The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-13 00:00:00

DISASTROUS FIRE AT HAMBURGH,

Letters have arrived in London and this town giving ac-
counts of a most disastrous fire which broke out at II am
at an early hour on the morning of the sth instant, and
which having destroyed many of the principal streets, churches
prisons, and public buildings, was still burning up to the
dates of the latest advices.

It appears that the fire commenced about two o'clock on.
the morning of Thursday, the sth May, at a cigar shop in
the lower end of the Deichstrasse, whence it extended with
great fury : so that before eight o'clock, no less than sixteen
houses were destroyed, and several lives lost. At this junc-
ture, it appears, the fire might have been stayed by the de-
struction of one or two more houses. This, however, the
Senate refused to authorise. The result was that the lire
spread with amazing rapidity into the Reding's. markt, where
it consumed all the warehouses. Extending thence on all
sides by twelve o'clock, no less than sixty houses were des-
troyed, in the very heart and business parts of the town.
The progress of the conflagration, and some incidents that
occurred, are well described in the following extract from a
letter received yesterday by a highly respectable house in
this town :

`• The wind then shifted, which caused a fresh ignition in
another direction. The splendid spire of St. Nicholas's
Church caught at three p.m., and fell at a quarter to five ;
while all the business part of the city was on fire ; all, or
nearly all, the warehouses were blazing before night ; with
the old Exchange, Senate-house, and Bank. During the
night the fire did not spread much, as it was nearly calm ;
but, about two this morning, (Friday, the 6th instant,) it re-
kindled. The fire companies then commenced blowing houses
up with gunpowder, but too late, as the wind freshened and
kept veering. They then got several cannon, and levelled a
great many buildings, but without the least effect. At six,
this morning, the Belvidere Hotel was in such danger that
the proprietor packed up every thing and got all into boats.
I, however, held in with two young Englishmen till ten,
when we were obliged to start and carry our own luggage to
this place. which was not very comfortable in such tremen-
dous heat ; we were fortunate enough to get two men to carry
the trunks, in which we had great trouble, as every man,..
horse, and vehicle of every kind was engaged iu removing
property at their own price.
I saw one rascal refuse to take 50 dollars to take one
load in his cart about half a mile, and afterwards get 60
dollars. have been in the city nearly all the day, after I
deposited my traps here, and am sorry to say that above half
the city is in ashes. The wind is blowing hard, so that it is
impossible to say when or where it will stop. Two-thirds of
the city, with pearly all the wealth of it, must go. It did
not get quite to the shipping, nor is there any chance now of
it doing so, as the wind blows from that quarter. I have
not slept since three o'clock yesterday morning, but have
been assisting those I saw in greatest distress to save their
property, or part of it. I carried a poor woman's bed this
evening nearly a quarter of a mile for her ; the most dis-
tressing spectacle you can imagine, could not come halt up
to the misery of the thousands who are placed in the fields
with the little of their furniture they have carried, as they
hope, out of the reach of the flames. The most awfully
grand sight I ever beheld was the burning of St. Nicholas's
Tower; it was 600 feet high, of splendid structure, built of
wood about 200 feet at the top, (if I am rightly informed,)
and coppered. I watched it from the first appearance of fire
in it until it fell. The New Exchange was standing at three
P.m. (6th May.) I don't think it will go, as the fire near it
had burned out. The Belvidere was standing then, but sur-
rounded with fire; its situation so near the Alsten was in its
favour, but the whole of those beautiful buildings north-west
of it, round those waters with the Tiers, and an immense
quantity of furniture placed there for safety, are destroyed."
The fire continued throughout the night of the 6th and
morning of the 7th, favoured by a strong west wind. The
New Exchange escaped, but the Custom-house, Belvidere
Hotel, and many other hotels and buildings were destroyed.
The church of St, Teter, a fiee old lmildiug, caught fire
early in the morning, and by eight &clock was consumed.
The prisons had all fallen in the general calamity, and most
of the prisoners bad been conveyed on board a vessel lying
in the port. Many hotels and houses have been blown up
in the hope of stopping the flames, but little or no effect was
produced. The disaster at length came to be estimated, not
by the number of houses which had fallen, but in the number
of streets destroyed. The loss in goods, buildings, furni-
ture, &c., was beyond any powers of estimate. The distress
was excessive, hundreds of families having been driven des-
titute into the fields. It appeared impossible to say where
the destruction would cease ; and reports were rife that the
whole or a considerable portion of the calamity had originated
with incendiaries. Until further advises are received, we
shall not know how this fearful conflagration terminated.
The following is an extract from a letter written on the night
of Saturday, the 7th instant

