ceiling! A terrific shout of alarm bursts from
the crowd. The two firemen are buried in the
ruins. The whole space is filled with the dense
smoke and with piles of lath and plaster, and
brick and blazing wood.

But see!—a helmet, white with mortar, rises
from the floor near the window-sill—and now
another! One after the other, the exhausted
firemen descend the iron chain, and are caught
in the arms of the Superintendent and two of
their comrades below, while loud shouts and
vociferations of applause burst from the crowd.

The stable cat, too, from the mews! See!
she has crossed between the burning rafters,
and leaped into the balcony of the next house,
with smoking tail and ears.

The flames have been smothered for a time
by this fall of the ceiling and partition-wall;
the Superintendent has now got seven engines
round to the front; he takes advantage of the
fortunate accident; the wind, too, has shifted;
the seven engines pour torrents of water upon
the smoking mass and against the walls, and
thus continue till the most frightful of all
enemies is thoroughly subdued and reduced
to blackness and quietude. Most dismal is
the scene of devastation; but the enemy is
at all events laid prostrate and rendered
incapable of further mischief.

Drenched to the skin with cold water, and
reeking at the same time with perspiration,
the gallant men of the Fire Brigade return
to their several quarters. Two of them,
however, remain on watch with an engine all
night, a change of clothes and 'a dram' being
sent them from the station.

The present efficient condition of fire-engines,
as may easily be supposed, has only been the
result of many years of skilful experiment and
practical experience. Our ancestors
(notwithstanding their wisdom) were by no means
furnished with such means of extinguishing
fire, although, from the great number of
wooden buildings, and greater quantity of
wooden materials employed, to say nothing of
thatch, they had greater need of them. On
the other hand, they had not so many scientific
combustibles among them. Still, the want of
a proper engine is manifest from what we
know of their attempts in that way. They
used squirts,—actually nothing but squirts.
Every alderman was obliged to provide one.
It will be understood that the squirt was not
of schoolboy dimensions, but so large as to
require two men, holding it in their arms
between them, like a sort of mummy, to dip its
nose into a bucket, and then, raising it to the
proper angle, discharge the contents at the
building on fire.

The first construction of the fire-engine,
properly so called, is attributable to a
German named Hautsch, in 1657, which was
afterwards improved by the brothers Van
der Heyden, in 1672. But, though the
merit of the invention confers all due honour
on the engineering mind of Germans, it may
be questioned whether the character of the
people was ever of a kind to induce the
working of them with promptitude or
efficiency. So recently as a few years ago, when
the writer was staying in the town of Bonn,
intelligence was brought of a fire at Popplesdorf,
a village about a mile and a quarter
distant. The town engine was got out by a
couple of men, with pipes in their mouths,
and the horse—one horse—being put to, it
was trotted off in the most deliberate manner.
Outside the town gates we overtook a
number of students and other gentlemen,
all leisurely sauntering with their pipes
towards Popplesdorf, never doubting but
they would be in ample time before the
engine had extinguished the fire. And so
they were, for it was burning nearly half
the day. Nevertheless, the Prussian
Government have been the first to purchase the
invention of the Steam Fire Engine. Their
theories in the matter seem perfect; but to
put out a fire with promptitude cannot be
done even by a Steam Fire Engine without
a little human activity.

The contrast of our vivacity in these
matters is very striking, and in no case
more so than when some mischievous idiot
gives a false alarm (an atrocity which we
believe is not often committed), or when
some extraordinary meteorological
phenomenon induces the mistake. We find two
extraordinary instances of this recorded in
Knight's 'London.'

'On the first of these, twelve engines and seventy-four
brigade men were kept in constant motion
from eleven in the evening till six the next morning,
in endeavouring to search out what appeared to
be a large conflagration; some of the engines
reached Hampstead, and others Kilburn, before it
was found that the glare was the effect of the
"northern lights." On the other occasion, a
crimson glare of light arose at the north-east part
of the horizon, at about eight o'clock in the
evening, seemingly caused by a fierce conflagration;
and the resemblance was increased by what
appeared to be clouds of smoke rising up after
the glare, and breaking and rolling away beneath
it. Thirteen engines and a large body of men
went in search of the supposed fire, and did not
detect their error till they had proceeded far to
the north-east.'

The statistics of London fires are very
interesting, and much may be learned from
them, not only as matter of anxious information,
but of salutary warning.

The total number of fires in London in the
past year, was 838. Of these, 28 were utterly
destructive fires; the number of lives lost
being 26. Seriously damaged, 228; slightly
damaged, 582.

Of chimneys on fire there were 89; and
there were 76 false alarms—not mischievous,
but from error or panic.

The number of calls on the fire-office and
other aids amounted to 1003.

In the above 838 fires, the number of
insurances (ascertained) were 368; those