Star.
London, England, 1826-09-23 00:00:00

DREADFUL EXPLOSION-FURTHER PARTICULARS

You will no doubt have heard, ere this, of the terrible
calamity which has befallen the town of O.tend, in con-
sequence of the Arsenal hiving blown up early in the
morning of Tuesday last. It has been already ascer-
tained that thirty persons have lost their lives by this
appalling explosion, and not less have heert mutilated
and injured to a very serious degree. Report magni-
fies the number, in each case, but you must not trust
even eye-witnesses in their attempt at estimating the mi.-
sery and the mischief which have lighted on this devoted
town. It is not in the power of language to depict the
consternation and despair of the inhabitants when feel.
ing the first shock of the explosion. They all left their
homes—fled to the neighbouring fields—and abandoned
their property and their friends. I had entered the town
only the night before, when all was cheerfulness, ani-
mation, and peace; but, after the morning of Tuesday,
every house was partially or altogether unroofed—
locks, bolts, and bars, literally flew asunder—the win-
dow frames and the glass were scattered to the winds—
the ceilings of the houses in and near the Quay, were as
if strained from the joists-0e walls yawned from their
perpendiculars, and the very foundations were shaken
to their centre. Nor was this the case merely at the
Quay; the whole line of street, on the road to Bruges,
exhibited a still more melancholy spectacle, inasmuch
as the houses present not only as desolate an appearance,
but their owners were also involved is instantaneous
ruin. Every friend to humanity must sympathise in
their fate, and it is to be hoped, that the Government of
the Netherlands will promptly step forward to the relief
of so many unhappy sufferers.
It would be impossible for me, in the spate of a hue.
tied letter, to describe the state of feeling now prevailing
here—tenor and despair, however, appear almost in
every countenance. Travellers coming flom Brussels,
on the road to Calais, hasten to survey the ruins of Os-
tend, until shrinking at the scene, they suddenly look
aghast, and lamenting the desolation, proceed upon their
better-fated course. The shock itself was tremendously
awful ; it was not like that of a hundred pieces of bat-
tering artillery—it was not like the rough and angry
growl of the wrathful thunder—it was that instant, in- _
tense, overwhelming noise, which one might fancy to
accompany an earthquake, or to bode the Judgment
day•it seemed to shake the links that bind man and
nature together. The wreck of this once animated town
presents one of the most deplorable pictures you can
imagine; for, even up to this hour (Wednesday evening,
five o'clock), scarcely an individual has courage to look
upon it, and save the little which has been left them.
Such

a calamity will doubtle:.s be liable to colouring,
and the quantum of suffering to great exaggeration ;
but there can be no doubt that thirty fellow creatures
have lost their lives, and that very many have incalci-
lably suffered both in their persons and their property.
Rumour ascribes this event, first to a man having walked
into the arsenal with nails in his shoes, and thereby ig-
niting the powder—then again, to a man being allowed
to smoke a p;pe in the arsenal, and the fire being corn•
municated in that manner—while there are others who
Attribute it to some malicious in:tudiary ; but this I
think highly improbable.

EXTRACT OP A nurArs LETTER.

A sensation of the most dreadful kind was expo-
iienced at Ostend, on Tuesday morning last, by the ex.
plosion of the new Magazine at that place, which con-
tained upwards of 1,400 barrels of powder. This dread-
ful circumstance took place at ten o'clock in the morn-
ing, when the greatest part of the people were about,
and all were panic-struck who were not killed; the lat