" lila am now writing, it is burning and raging with as
great fury as ever. Nobody knows when and where it will
stop, perhaps not till the Ham Gate. It is calculated there
is upwards of seven millions sterling of property already de-
stroyed, and the insurance offices have given notice that they
can pay nobody, and every one is trying to save what he can;
the whole town is in motion, hundreds and thousands of
families without a house or home to go to. As yet, we are
safe in our part of the town, if the wind do not shift, and
carry the streams of fire down with it; but that is not the
only thing we have to fear, as there are bands of robbers
going about not only'robbing and plundering, but even try-
itlg to set the town on fire in other places. It has been tried
to be set on fire jn two streets behind, but fortunately the
villians were caught in the act. in that case, I don't know
whether I am safe or not; every one in my street are packing
up all their effects to be in readiness the moment it breaks out
down here."

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.
(Prom the London Papers of yesterday.)
Upon the arrival of the news of the almost total destruc-
tion of the city of Hamburgh yesterday in London, nothing
could exceed the deep feelings of regret which were exhibited
by the members of the commercial world; for hundreds of
persons residing in England are great sufferers by this most
deplorable calamity. One body particularly are sufferers to
an enormous extent ;—we allude to the London fire. offices,
which, from the spirit which has hitherto characterised their
business have effected insurances to an immense amount
throughout almost every country in Europe, more especially
in the Hanseatic towns, from their immediate connexion
with England. The-offices which will more particularly feel
the pressure of this deplorable calamity are the Sun, the Royal
Exchange, and Phoenix. The several other insurance com-
panies will also feel the effect of the conflagration, but not to
the extent of those already mentioned : the gross loss to these
companies is supposed to amount to nearly £1,000,000 ster-
ling. The Phoenix Fire Company, it was currently reported in
the city yesterday , had insurances amounting to from £300,000
to £500,000, and situated in those portions of the city which
have become a mass of blackened ruins. From the private
accounts furnished to the fire-offices by their agents and cor-
respondents, it appears that the first discovery of the fire
which has laid this flourishing city in ruins, was made about
half-past 12 o'clock on the morning of Thursday last, in a
house in Deutschstrasse, but in consequence of not a vestige
of this place being now to be found no exact information
could be obtained. The buildings here were exceedingly old,
and in a great measure composed of wood, being stocked with
4 quantity of rags, the combustible nature of which greatly ac-
eelerated the progress of the fiery element, and from the want
of that coolness and energy which is generally displayed by
the London firemen the flames were allowed to obtain a com-
plete mastery of the old, narrow, and ill-constructed build-
ings before anything like an attempt was made to arrest their
progress. Thus by one o'clock nearly twenty buildings were
destroyed, consisting principally of warehouses filled with
various descriptions of merchandise. Amongst them was
what may be termed a distillery, which created a terriffic body
of fire, spreading ruin and consternation on all sides. To
add to this terrible visitation the inhabitants were busily
engaged in bringing out their furniture, when becoming para-
lysed with fear, they suffered their household property to re-
main in the street, which in a short time became blocked up,
and thereby afforded a ready communication for the fire to
the houses on the opposite side, and thus rendered the diffe-
rent streets totally impassible. As the fire progressed it be.
came impossible for any person to approach within a conside-
rable distance in consequence of the overpowering heat, smoke,
and dust which rushed tlfrough the narrow avenues, and was
carried far beyond what could have been anticipated by the
strong south-eastern wind which prevailed at the time. When
the fire was found to have assumed so alarming an attitude,
the Senate was informed of the event. The members im-
mediately assembled in the Senate-house, and adopted those
measures which the exigency of the catastrophe demanded.
The whole of the of the fire-engines were drawn out; but
owing to their miserable size, they not being superior to the
parochial engines of the metropolis, they were of little use,
and totally inadequate to repress the element with which they
had to contend ; and upon the fire reaching the Hopfenmarkt,
orders were issued to pull down the houses. Here, however,
timidity was aparent, for instead of a wide breach being
effected, not more than one or two buildings were razed, and
in some cases they were only pertially destroyed. It soon
beceme evident that the whole of the houses in this place,
which were exceedingly large and handsome buildings, and
used as hotels, were marked for destruction. Here the flames
burst out in various parts, and it became evident that the
destruction of the church of St. Nicholas was inevitable. The
fire now extended in different directions, and by six o'clock
upwards of 300 buildings were destroyed. Each succeeding
hour added to the calamity, and by the time the accounts
were sent off nearly the whole of the principal buildings and
churches were reduced to a mass of ruins, in additien to
which from 2,000 to 3,000 houses were levelled to the ground.
To add to this dreadful destruction of property, an awful
loss of human life has taken place. The number who have
fallen victims has been estimated at from 150 to 200. A cor-
rect account, however, it is impossible to obtain, as numbers
of hodies, from the intensity of the flames, became reduced
to ashes, and it will for some time be impossible io acertain
the real loss of life,
In the course of yesterday afternoon the cheering intelli-
gence was received by the above-named insorance-offices, by
means of a Hull steamer, which left Cuxhaven late on Sunday
evening, that the ffre had been mastered, and in the course
of the afternoon several surveyors were sent to make a sur-
vey of the property destroyed.

