The Jewish fires were the heaviest blows we had had; for though the Waddingley Cotton-mills had been burnt in 1822, at a loss to the Company of 80,000£, and though the Patent Erostratus Match Manufactory had exploded in the same year at a charge of 14,000£, there were those who said that the loss had not been near so heavy as was supposed -- nay, that the Company had burnt the above-named establishments as advertisements for themselves.
Source: wiktionary