The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-07-29 00:00:00

CONFLAGRATION IN SMYRNA

(From a Supplementpf the" Impartial," dated Smyrna,

9' 4 Ju'y, 18:15.)
A frightful catastrophe has plunged our city into an
abyss of desolation. Smyrna, flourishing and prosperous
on Thursday. was, on the next day, Friday, the 4th July,
a pile of cinders and smoking ruins.
The effects of the fire of the 29th July, 1841, are far
from having been so disastrous. Then the destroying
element had only exercised its ravages on the members
of the body, so to say ; but now it is the soul, the very
heart of the city, that has been seized.
The fire commenced on Thursday, the 3rd July, at
half-past six in the evening, in a low eating-house at
Mamoglu. Fed by a violent gale from the north, and
finding its food in crowded streets, or in very old houses
(all built of wood), it soon became immensely developed,
pushed on as it was by the wind to the right and left, in
squalls violent enough to uproot trees. It marched, at
the same time, against the wind with a prodigious quick-
ness. Not a s,ngle stone-built house was there to arrest
its progress. There was a general dread, and profound
discouragement. Ihe fire marched on one side as far as
Tabachana, sweeping on its passage all the Armenisn
quarter, and some small bazaars. The bazaars of the
clothiers and drapers, &c., are all safe. On this side it
passed through the large wine and rachee stores, where
it found, from the immense quantity of spirits (rachee,
&c.) stored there, an aliment which gave it a new strength.
All the quarter of the Roman Catholics, called Kenourio
Machalla, and the streets branching out of it, those called
the Moscov Sokaki, Hadgi Sotira, Abraham, and the
hospital and its adjoining houses and streets, became very
soon a prey to the flames. Passing after this to the quar-
ter called Hadgistan, it opened upon the Frank (European)
quarter, and rejoined the column of fire, which had de-
scended by the Madama Khan (between the Kenourio
Machalla and the Frank quarter).
Thanks to the high walls which girdle the premises
occupied by M. Sponty (walls left bare, but still strong
and firm, by antecedent fires, over which was once built
a stately residence), the fire was at length mastered, at
the moment when Rose-street was threatened with de-
struction. The remainder of the Frank quarter (by very
far the most considerable part) was thus saved.
Thirty large houses in this quarter, the centre of com-
merce, with the small shops beneath them, the hospital
of St. Anthony, three-fourths of the premises of the
Sisters of Charity, the Armenian church and school,
nineteen large taverns (or wine-stores), several small
khans containing merchandise, warehouses containing
furniture (lodged there for safety !). 4000 houses, and a
large number of (small) shops, have become a prey to
the flames. Frightful and terrible catastrophe! Twenty
years will not suffice to recover from this blow.

The fire lasted seventeen consecutive hours, driven in•
cessantly by a furious gale.
Nine-tenths of the Roman Catholic population are
amongst the unhappy victims whom this fire has rendered
houseless. Of nine hundred houses numbered by the
Armenian population, only thirty. one remain ; thousands
of persons are without an asylum.
The loss is estimated at 200 millions of piastres
(Xl,800,000). Charity makes immense efforts, but we
call on all Europe for assistance.

On the 15th instant the guillotine was employed for the
first time in the canton of Zurich.

Lettcrs from Rome state the health of the Pope to be
such as to create some alarm.

The strawberries annually raised by one market gar-
dener, near Amsterdam, are worth upwards of £3,000.
A Berlin letter of the Ist states that the health of the
Empress of hussia continues to decline. It is said that
her disease is anturism.

Mr. Everett, Minister in London from the United
States, has been recalled; and Mr. Louis M'Lane is ap-
pointed in his place to our Court.

A letter from Leipsic, July 11, says that the church in
which the altar of St. Ignatius de Loyola is placed has
just been closed, in consequence of the Roman Catholic
commune having embraced German Catholicism.
CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA.—The intelligence of the
determination of the Emperor to tolerate Christianity is
confirmed ; but it appears that the religion is allowed to
be practised only at the five ports open to foreign com-
merce.

A PARISIAN CIRCUS.—The vast theatre at Paris,
called the Hippodrome, 350 feet in length, was opened
last week, with a variety of entertainments, partaking of
the character of the sports of the ancient circus, to an
audience of upw;,rds of fifteen thousand persons, of
every rank, from the pier to the gamin.
The Executive Council of Zurich has decided on suffer-
ing Dr. Steiger and the three gendarmes who assisted him
in his escape to enjoy the rights of hospitality, and on
treating them as political refugees. This resolution was
unanimous as respects Dr. Steiger; but there were some
votes in favour of refusing the gendarmes permission to
continue in the canton.

NEW NAVAL PowER.—A letter from Naples states
that the King of the Two Sicilies has of late years been
occupied with increasing his navy. It is at present com-
posed of twelve sailing ships of war ; among which are
one of 80 guns and four frigates ; arid twelve steam-ships,
of which eight are large frigates with engines of 300-
horse power, mounted with Paixhan's guns. The king
hls erected at Pietrana a foundry for steam-engines. and
"0
-horse power, destini-d for a new frigate now

ing, will be shortly finished finished