The Times correspondent at Pekin sends an account of a
great fire there which consumed the offices of the Board of Revenue. Every effort was made to suppress the flames ; but there were no scientific appliances, the citizens relied on beating gongs and drums, and it was only by the exertions of the Legation Guards that the calamity was pre- vented from becoming most serious. The wonder is that Asiatic cities, which are always full of wooden houses, mat huts, and narrow lanes, escape total destruction for such long periods. The thronged quarters of Pekin, Canton, Calcutta, Cairo, and Constantinople ought to have been burned to the ground long ago; but though serious fires occasionally break out, they always escape total destruction. Calcutta, for example, where the native quarter is as combustible as a hay- stack, has endured ever since it was founded by Job Charnock. The reason seems to be that the congested quarters are always thronged, and that the imperfection of the materials makes it easy, if a fire becomes serious, to clear away large spaces. Asiatic cities, however, need Haussmanns very much.
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