LADIES, READ I—Women often lose the man they love,
and who loves them. By mere wantonness or coquetry they
reject, and then repent ;—they should be careful not to take
this step hastily, for a proud, high-minded, gifted man, will
seldom ask a woman twice.

A FRENC II MURDERER.—Dujardin, the gendarme station-
ed at Camhrai, who, on the 27th December last, shot through
the heart and killed the widow Thezin, to whom he had been
engaged to be married, and afterwards attempted to commit
suicide was, on Friday last, brought to trial before the Court
of Assizes for the department of the Nord. The facts of the
marriage having been fully agreed upon, the contract signed,
and the publication of the banns having been made with the
assent of the family of the widow, who had agreed that Du-
jardin should have the guardianship of her two children by
her former husband, and also of his having killed his in-
tended in the manner already mentioned, and then attempted
to destroy himself, were fully proved, and, indeed, admitted
by Dujardin himself. But, in his defence, he stated, that
as the day of marriage approached, the relations of Madame
Thezin interfered to prevent it, and endeavoured to fill her
mind with prejudice against him. On Christmas Day she was
so depressed, he said, by the opposition to her wishes, that
she declared her resolution to destroy herself. He, as he as-
serted, resisted this determination till the 27th, when, after
having dined and sent her children hack to school, she renewed
her melancholy proposals, and at length declared that her re-
solution was fixed, adding that if he really loved her, he would
die with her. Upon this he went to his barracks and got two
pistols, one. belonging to the service, and the other a pocket-
pistol. these they went up to her chamber, where,
after writing the letter of adieu to his lieutenant, recom-
mending to his care the orphan of the widow, and his own
horse, they embraced each other for the last time, and each
taking a pistol, levelled at the breast of the other and fired.
His own ball told, and Madame Thezin dropped down dead.
Her tire, however, missed, and thereupon he attempted to
destroy himself, but did not succeed. Dujardin's account
was, in many points, contradicted. M. Ducange, the notary,
who had drawn up the marriage contract, deposed that on
the 21st of December, Madame Thezin desired him to annul
the contract, for she was determined not to marry again, as
her heart was not engaged. Dujardin also admitted that on
the 22d he received a letter from her, desiring him not to
come to her house again, as she could not love him, and
everything was at an end between them ; but this he attri-
buted to the influence of her brother, who was against the
marriage. This the brother, who appeared as a witness,
positively denied. The trial lasted till half-past eleven at
night, when the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder,
but without premeditation, and with extenuating circum-
stances ; upon which the court sentenced the prisoner to
hard labour at the hulks for 20 years. Dujardin has appealed
to the Court of Cessation.