration, pressed every
conceivable vehicle into their service, depositing goods,
furniture, families, children, everything animate
and inanimate. very point in that wide street,
—at the Exchange, at the City Bank, at
the corners of all the intersecting streets, in
front of St. Peter's Church, all along the Parks, and
finally at the State Hall and City Hall—were crowded
with bales, boxes, furniture, goods of every description,
&c. No point was deemed too remote from the de-
vouring element. The stores everywhere were closed,
or were only opened to the flying citizens and their
effects.

Two buildings were blown up, in the hope of arrest-
ing the progress of tho fire—one, belonging to Mr. J. I.
Boyd, in Broadway, and the other to Mr. John Knower,
corner of Hudson and Liberty streets, but with little
effect.

All the insurance companies suffer largely, if not ru-
inously.

Among the shipping destroyed was the schooner
Cotuit, of Boston, arrived yesterday morning, and the
schooner Eliza Matilda, also of Boston, seriously da-
maged. Some 20 vessels below the Basin were hastily
drawn out in the river and preserved. The Isaac New-
ton and :Rip Van Winkle steamers were ,also rescued
with much difficulty.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.
(From the Albany Journal, Aug. 18.)
Fire, though a good servant, is indeed a fearful mas-
ter. And fearfully did this mad element rage yester-
day. Our city is desolate! The ruin is appalling! The
spirit sinks and the heart sickens in contemplating such
frightful losses—such wide-spread ruin. Painful, most
painful, is the task of gathering up the afflicting details.
Most of the commercial portion of the city, with
fifteen or twenty densely populated squares, is a black
and smouldering ruin. From Herkimer-street, where
the fire broke out, to Columbia-street, where it was
arrested, in distance, is more than half a mile! And all
that work of destruction was accomplished in five hours.
There could, therefore, have been little time to snatch
property from the rapacious fames.
Amid all this suffereng, there is much cause for grati-
tude. When the conflagration was at its height—when
more than half the city was threatened, and when no
human arm could save, a kind Providence interposed
The wind suddenly changed from south to north-west,
and this change brought with it abundant and continued
rain. Fires that had extended to several buildings in
the vicinity of the burnt district, were providentially ex-
tinguished by the rain.
This great loss, superadded to the large sums swal-
lowed up during the winter and spring, by kindred ca-
lamities, has impaired the fortunes of wealthy people,
impoverished hundreds of the middling class, and utterly
ruined hundreds of poor hard-working families.
The fire ran over portions of the city that had been
laid waste by recent conflagrations, and upon which new
buildings had recently been finished. The Columbian
Hotel and Fort Orange are again demolished. Mr. S.
F. Shepard, who had erected new buildings and resumed
business, is again burnt out. We are happy to learn,
however, that he saved about two thousand dollars' worth
of goods.
The steam-boats Isaac Newton and Rip Van Winkle
were both on fire, but were got off into the river and pre-
served.
Eleven tow-boats, between forty and sixty canal boats,
one small steamboat, one schooner, and two floats, were
destroyed,
This disastrous fire originated in the stable of Mr.
Callaghan, which adjoins that of Mr. Johnson. It is
not known how it originated.
The ruins cover an area of 200 acres, every foot of
which was densely covered with buildings. There were
more buildings upon it than upon any other equal space
in the city. Four-fifths of the buildidgs burned were
brick, most of them large and substantial, and many of
them three or four stories in height.
Until five o'clock it was feared that the flames could
not be checked south of -State-street ; but about this
hour the wind changed to the north, and gave new hope
to those ready to despair.
But while this change of wind was of great service in
the heart of the town, it proved expensive to the pro.
perty on the south of Lydius-street, between Dallius
and Broadway, and Lydius and Herkimer. All the
property within these boundaries was destroyed after
the wind changed. No fears of its destruction were en-
tertained previously.
There have been several lives lost. Mr. Johnson,
wife, daughter, and grand-child, who lived next to the
Columbian, were horribly burned. The child and Mr.
J. are dead; the others -are not expected to recover.
We have rumours of other deaths ; but cannot trace
them. •

The firemen did as well as they could; but it seemed
impotent to attempt anything against the fury of the
flames; no human power could stay them. Our neigh-
bours from Greenbush, West Troy, and Troy, came to
the assistance of our firemen, and did efficient service.
At one o'clock, A.m., the wooden buildings on fire in
Union-street looked threatening, and the alarm was
sounded. At this moment the Cohoes Engine Company
came into the city, having left their village at nine
o'clock—dragging their engine all the way by hand.
They at once proceeded to the place of alarm, and by
their timely aid the fire was checked.
When it was ascertained that the engines were unable
to cope with the flames, it was determined to blow up
some buildings in liudson-street, and Broadway. Capt.
Stone, of the Ordnance Department, and now stationed
at the Arsenal, volunteered his services, and three build-
ings were blown up, and the flames thus kept on the
south side of lludson-street.

