The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-11 00:00:00

*trontiZibittion

SUN OFFICE Three o'Clock.

We have nothing but horrors to record this morning.
one short week ago the city of Hamburgh, the great
commercial emporium of Germany, was one of the most
flourishing on the Continent of Europe—now she is a
heap of ruins. Her merchants were then rejoicing at
f ire prospects held out to them by the promised improve-
, cl,nts in our commercial tariff ; now they are mourning
ur their richly stored warehouses in ashes, their houses
,i,:voured by the flames, and their prospects of increasing
prosperity scattered to the four winds of heaven. We
gall not here repeat -the details of this dreadful cala-
_mity. They are given at length in another part of The
We have only to express our profound affliction
the mass of misery which the destruction of Ham-
liorgh must occasion to a multitude of most deserving
p,,ople. 'We have ever held the citizens of Hamburgh
.-:nd the other Hanseatic Towns in the highest estima-
tion. We have admired their attachment to Liberal
i;rinciides ; their spirit of social order ; their commer-
cial enterprise ; and in proportion as we admired and
respected them, do we sympathise with them under the
infliction of so heavy a calamity.
The tire, which there is every reason to believe was
clic work of an incendiary, extended to fifty-two streets,
most of which were reduced to ashes. On a rough cal-
,lation, the loss of property was from three to four mil-
lions sterling, but it is believed that the total loss will be
{Loubl,_, that amount. No person could tell how many
lives were lost, but a great number of persons must have
perished. The canals; through the city were dry, so
that no water could' e found. The fire raged the whole
)f Friday night, and on Saturday morning, at nine
rr'clook, the Danish, Hanoverian, and Prussian troops
entered. the town, and, being well supplied 'with gun-
powder, commenced blowing up the houses, to arrest the
progress &f the flames. The Senate ordered every per-
son to leave the town, and nothing could exceed the
heart-rending spectacle. of thousands of poor people,
frantic with their losses, and without means of procur-
Ing loud or shelter. The fire was raging when the
West adviccs from Hamburgh were written.

The destruction of Hamburgh is one of those ca-
lamities which will be felt in every part of the com-
mercial world. Great as may be the credit of the
Senate and people of Hamburgh with foreign States, a
century will elapse before the city can replace all the pro-
perty deStroyed by this conflagration. In the midst of the
confusion an incident occurred characteristic of the Go-
vernment and the people. A public notice was every-
where put np, stating that the vaults under the Bank,
containing the gold and silver bars, were fire-proof, and
that the Bank books and papers were all removed and
in perfect safety.
'rhe details, so far as they are yet known, will be read
with painful interest. We shall not now dwell longer
,Ipon a subject so distressing.

Besides the destruction of the city of Hamburgh by
our columns of this day contain an account of a
,l(plorable catastrophe which took place on Sunday
,-verring on the Versailles and Meudon Railway, by which
fifty to sixty persons were killed—one report says
~.ighty—and one hundred and fifty maimed and
Nv,nuided: In honour of the KENG's fete the water-
-works in the gardens of Versailles were playing on
.-;nntlay, which attracted immense crowds from Paris.
train, to which the dreadful accident occurred, left
Versailles for Paris at half-past five o'clock in the
;...ternoon, and was crowded with passengers.
There were," says one account, " seventeen or eigh-
teen waggons, with two engines before and one behind.
The velocity was excessive ; when between Bellevue and
Ketalon the axle-tree- of the first machine broke, and
s,Elpping, the second ran over it, killing the stoker, and,
breaking the. first machine in pieces, spilt its fire on
tile ground. Instantly six or seven waggons were broken
in ,pie.ces, and the rest-running over the live tire of the
brok.'n engines, burst into flames. It is the custom on the
`..ft Bank Railroad for the. doors of the waggons to
.4 -closed, without any possibility of opening them, ex-
' oip(by keys in the hands of the conductors. No con-
' ~tietors were forthcoming, and thus the inmates of three
the waggons were burned." From this account it is
that, but for the custom of locking the passengers
t4e carriages, so awful a loss of life would not have
•.lion place. We trust it will serve as a warning to those
..':ek;lish Railway Companies who persevere in locking
passengers in the trains, without leaving
lustn a chance for their lives in case of any
accident of a similar kind. We have again and again
denounced the practice of locking up passengers in
railway trains and in ;this sad and deplorable catas-
trophe, on the Versailles line, we have mournful testi-
mony of the correctness of our views. (if course, the
leaving the doors of trains in a condition to be opened
by passengers from within, does not infer that no re-
sAietions ought to be placed upon wanton egress on the
. part of very young or very silly travellers.
Forty-seven dead bodies were found, and three of the
wounded died on Monday morning. It is a remarkable
iitet, or rather, perhapS, we should call it a merciful dis-
pensation of Providence, that, among the travellers on
the road at the time was M. GUIZOT, the French Minister
for Consign Affitirs. At the instant the destroyed train
Started from Versailles, a train bearing M. GUIZOT left
Paris for Versailles, and passed the other near the scene
of the dreadful accident. Had this great .statesman
been among the killed on this occasion we have reason
to fear that ' the political aspect of Europe would have
undergone a great change.
We deeply regret this.terrible accident. We regret it
on account oF the sufferers and their friends ; we regret
r it also on account of the prejudice which it will excite in
'the public mind of France against railways, only yet on
the eve of construction throughout that country. We
fear that several English families will have to mourn
the loss of some friend or relative by this .frightful
atastrophe.

