6 NOVEMBER 1841, Page 1

The burning of a portion of the Tower of London

is an event of the week that will have its page in history. Although the Lon- doners are used to great fires, and recently one of the most important public buildings in each section of the Metropolis—the Houses of Parliament and the Royal Exchange—has been de- stroyed, the feelings with which that destruction of national and civic property was viewed were very different from those expe- rienced at seeing the citadel invaded, with its regal jewellery, its museum of renowned armour, its records, and its stores of warlike munitions. The loss of property is immense—no one knows its real value—the guesses take so wide a range as from 50,000/. to 2,000,000/. But that is not an unmixed ill, for unemployed opera- tives of London and Birmingham are already preparing their tools in anticipation of some work. The grave consideration is, not the loss that has happened, but the risk which has been run of destroy- ing what could never have been replaced. The regalia were ex- posed to all the chances of burning, and the minor perils of hasty removal in the midst of the conflagration ; the records were at the mercy of the flames ; the powder was hastily carried away or flung into the moat. Now that these risks have been run, people are astonished that they should ever have been incurred—that the jewels, the records, and the powder, should have been kept in such combustible receptacles. An inquiry proceeds at the Ordnance Office into the origin of the fire; inasmuch, however, as busy rumour has as yet made no guess at the cause, it is probable that it was nothing more than the carelessness of some servant. But then, is the citadel of London, the repository of state jewels and national archives, habitually to be left at the mercy of servils negligence ? A common observation is repeated—it is well it is no worse ; and what has happened may be a lesson for the future.