Not more than four or five buildings are left standing
between Herkimer and Hamilton and Union streets and
the river. The desolation is complete. Mr. Akin's
buildings, south of Herkimer-street and near Pallius•
street, are badly scorched ; but nothing was burned
south of that line.

scene on the placid and tranquil water still more
sublime than on land. The shrill cries of the respec-
tive commanders of the menaced vessels, the long*,
continuous, and savage bowls of the mariners and
sailors, in their endeavour to draw their crafts from
the theatre of the conflagration, all tended to impress
the spectator with the grandeur of the dreadful cala-
mity that had befallen the city of Constantinople.
Towards nine o'clock the fire had spread out in an
awful manner. In one direction it was travelling at
a rapid rate towards the Calmoumjilar, in another
towards the Uzun Charski, whilst on the other it
was raging at the Olun Kapoussi. Notwithstand-
ing great efforts were made to prevent its spread-
ing towards the hill, which gradually rises until it
reaches the crest, on which stands the Mosque of
Suleymanieh, and close to that the palaces of several
vizirs, the Sheik-ul Islam Kappoussi (Porte of the
Ulemas), and other extensive public and private
buildings, with their hanging gardens and kiosks, it
was all of no avail. The houses were destroyed one
after the other. The flames rushed up the walls, and
stood like pyramids of fire in the air. At length, at
about eleven o'clock, the pinnacle of one of the
minarets of Suleymanieh, on the extreme height, and
fully one mile from the scene of destruction,
caught fire. A singular spectacle indeed it was, to
see this airy meteor burning and blazing away,
whilst the flames in a vast body kept beating like
waves against the angle of the Sheik-ul Islam's
palace, after having destroyed, in rapid succession,
all the intervening buildings. At about midnight
it had reached Baluk Bazaar, in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of the new bridge, and
great anxiety was entertained respecting the Drug
Bazaar, which isA splendid building, well known to
toprists who viairthis city.- In the opposite direction.
it had reached tlie—Skemilgelar, Old -was pinceiiieting'
at a rapid rate towards the Oun Kapan. The efforts
made by the Turks to extinguish the fire were useless;
they everywhere ceased, and were mostly employed
in pulling down buildings. With the poor inhabi-
tants it was a general sauve qui peut ; indeed, many
were so surrounded by the flames as to be unable to
escape, and were burned to death. Near Oun
Kapan a dreadful destruction of life occurred, and
it is said that upwards of twenty persons have
! perished. At two o'clock in the morning the
fire had sensibly abated in its violence for want
of fuel to aliment it, and at about half-past three
no more danger was anticipated. The fire has
consumed, according to a detailed estimate, about
2,500 shops and 500 houses ; about 40 of the latter
were splendid palaces belonging to the Sheik-ul-
Islam, Moustapha Pasha, Said Pasha, Irret Pasha,
Hassan Pasha, and others. The general loss is
calculated at averaging from 2,000,0001. to 4,000,000/.
sterling, but some have carried it to 5,000,0001. We
should state it at, approximately, about 2,500,000,
To account for this great loss, it must be care
fully understood that vast depositaries of merchan
dise were kept there, besides whole bazaars of oil

fruit, wax, rice, spices, tallow, coffee, sponges, &c.,
as well as the establishments of the knife-grinders,
wholesale grocers, nut sellers, &c. In addition to
these must be noted nineteen khans, seven mosques,
four baths, two public granaries, 15,000 barrels of
rice belonging to the Pasha of gypt, a Government
steam mill and seventeen vessels, and among the rest
an Austrian and Russian vessel, &c. This fire ex-
ceeds that of Pera, two months back, not only in the
extent, but in the value of the objects destroyed.
Here people are positively ruined, as their all was
there. A fearful night of havoc indeed it was. The
Sultan went incognito to the scene of destruction,
and subsequently took up his position in a steamer in
the arsenal.

The alarm guns have just been fired, and it is said
that a serious conflagration has broken out at Kara-
gutaaruk, towards the Seven Towers.