Madrid papers of the 2d. have reached us, but they are
,-7.e,titute of news.

" RICHARD'S HIMSELF AGAIN!"---Our Contemporary
rho Morning Post, is once again in its proper element.
Nothing can exceed the pleasing flutter and agitation of
spirits into which. it acknowledges itself to have been •
thrown by its Nest-end communications on the subject of
the Queen's Masked Bali; 'except the eloquence with
which it discourses on a theme so every way congenial to
its intellect. The Post is here in its glory. Here it
reins without it rival. The Royal Ball has drawn
-ForTh all its Powers of 'fancy—exhausted all the re- .
~tirces of its Capacious genius. Observe the mo-
air with which it congratulate's itself on its
correspondence ! "We believe," says our
.C.,ntemporary, "there is no album in existence which
contains the contributions of a- greater number of noble
and distinguished ladies than these daily lucubrations of
curs." Fnviable preeminence ! Ni) wonder the Post
is quite beside itself with extacy Such a collection of
I;P:shionable autographs • might turn a vk iser' head. than
sits on our Contemporary s shoulders. The Post goes
'n to observe :—" Such a scene as this Ball may never
i,,Ttlr till doomsday ! It will be the most exhilarating
s4:ht,andivould overcome the gravity of even the seven
I.t„,;es of Greece." Not a doubt of it. A Grecian sage, if he
:Nits once to get a glioipse •of Lord Snooks, Black-bottle
cordioPYun, figuring at. Buckingham-palace, in the costume
of the Chevalier Bayard, .would, we verily believe, go off
in strong 'convulsions; if he'did not do so, we should
think but meanly of his. taste for the ridiculous. But all
is not sunshine, wren, as regards this wonderful Ball, fur
"'the nearer the tour approaches," continues. oar Con-
t. inary " the mom' mipes,ible it is found to ac-
.l. •
all' the dresses' in time. Same of the
fair members of the aristocracy know not .as yet
flick fate : others do, and are in a state at' dt'strati.-
:" Unhappy creatures ! We grieve—deeply grieve
for. their distress, mid trust that their deprivation of
rea.son may nut induce the iiezessity of a strait-waist-
coat. But Who can warder at their "distraction ?" As
it, is her Majesty coniinand; go they must, dressed or
cnclressed ; and' if tht'ir dresses be not finished in time,
I,nt one painful alternative is left. them—namely, to
appear at the Palace in the primitive costume of the fig-

• ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S DINNER-PARTIES.—
The fu.lo.ving advertisement appears in a Morning
Paper of to-da) There will be no more public
dinners at, Lambeth PalaCe this year." This pithy and
3t;ntetitiops announcement is, we suppose, caused by a
krompt recollection, on his Grace's part, of the seven-
pence which Sir Robert Peel sacrilegiously proposes to
lay on every twenty shillings of the Reformed Archi-
iscopal Income !

THE LORD MAYOR'S JOICE.—LOrd Mayors are not,
generally speaking, retnarkable fur the dazzlinr, quality
if their wit ; nor do we,remernber to have ever heard of
who, combined the graceful humour of Addison with
the sparkling fancy of Sheridan. But the present Lord
Mayor appears to Pe an exception., He is really a wan.
of the first water ; and it is gratifying to be able to

add that no illustrious Civic Magnate laughs louder
or longer at his own jokes. At the Mansion House
yesterday a man was brought • before him, charged by
a Jew with having sold him a copper chain for a gold
one ; and when the case was disposed of, his Lord-
ship; in reply to the Complainant's question of what
he should do with the chain, observed, in his smartest
manner, " Put it round your neck to be sure—the
proper place for it I" The drollery of this repartee was
irresistible.; Clerks, constables, policemen, were instantly
in extacies ; Mr. Nobler was compelled to hold both his
sides ; and even the illustrious wag himself was within
an ace of suffocation. It is a pity that the office of Lord
Mayor's Fool is abolished, for his Lordship could now be
his own Fool!