The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-17 00:00:00

cence, and the piety of our remote ancestors, the
mausoleum of a hundred Kings, and of such of their
subjects as in successive generations have been
most distinguished for valour, for genius, and for
virtue—Westminster Abbey. The intense anxiety
may be conceived, but can scarcely be described, which
pervaded all classes of the population of London during
the protracted period in which it was yet uncertain how
far the ravages of the devouring element might extend,
or how many of the architectural objects it might
grasp in its destructive embrace which the nation prizes
highly for their material grandeur, and prizes still more
highly for the proud associations with which history
and imagination have united to connect them. The
calamity, serious as it is, has yet, we are happy to an-
nounce, fallen far short of the gloomy apprehensions
which at one period of the evening were very generally
entertained, and which, as invariably occurs on such
Occasions, made the strongest impression upon the
minds of those who were the most distant from the aw-
ful scene. The two Houses of Parliament are totally
destroyed. The Speoker's house is destroyed also.
Westminster Hall has sustained great • but not
-irreparable damage. We rejoice to say, however, that
-the Parliamentary Offices have sustained but little
injury ; that the important papers and documents con-_
tamed in the Libraries of the two Houses of Parlia-
ment and in that of the Speaker have been rescued
from the flames ; and we add. with peculiar satisfaction
—a feeling in which the public, who regard that Right
Hon. Gentleman with affectionate veneration, will
sympathise most sincerely—that the valuable private
property contained in the house of the Speaker of the
House of Commons was, with some, not, we believe,
very considerable, exceptions, conveyed to a place of
security before the fire had reached that edifice. We
refer to another part of our paper for the most ample
and authentic details we have been able to col-

lect of the awful conflagration. While we write
fresh accounts are pouring in upon us, and from
the confusion incident to a calamity of this de-

cription, many of them may probably turn out to
be more or less inaccurate in their details,; but we have

reason to fear that the loss of human life is to be
added, as the highest aggravation of a catastrophe
which on so many accounts is deeply to be deplored.
We are reluctant to attach credit to the many rumours
we have heard of circumstances which seem to lead
to the revolting conclusion, that this appalling scene of
destruction has been the work of incendiaries : and, in
the difficulty of imagining any motive to an act of such
atrocious wickedness, we still cling to the hope that
these circumstances may have been misconceived and
misdescribed in the anxiety to collect information,
and the hurry in which it must of necessity have
been recorded. The most searching investigation,
there can be no doubt, will be instituted imme-
dictely into the origin and progress of the conflagra-
tion, and we shall rejoice to find at the termination
of, such necessary inquiry, that the calamity cannot
be traced to any other than an accidental cause.
When the fire first broke out the tide in the
river was low, and for two hours the supply of water
seems to have been lamentably inadequate to the occa-
sion. This implies a want of management, of vigi-
lance, or of energy on the part of the Water Compa-
nies, whose duty it is to be always ready to meet an
emergency of this kind, in whatever part of the metro-
polis it may occur, which demands, and will probably
produce, an effectual interposition of the Legislature.
If there is not there ought to be an express compact
between the public and the Companies, which obtain
considerable gains by supplying our houses with water
for the purposes of domestic convenience, to the full
effect that the important element, of which these Com-
panies monopolize the conduits, shall be accessible
instantly and in unstinted abundance whenever it is
required as a means of rescuing the public edifices of
the metropolis, and the lives and property of its inha-
bitants from the flames.—Morning Post. •
All topics of ordinary, however extensive interest,
must yield for the present to one which has within a
few hours been brought home to the senses of the
people of this metropolis--namely, the total destruc.
tion by fire of that vast pile of building which but
yesterday forenoon contained the two Houses of Par-
liament, with all their appendages, whether of ancient
or modern date. Such narratives of this calamitous
and awful conflagration as have been furnished by per-
sons who witnessed its progress on the spot, will be
found in the form and succession in which they reached
us. On like occasions it is difficult to answer for the
correctness or consistency of the several accounts which
may be circulated, some time being necessary to ar-
rive at authentic details ; but for the amount of the
mischief, whatever may have been the cause, we
fear there is no doubt of its extending nearly to the
entire ruin of the whole range of public edifices re-
ferred to. The country will have reason, all things
considered, to be thankful that Westminster Hall, the
scene, the witness, we had almost said the living asso-
ciate, of so many of the most ancient and noble pas-
sages in English history, has escaped this deplorable
visitation. For the Houses of Parliament, their ruin
through such agency will, of course, be felt as an af-
flicting accident by all Englishmen who appreciate
them according to the high political and national
ends to which they have through many ages, with
more or less of useful ministration, been made tribu-
tary : but they rank not among the finer specimens
of art, nor are identified, as are the Hall and the
Abbey of Westminster, almost as much with the ma-
' terial frame of England, as with her historical and
moral grandeur. The fire, though sensibly enfeebled
when we went to press, was still burning, and it
will, perhaps be days before a satisfactory assurance
can be given of its final and complete extinction. The
conduct of the immense, the countless multitudes,
which in the course of the evening flocked together to
'view this spectacle of terrible beauty, was such as to
inspire respect. Composed as it was necessarily of
all classes, we did not observe in more than one or two
instances any expression of levity, and not one of exul-
tation, at the destruction of these venerable edifices :
the general feeling seemed to be that of sorrow, mani-
fested either by thoughtful silence, or by occasional ex-
clamations of regret. The admiration at the sublimity
of
.the scene, which seemed to impress every mind,
was subdued by the pain at losing these noble memo-
rials of the wisdom and greatness of by-gone ages.
On common occasions of general concourse the English
are sufficiently noisy in the demonstration of their
feelings ; but on this occasion all was grave, decorous,
and becoming a thinking and manly population. Apart
from the mournful associations necessarily springing
from this dreadful conflagration, we may be allowed
to utter a wish that the restoration of the dilapidated
parts may be made in a style harmonizing with the
original building, instead of exhibiting a heterogenous
mass of architectural erections, in which taste, chro-
nology, and convenience, were equally set at nought.--..
Times.

