The Sun.
London, England, 1819-06-28 00:00:00

DES.TRUCTIVE FIRE.

Saturday about one o'clock, a fire broke out in
the printing-office of Mr.
,Messrs. Bestsuly and
SON, Bolt-court; Fleet-street. It happenel to he
the annual festival of the workmen, so that none
of them were on the premises. The flames were
discovered by a female servant, who communicat-
ed the circumstance to Mr. Beasley, junior, who
was in the counting-house. • Before the arrival •of
any of the fire-engines the names had matte rapid
progress, and bad communicated to a very large
stock of paper, a coasiderable part of which was on
lines hanging to dry. Hy 2 o'clock, the whole range
of printing-offices were in a blaze,,and threatened
destruction to a very close and crowded neighbour-
hood. By three o'clock, or very shortly after, not
a vestige of those once extensive premises re-
mained, except the party-walls and the basemey,
floor. The Very extensive-printing..nnoerials of
this establishment were entirely consumed. The
fire then communicated to the dwelling-house.oc-
cupied by Mr. Beasley, sen. which lay to tit:: -swath
of the printing-office, the back part of which,
and the roof and upper rooms, were destroyed.—
A considerable part of the furniture is burnt,
and the remainder much damaged. The flames
next caught the counting-house of the con-
cern, which lay to the left of the dwelling-house,
and it was entirely destroyed: In a northerly di-
rection, the fire extended to the back part of the
houses in Gough-square, occupied by Messrs.
Smith and Co., Messrs. Bun and Co. (both
furriers), and -another. large house occupied
by Mrs. Salmon as a Ladies' School ;. the lat-
ter was entirely destroyed, and the former very
much -damaged. Towards the west the fire did
also considerable damage. Wis are bappv, how.
ever, to state, that no lives were tort. The
western wall of the printing-office fel in with
a tremendous crash about. nine o'clock. 'rho
engines continued to a late hour to play upon the
ruins. Alderman Wood, very soon after the
breaking out of the fire, was upon the spot, and
with 'his well-known-activity, laboured to render
every advice and assistance in his power. The
value of the property destroyed on Mr. Hens-
ley's premises is estimated at 80,0001., and he is
r4orted to be insured at about 30,0001. The
whole loss sustained by all the parties, it is
thought, will amount to about 130,0001. Mr.
Hensley, who is, a printer of great eminence, was
among the first to apply the power of the steam
engine to the printing press ; and it was reported
that the conflagiation 'was occasioned by the fire
used for the -steam engine employed to drive two
of the newly-invented printing machines. This
report is not correct, for the machine used for
printing by steam was erected in the centre of the
garden, behind the house, and was not injured
except. by the falling of the walls on the building,
but to what extent cannot at present be ascer-
tained. The fire, we understand, originated in
the bot-pressing-room.-,—(Moraing Paper)

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

BOW-STREET.

ROBBING AT FutEs.---On Saturday, Dennis
Macharney was brought to the Office, charged on
suspicion of having stolen a number of skins, the
property of Mr. Smith, a furrier of Gough-square,
whose Louie was considerably injured by the fire
which broke out at Mr.Bensley's. It appeared
that the prisoner, in company with another
Ina!), went into Mr. Poland's shop, a furrier in the
Strand, and offered some skins for sale. Mr. Po-
land very properly questioned them as to how they
became possessed of them, when they replied,
man who came from Gravesend gave them to them.
However, Mr. Polanddid not give any credit to this,
and having heard that Mr. Smith's house in Gough-
square was on fire, charged them with hav-
ing stolen the skins from thence, when they both
got out of the shop, and ran off; they were pur-
sued; the prisoner was stopped and secured ; his
companion being a swift runner, made his escape.
The prisoner was committed foi• further examina-
tion.