There have been numerous fires in the Metropolis within the
last few days. On Friday night, there was a 'fire in the housekeepers' room at the Reform Club. The celebrated Mr. Coppock happened to be there, and put it out by an ingenious process, at great personal hazard. but the newspaper report of his "suffocation," is, happily, over-coloured ; and instead of being "insensible," the Tory usurpers of Reform seats will find him too sensible for them.
Some injury was done on Thursday night to the residence of General A bercromby, by a fire occasioned by a hot flue in his kitchen. The premises and goods of Mr. Nieman, a toyman, and of Messrs. Williamson and Co. flannel-merchants, in Gutter Lane, were much damaged by a fire on the same night ; also eight houses in Little Carter Lane and Sermon Lane were injured seriously, and one entirely con- sumed, besides a long range of stabling and coach-houses.
On Saturday, a hay-stack in the farm-yard of Sir Felix Booth, in Ealing Lane, near Brentford, was discovered to be on fire. By great
exertions, and spreading the hay on the neighbouring fields, the fire was
confined to the stack in which it first appeared. The alarm was very great, as there was danger of the flames extending to other stacks, and thence to the large distillery close by. It is confidently stated that this was en incendiary fire, being the second attempt to destroy the same property within the last eighteen months.
The weather, which was milder on the first three days of the week, has again become intensely cold ; though it has not equalled the
severity of last Saturday. The quantity of ice on the Kentish shore of the Thames, off Greenwich, was so great, that when the tide went out on Tuesday afternoon, the moorings of the Dreadnought hospital- ship gave way, and the enormous vessel swung round, to the great alarm of its inmates. At low-water, she got aground; and will not be brought to her old moorings till a thaw takes place. Some vessels have attempted to get through the Pool, but have been blocked up. Near Kew and Hammersmith, on both sides of the river, there is excellent ice for skating.
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