10 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



Dublin. — Extract of a Letter : 

 — " I do not know when this will 

 reach you, as the Holyhead road 

 is closed. There were five mails 

 due at the Head when the packet 

 sailed yesterday. The roads here 

 are still impassable, at least for 

 coaches ; 1,700 bags of letters 

 were at one time due from the 

 different inland towns ; but they 

 are now reduced to 700. The dis- 

 tress to the mercantile world was 

 inconceivable. 1 am told one No- 

 tary Public protested 400 bills in 

 one night, some of them on most 

 respectable houses. Most of the 

 mails have come in on men's 

 shoulders, they now come on 

 horseback. The mails for Belfast 

 and Enniskillen left the Post-office 

 this morning in coaches for the 

 first time since the snow. Six 

 coaches came in from Naas on 

 Saturday ; four of them were upset. 

 The streets are impassable, most 

 of them completely blocked up, 

 the snow being seven or eight 

 feet. The oldest person has no 

 recollection of half the quantity 

 of snow falling in the time. Some 

 medical men venture out in car- 

 riages, but those get upset, as there 

 has been no attempt to clear away 

 the snow. When the thaw comes, 

 it will be even worse for some 

 time." 



" Wednesday. — The thaw has 

 commenced — the roads for the 

 present are worse than they were. 

 No Irish mails to day. The 

 coaches are expected to run on 

 Saturday morning with malls." 



This morning an alarming fire 

 broke out at Messrs. Corby n and 

 Co.'s chemists, in Holborn. It 

 began in the laboratory, and the 

 whole of that part of the extensive 

 property was entirely destroyed ; 

 but fortunately, by the arrival of a 



number of fire-engines, it was pre- 

 vented extending to the front of 

 the building. 



27. Yesterday the wind having 

 veered round to the south-west, 

 the effects of thaw were speedily 

 discernible. 



The fall of the river at London 

 bridge has for some days past pre- 

 sented a scene both novel and in- 

 teresting. At the ebbing: of the 

 tide, huge fragments of ice were 

 precipitated down the stream, with 

 great violence, accompanied by a 

 noise, equal to the report of a 

 small piece of artillery. On the 

 return of the tide, they were 

 forced back again ; but the ob- 

 stacles opposed to their passage 

 through the arches was so great, as 

 apparently to threaten a total stop- 

 page to the navigation of the river 

 at this essential point, and which 

 probably would have soon taken 

 place had the frost continued with 

 unabated severity. 



29. The following circular has 

 been issued in consequence of the 

 impassable state of the roads from 

 the snow and frost. 



Whitehall. — My Lord ; the very 

 serious inconvenience to indivi- 

 duals and the public, which is ex- 

 perienced throughout the kingdom, 

 from the unusual and continued 

 severity of the present season, 

 having engaged the particular at- 

 tention of his Royal Highness the 

 Prince Regent, his Royal High- 

 ness has been pleased to command, 

 that proper measures be immedi- 

 ately adopted for affording under 

 these circumstances every possible 

 relief. 



It is more especially his Royal 

 Highness's wish, that effectual 

 means be resorted to for restoring, 

 as far as may be possible, the ac- 

 customed facility of communica- 



