om which it is impossible to escape till her most
sensitive parts have been reduced to a cinder! What crime ever
perpetrated by human turpitude could have warranted a more dreadful
fate! What demons, contriving mischief and torments, could have
invented a combination of miseries so terrible and heart-rending? The
decorations of beauty--the gratification of pride--even the humble
means of health and comfort, are thus rendered the unmerciful
instruments of the keenest sufferings, the most frightful sudden
deaths, and the most dismal domestic tragedies! Yet the entire evil
arises from the principle of the ascent of all heat; from the flame
meeting in that ascent with fresh fuel to feed on, by which its
intensity is progressively augmented; and then acting at its summit on
the head, throat, and sensitive vital parts of the agonized victim.
The remedy therefore is simply to lie down, when the roaring flame of
several feet high will be so reduced that it may be put out with the
hands, with the other parts of the garments, or by any extraneous
covering.

About a hundred yards from this fire-proof house, stands the Telegraph
which communicates with Chelsea, and forms part of the chain from the
Admiralty to Portsmouth and Plymouth. I learnt that there are twelve
stations between London and Portsmouth, and thirty-one between London
and Plymouth, of which eight are part of the Portsmouth line till they
separate in the New Forest. Another chain, extending from London to
Yarmouth, contains nineteen stations; and another from London to Deal
contains ten stations; making in the whole system sixty-four
telegraphs. The distances average about eight miles, yet some of them
are twelve or fourteen miles; and the lines are often increased by
circuits, for want of commanding heights. In the Yarmouth line
particularly, the chain makes a considerable detour to the northward.

After about twenty years' experience, they calculate on about two
hundred days on which signals can be transmitted throughout the day;
about sixty others on which they can pass only part of the day, or at
particular stations; and about one hundred days in which few of the
stations can see the others. The powers of the stations in this
respect are exceedingly various. The station in question is generally
rendered useless during easterly winds by the smoke of London, which
fills the valley of the Thames between this spot and Chelsea hospital;
or more commonly between the