' INDICTMENT AGAINST THE SHERIFFS OF CHES-
TER.—The Cheshire Quarter Sessions commenced at Knuts-
ford on Monday. A " true bill" was found by the Grand Jury
against the Sheriffs of the City of Chester for a misdemeanour,
in refusing to take upon themselves the execution of Garside
and Mosley, the two men under sentence of death in Chester
Castle, for the murder of the late Mr. Ashton. A similar bill
presented against the High Sheriff of the county was thrown
out. The indictment will be removed by certiorari into the
Court of King's Bench, and thus the question of liability rill
be brought under discussion before the only tribunal competent
to decide upon it.—Manchester Courier.
PUNISHMENT FOR SMOKING IN THE STREETS.—
Burnes, in his " Travels in Central Asia," in his description
of Bokhara, a large city, states—" You may openly purchase
tobacco, and all the most approved apparatus for inhaling it ;
yet, if seen smoking in public, you are straightway dragged
before the Casee, punished by stripes, or paraded on a donkey,
with a blackened face, as a warning to others."—This is a
good hint to Europeans ; for the prevalence of smoking in the
streets of our towns is a great nuisance. Mathews, in his a.-
cent budget, has a hit at the common practice, and says—
" The dandies darken London by smoking cigars in the streets."
A letter from Frankfort of the Bth instant, states
tht a criminal, sentenced to death for murder, and confined
in one of the prisons of Munich, had contrived a singular kind
of occupation to charm the ennui of his captivity. He has
made, with the soft of bread, and a sort of macaroni called
nouille, very common in Bavaria, several personages for a
scene in which he acts the' principal part. He has repre-
sented_ the moment when the- executioner, after taking off his
head, presents it to the spectators. A Franciscan Friar i
seen kneeling on the scaffold, and praying to heaven in his be-
half, and near him stands an invalid soldier with a wooden leg,
selling the sentence of the Court. Surely it is impossible for
any man to view with more indifference the fate that awaits
him !