RAILWAY ACCIDENT.
An accident of a very serious character occurred
on Saturday night, near the Newton-road Station on
the northern division of the London and North-
Western Railway. In consequence of the express
train fr-e Liverpool being twenty minutes behind its
time verhampton it left that town at a more
tha rapid speed. The train consisted of the
"Co !mu, which is one of great power, a
tender, arriages, and a luggage van. The rate
at which i proceeded created a tremor and oscillation
in the carriages so great, that the passengers with
difficulty were able to keep their seats, and ulti-
mately, about three hundred yards south of New-
ton-bridge, the engine ran off the rails, and dashed
against the embankment. The carriages, by the
concussion, were turned almost completely over, some
of them being prevented falling to the ground by the
telegraph and other posts. The luggage van was
thrown completely on to the down line of rails. The
engine embedded itself three feet deep in the embank-
ment It would be difficult to describe the scene
which immediately followed. It is stated that in the
centre compartment of one of the carriages there was
a party of five gentlemen, who were pitched against
each other in the greatest consternation. They tried
in vain to lower the windows, and it was not until a
Mr. Smith, a whip-maker, commenced demolishing
them, that he and his companions extricated them-
selves from the carriages. Mr. Shuard, an architect
residing at Paddington, and who, with two ladies,
occupied one of the compartments of a carriage, nar•
rowly escaped death, and is much injured.
When the confusion had somewhat subsided, and as-
sistance had arrived, Mr. Shuard was found lying under
one of the carriages, so completely wedged in between
the broken pieces that it was found impossible to ex-
tricate him until the carriage was raised.
Shortly after the express engine ran off the line, a
pilot engine, which had been sent from Birmingham
to ascertain the cause of delay of the express, made
its appearance on the down line, and the driver, not
being aware of the accident, absolutely cut through
the luggage van, which lay on the line, and having
run along the earth upwards of 100 yards, fell into a
ditch. Had the carriages in the express train, like the
luggage van, been thrown on the down line, the loss
of life must have been frightful. Joyce, the driver of
the Pilot, and Johnson, the stoker, were injured, and
removed to their homes. The driver and stoker of
the Colonel were also thrown from their engine, but
were not seriously hurt.
So soon, as the accident .became known in the
neighbourhood, prompt assistance was rendered by
the inhabitants. Messrs. Dickenson and Aber-
crombie, surgeons of Westbromwich, were indefati-
gable in their attentions, and the Earl of Dartmouth,
who resides at Sandwell Hall, in the vicinity of,
Newton-bridge, on being informed of the accident,
dispatched a team of horses to assist in removing the
engine and carriages. A train from Walsall having
arrived, the passengers were conveyed to Birming-
ham. Mr. Shuard and Captain Beard, of Stirling,
who it appeared had also been severely shaken,
were conveyed to the Queen's Hotel. Mr. Robinson,
the station-master, was unremitting in his attention
to the sufferers. It was found, upon examination,
that Mr. Shuard's left leg was broken in two places,
and that he ;was suffering from internal injuries.
None of the other passengers sustained any serious
injuries, although as a matter of course considerably
frightened. The rails where the accident occurred
are said to have been much damaged and broken up.

FATAL FALL IN TIIE STREET.—YesteTday, Mr.
Baker held an inquest at the London Hospital, on view
of the body of Anne Collins, aged SR, a maiden lady of
independent fortune, whose death was occasioned by a
fall under the following distressing circumstances.—lt
appeared that the deceased, on the 25th ult., was walking
under the archway of the Eastern Counties Railway, in
Globe-lane, when she slipped off, and fell in the road,
which had been lowered for the purpose of allowing a
thoroughfare for vehicles under the railway. She was
assisted up and conveyed to her home, No. 242, White-
chapel-road, when her right leg was found fractured.
She was instantly removed to the London Hospital,
where the leg was amputated. She there gradually
sank and died on Friday last. It was stated in the
course of the inquiry, that there ought to be a railing
by the side of the footpath for the protection of the pas-
sengers. Verdict, " Accidental Death," and the jury
recommended that a railing should be erected along the
footpath, by the directors of the Eastern Counties
Railway, and that the Coroner should write to the
secretary.
SAGACITY or A SrANlEL.—Yesterday an inquest
was taken by---Mr. Baker, at the London Hospital, on
view of the body of Eliza Sergeant, aged six years,
whose death was caused from injuries by fire. It ap-
peared that the deceased was left, last Thursday week,
in a room on the ground floor at No. 1, Ashton-place,
Poplar, with two younger children, by their mother, who
had gone out to pledge an article for the purpose of buy-
ing some bread. Upon hearing the screams of the chil-
dren, a little dog jumped through a pane of glass into
the room ; and on their mother's return, which was in a
few minutes, she saw the faithful animal tearing away
the deceased's clothes with his mouth and paws. Upon
his seeing the mother, he went up to her and laid hold
of her gown, to draw her towards the child. She suc-
ceeded in extinguishing the fire, and the deceased was
removed to the London Hospital, where she died
Friday last from the effect of the injuries. Verdict,on
accidental death.

A FACT FOR ANGLERS.—One day last week, Mr.
Thomas Massieks, of Greenodd, Lonsdale, captured a
very fine fluke with an artificial fly, whilst angling in the
channel for worts and sprods. Some of the most expert
anglers in this neighbourhood state this capture to be the
first instance of the kind which has come to their know-
leclge,-11.ential Mercury.