to a fire, and profess to pump upon the flames.
But that fun has sadly waned; some of the
engines have died from asthma or rickets, or
have been laid up with rheumatism in the joints;
while others are so rusty and dusty, and the key
of the engine-house is so likely to be lost, that
we can afford to forget them altogether.

No; it is to the insurance offices, and not to
any governing or official body whatever, that we
are indebted for our capital fire-engines, and the
small army of brave fellows who attend them.
The system was a self-interested one, of course,
in the first instance; seeing that the companies
were not bound to take care of any property save
that in which they were directly concerned. But
the curious part of the matter is, that the
companies have long ceased to feel that kind of
interest, and have actually kept up the engines
and the brigade-men at a loss, until the public
authorities should fill up the gap. In the first
instance, the fire insurance companies thought
fire-engines an essential part of their establishments;
seeing that the less damage was inflicted
on the property for which they had granted
policies, the less they would have to pay to the
persons insured. They bought, each company
for itself, as many fire-engines as they chose,
and paid for as many men as they chose to
manage them. When a fire occurred, out rushed
these engines, with no paucity of heroic daring
on the part of the men. But then two evils
arose. Each corps cared only for such houses
as were insured in one particular office, and
deemed it no matter of duty to save adjacent
property. The other evil was, that the
men quarrelled with each other as to precedent
claims for reward, and sometimes fought while
the flames were blazing. To lessen if not
remove these evils, was the purpose of a very
useful arrangement made about forty years ago.
The managing director of the Sun Fire Office
proposed that, without interfering with the
independent action of the companies in other ways,
they should place all their fire-engines in one
common stock, to be managed by one superintendent,
under a code of laws applicable to all
the firemen; the system to be administered
with due impartiality to all the partners, and
paid for out of a common purse, to which
all should contribute. It was a sagacious
suggestion, proper to come from the largest of
the companies. As some minds move more
slowly than others, so do some companies fall
in more readily than others with a new and bold
scheme. At first the Sun, the Union, and the
Royal Exchange were the only companies which
entered cordially into the scheme; the others
"didn't see it." Then the Atlas and the
Phœnix joined. This limited partnership lasted
till the year eighteen hundred and thirty-three,
when all the companies assisted in the formation
of the London Fire-Engine Establishment.
Mr. Braidwood threw his energies into its
organisation, and gallantly headed the brigade-men
in their dangerous duties for some thirty years;
but he fell in the great fire at Tooley-street four
years ago—a brave man dying at his post.

The arrangement of this fire establishment is
peculiar. Any insurance company may belong
to it, on paying a fair quota of expenses; and
the total number has gradually risen to about
thirty. Each board of directors sends one or
more delegates to represent it, and the delegates
form a committee for managing the system. All
the engines and apparatus, floating engines, and
engine-houses, belong to the committee; and
out of the funds provided by the several
companies, the committee pays the salaries of the
superintendent, inspectors, and firemen. The
metropolis has been divided into a certain number
of districts, convenient as to size and relative
position; and each district has a station at
which the engines are kept, with firemen always
ready to dash out when their services are needed.
These head-quarters of districts, to which the
boys " run to fetch the engines," are at
Watling-street, Tooley-street, Southwark
Bridge-road, Wellclose-square, Jeffrey's-square,
Shadwell, Rotherhithe, Whitecross-street,
Farringdon-street, Holborn, Chandos-street,
Crown-street, Waterloo-road, Wells-street,
Baker-street, King-street, and Horseferry-road.
Captain Shaw, the present commander-in-chief of
the brigade, pitches his camp at Watling-street.
These stations have engines and men ready
day and night. The general allowance is three
engines, four horses, and about nine men
to each station. Electric wires extend from
station to station, affording means for
communicating the news of a fire very quickly; and
the men pride themselves on the rapidity
with which they can horse their engines and
start off. The most prominent novelty in the
organisation of the system is the steam
fire-engine, which drives the water forth in a jet
such as no engine worked by hand power
can equal. During the International Exhibition,
there was a grand field-day of steam fire-
engines in Hyde Park, at which Marshals
Shand and Mason, General Merryweather, and
other steam magnates, showed what they could
do. One engine shot forth three hundred gallons
of water in a minute; and another sent up a
jet to a prodigious height, showing how useful
such a power would be when a lofty building is
on fire. In some of the steam-engines, such is
the arrangement of the boiler and flues, the
water can be raised from the freezing temperature
to the boiling point in ten or twelve
minutes. The attendant genii have not to wait
for steam before they start; they fill the boiler
with water, light the fire, gallop away, frighten
all the old women, delight all the boys, and
nearly madden all the dogs; and by the time they
arrive at the scene of conflagration, the water
boils and the steam is ready for working.
Captain Shaw speaks highly of these steam
fire-engines; and more and more of them are to be
seen rattling through the metropolis. All the
engines, steam and hand, have their regular
quota of apparatus stowed in and around them
—scaling-ladders, canvas sheets, lengths of hose,
lengths of rope, nose-pipes, rose-jets, hooks,
saws, shovels, pole-axes, crow-bars, wrenches, &c.