The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-27 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

In money and exchange there was nothing
doing. Stocks were buoyant. New York Central,
877-, ; Erie, 281 ; Illinois, 86.
Sales of cotton, 1,500 bales, at stiff.prices.
Flour was in improved demand—sales, 20,000
barrels. Wheat active.
Pork firm. Sugar and coffee steady.
Freights active, and higher.
NEW ORLEANS, AUG. 15.
The cotton•market is steady. Middling, 10ic.
to 10Ic.

QUEENSTOWN, AUG. 26.

The Royal Mail steamship America arrived here
at 4.30 p.m., embarked mails and passengers, and
proceeded at 5.20 p.m. for Halifax and Boston.
All well.

The alliance between Holland and Belgium seems
to be growing very friendly. The Prince and Princess
Frederick of the Netherlands are going to visit the King
of the Belgians at Brussels, for which occasion great pre-
parations and alterations are being made at the Palace.—
Court Journal.

IMAM OF MR. JESSE HARTLEY.—N r. Jesse
Hartley, the engineer of the Liverpool Docks, died at his
house, Derby -road, Bootle, yesterday morning. In the
death of Mr. Hartley the Liverpool public has lost one of
its most distinguished men. The deceased, who was up-
wards of 80 years of age, was a native of the North Riding
of Yorkshire, in which district of that extensive county
his father held the position of bridge-master, and his son, the
subject of the present remarks, after receiving an ordinary
education, served his apprenticeship as a stonemason, and
worked at the building of Borough-bridge. Subsequently he
succeeded his father as bridge-master in the district named,
until his removal to Liverpool, on receiving the appointment
of engineer to the Dock Committee. As a dock engineer,
INIr. Jsse Hartley is admitted to have occupied a very high,
if not, indeed, the highest position of any man who has
lived within the present century. Possessing great na-
tural sagacity and imbued with an innate perception
of the leading features of constructive design, he speedily
acquired a profound as well: as extensive knowledge
of the requirements of that branch of science to which
he devoted himself, and in the design and construction
of the numerous docks of Liverpool ho has left monu-
ments of his skill as an engineer which will endure at
least as long as the fame and commercial prosperity of the
port. During the long period in which he held. the re-
sponsible office of dock engineer in Liverpool, )Ir. Hartley
altered, or entirely constructed every dock belonging
to the town. Besides these, he was employed as engineer
for the Bolton and Manchester railway and canal, and
he was also consulting engineer for the Dee Bridge at Ches-
ter, the centering for which was considered a triumph of
engineering skill and ability, and on all subjects connected
with the construction of docks his opinion was considered
by his professional brethren as of the highest authority.

LITERATURE.

Night and Day. A Novel. By the Hon. Charles
Stuart Saville. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
This is a most exciting story, which is very well
written, and which can hardly fail to attract at-
tention from its peculiar style and earnest spirit.
The hero is a
,very clever man, and though his
extraordinary adventures are certainly not pro-
bable, they are Yet not impossible. Considering
the time when the events of the tale are supposed
to have occurred, it' might have been feasible for a
man of such unbounded resources in skill and such
energy of mind to have carried out for a time the
daring endeavour. Of course it could not last,
for all such plans contain in their very fruition the
sure signs of decay. It was impossible that the
originator of such schemes should not have made
many enemies ; and even the smallest and meanest
of these will one day prove too many for the proud
and mighty. Gaspard Duval is one of those re-
markable men who have been met with occasionally
in various phases of life. In the most favourable
circumstances, the feeling that would dare all
things and defy all men to obtain its object, creates
a hero ; in the unfavourable view, it makes a vil-
lain. Had Gaspard early in life been removed from
evil associates, and divested of the gnawing idea
that wrong was done to his family, and been placed
in the army, or somewhere where his restless
mind could have had safe vent, his after
career would have been very different. As it was
everthing pandered to his besetting sin. Had Gas-
pard been of high principle he would have risen
above the temptation, but being made of meaner
stuff he succumbed at once, and sought out oppor-
tunities of sinning so that he might rise. Coraline,
in a manner, deserved her sufferings for rushing off
with a man of whose character she knew nothing.
One feels great pity for the poor old father, whose
every hope was blighted, and whom subsequent
events only plunged deeper in misery. The three
confederates, to whose able assistance and singular
dexterity Gaspard owed much of his success, are
most skilfully sketched, and their portraitures are
among the best in the book. There are many per-
sons in the story who are amusingly described; the
family of the Duke of Cerny Plessis —is an
animated picture of the ancienne noblesse of France.
The way in which Mademoiselle Hermanegarde
was taken in by the soi-disant cheva-
lier, who was no other than Frisset dressed
up for the occasion, is entertaining. In accordance
with the plans of these worthy men, the real Cheva-
lier had been waylaid by Frisset on his"arrival in
France, and led into a duel. The crowning feat of
Gaspard's ambitious life had been to represent him-
self as the Count of St. Real, who had actually died
on board his pirate ship. He possessed himself of
the papers, &c., of the young nobleman, and as the
latter had never been seen in France, he easily
passed himself off as the Count. In consequence of
his high position he obtained the office of Lieu-
tenant of Police, and in that character, of course,
he had ample opportunity to effect his purposes.
The story is well conceived in its varied and ex-
citing points of interest. The manner in which
Gaspard is at last circumvented is not so well
arranged as might be ; it would have been much
better to have managed it otherwise, but the
design of the author was evidently to
,work
out the vengeance by the hands of her
whom Gaspard had so cruelly used. In
this he has certainly succeeded, and it must
have been a fearful i etribution for the guilty man
to find his victim coming back from the grave to
confront him. Those who wish for a romantic
story that is very exciting in many of its passages
will be delighted with this one, for it presents in
one of its momentous chapters more stirring details
and spirited sketches than often occur in the whole
length of other novels. In vivid illustration,
vigorous description, and varied sketches " Night
and Day" is as striking and successful a romance
as one could wish to find, and there is no reason to
doubt that it will be regarded otherwise than as a
brilliant picture of an eventful career,which is traced
with skill and finished with an admirable aptitude.
Gaspard Duval is a hero who can equally adorn a
tale and point a moral, both which results are ob-
tained in these volumes.

