y surprise any day when we
least expect him, and who does at all times very materially diminish our
national wealth and increase our public burdens. Perhaps we should not
style _fire_ an enemy, but a mutinous servant, who does his work
faithfully and well, except when neglected or abused!

About five o'clock on Saturday afternoon intelligence of the outbreak of
fire in Tooley Street reached the headquarters of the brigade in Watling
Street.

Fire in Tooley Street! The mere summons lent energy to the nerves and
spring to the muscles of the firemen. Not that Tooley Street in itself
is more peculiarly dangerous in regard to fire than are the other
streets of shops in the City. But Tooley Street lies in dangerous
neighbourhood. The streets between it and the Thames, and those lying
immediately to the west of it, contain huge warehouses and bonded
stores, which are filled to suffocation with the "wealth of nations."
Dirty streets and narrow lanes here lead to the fountain-head of wealth
untold--almost inconceivable. The elegant filigree-work of West End
luxury may here be seen unsmelted, as it were, and in the ore. At the
same time the rich substances on which fire feeds and fattens are stored
here in warehouses which (as they are) should never have been built, and
in proximities which should never have been permitted. Examine the
wharves--Brooks' Wharf, Beal's Wharf, Cotton's Wharf, Chamberlain's
Wharf, Freeman's Wharf, Griffin's Wharf, Stanton's Wharf, and others.
Investigate the lanes--Hay's Lane, Mill Lane, Morgan's Lane; and the
streets--Bermondsey, Dockhead, Pickle Herring Street, Horsleydown, and
others--and there, besides the great deposit and commission warehouses
which cover acres of ground, and are filled from basement to ridge-pole
with the commodities and combustibles of every clime, you will find huge
granaries and stores of lead, alum, drugs, tallow, chicory, flour, rice,
biscuit, sulphur, and saltpetre, mingled with the warehouses of
cheese-agents, ham-factors, provision merchants, tarpaulin-dealers, oil
and colour merchants, etcetera. In fact, the entire region seems laid
out with a view to the raising of a bonfire or a pyrotechnic display on
the grandest conceivable scale.

Little wonder, then, that the firemen of Watling Street turned out all
their engines, including two of Shand and Mason's new land-steam
fire-engines, which had at that time just been brought into action.
Little wonder that th