A fire broke out in the belfry of Spitalfields Church
on Weflnesday afternor n. By great exertions, the body of the church was saved ; but the engines were not sufficiently powerful to play upon the belfry, so the spire was totally destroyed. Of course the woodwork supporting the bells was consumed ; and the whole of them fell one by one, with tremendous noise. One, the tenor, is said to have weighed forty-four hundred weight, and was split in two parts by falling on the others. Mr. Norton the Magistrate was very active mind judicious in his exer- 'tions to prevent the progress of the fire. Its origin is not certainly known, though it is suspected to have arisen from the carelessness of a boy who was casting bullets at a tire in the room underneath the belfry. The man whose business it is to take care of this part of the church has suffered the boys of the neighbourhood to do it for him. While the fire was raging, Mr. Stone, the Rector, read the funeral service over one of his deceased parishioners in the churchyard.
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