EXTENSIVE FIRE IN LONG-ACRE.

DESTRUCTION OF ST. MARTIN'S HALL.

The most extensive fire that has occurred in the
metropolis during the present year broke out yes-
terday (Sunday) morning, about four o'clock, and
was not extinguished until last evening. The pro-
perty destroyed by this disastrous event must be
enormous, involving as it has the extensive pre-
mises belonging to Messrs. Kesterton, harness-
makers and coach-builders to the Queen, the splen-
did modern structure known as St. Martin's Music
and Lecture Hall, as well as damaging many other
houses.

The premises in which the misfortune commenced
were those belonging to the Messrs. Kesterton.
They were situated in Long-acre, but extended some
distance down Hanover-street. This factory was
probably the largest in the neighbourhood. It was
built in the form of an amphitheatre, and con-
tained several galleries for show-rooms and manu-
facturing purposes. Amongst the latter were the
harness-makers' workshops, the wheelwright and
carriage-builders' shops, the smiths' depots, the fit-
ting-houses, the lining compartments, the painting
and varnish rooms, &c., whilst the ground-floor was
used as the general store, and was filled with car-
riages, broughams, and chariots.
Adjoining this property was St, Martin's Hall,
and a number of shops in Long-acre, and the housps
on the opposite side of Hanover-street, were so
near that they were several times on fire, and at
one period their destruction appeared certain.
From a cursory inspection of St. Martin's
Hall, it appeared to be about 180 feet long by
90 feet wide ; and, taking the coach factory in, the
whole must have stretched, in one direction alone,
over 250 feet.

From careful inquiries made during the progress
of the fire, it appears that three police-constables of
the F division were on duty in the neighbourhood,
when they had their attention directed by a female
to a mass of smoke issuing from one of the upper
windows on the northern side. This convinced
them that the place was on fire, and without a
moment's delay they sprang their rattles, and after
great trouble, succeeded in arousing Mrs. Hullah.
who was sleeping in the private house attached to
the Hall, and also the inmates of several of the con-
tiguous houses, who all fortunately succeeded in
getting safely out of their habitations. In less than
a quarter of an hour after the smoke was first seen
flames in great bodies rushed from various windows
on the fourth floor, if such it can be termed, for
each floor was subdivided into various compart-
ments, some running past a loop-hole over what
was considered a fire-proof floor, to the distance of
nearly 100 feet in height. Unfortunately the so-
called fire-proof department proved a failure, but
not so on the former occasion, about nine years ago,
when the lower floor was saved, the extensive con-
flagration having spent itself on the upper stories.
How it was that this part of the premises was not
able to withstand the fury of the conflagration will
no doubt be ascertained when the official inquiry
takes place. In the course of a few minutes the
engines of the brewery of Messrs. Harvey, Coombe,
and Co. attended, as well as sundry engines of the
London fire establishment from the City, West-end,
and Surrey side stations. These were under the com-
mand of Mr. Braidwood, the superintendent, Mr.
Fogo, the chief officer of the B district, and engi-
neers Flynn, Paul Gerrard, Wilkinson, Holloway,
Perryer, and Jos. Gerrard, who had charge of the
greatest fire-extinguishing apparatus on land, viz.,
the steam-engine invented and made by Messrs.
Shand and Mason, of the Blackfriars-road: The
execution this engine did can scarcely be described;
one thing is certain, if it had not been present and
actively employed many thousand pounds worth of
property would have been consumed more than un-
fortunately has been laid in ruins.
Upon the arrival of the firemen with the engines
they beheld a sight that it would be difficult to at-
tempt accurately to describe. We may, however,
just state that the flames were rolling out of the
whole of the upper windows of Messrs. Kesterton's
carriage factory, and were attacking with full
vigour the houses in Hanover-street and Wilson-
street. The wind at the same time coming from the
west, was draughting the flames over the roof of St.
Martin's Hall, as well as over the premises belong-
ing to Mr. Hall, Mr. Boleno, the celebrated clown
of Drury-lane Theatre, and Mr. D. Dale, 89, Long-
acre, Mr. Gidding, tobacconist, and the George and
Dragon Tavern, the property of Mr. Pringle. The
scene then became of such an alarming character
that men and women living near were to be se.en
rushing about the streets almost naked, carrying
with them their children, or any pirtable article
furniture they could lay their handsstro upon-
o n body f
etain De ur
These officers
koinnan under
n
combe.
police of the F, E, and C divisions
the direction of Mr. Su perein ttnen den
i
spectors M 'Kenzie and B
rra
leading to
took immediate possession of the roads
the scene of conflagration, as well as guarding the
property of the neighbours taken out of their
theflo or fire
s—
dwellings. The last-named inspector, with a
number of his men, managed
was raging in the different w
upperwhilstt
to pull out of the ground-floor thirty-five expen-
sively-built carriages. The greater part of these
were wheeled into Bow-street, but Mr. Durkin
finding that the number completely choked up
the street, and would thereby prevent the engine,
fiorn the south or east ends to pass along, very,