eport given, whether he need go
himself. In any case, his men were awake and quickly away. Rapidity in
dressing, and in horseing and mounting the engines, was but a detail
of daily drill. The moment the scene of action was reached, nothing
was allowed to stand in the way of access to the actual seat of the
fire, and nothing either in securing a supply of water. The inmates of
the premises, if any, were quickly got out, and wherever an unhappy
creature was cut off by the flames, there were always one or more
firemen ready, if necessary, to brave an apparently certain death in a
heroic attempt at rescue--an attempt, indeed, which but seldom failed.
It is but just to say here that the firemen were always nobly
seconded, if not indeed anticipated, in these attempts by the officers
and men of the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire--a
body which has long rendered priceless services to humanity under most
appalling circumstances. The men of the Fire Brigade were taught to
prevent, as much as possible, the access of air to the burning
materials. What the open door of the ash pit is to the furnace of a
steam-boiler the open street door is to the house on fire. In both
cases the door gives vital air to the flames. The men of the Brigade
were trained to pursue a fire, not yet under full headway, up-stairs
and down, in at windows and out through the roof, anywhere, so it
could be reached directly by the water from the engines. They were
made to regard it as worse than a waste to throw even a gallon of
water upon a dead wall or upon a surface of slate or plaster, so long
as by any means the branch pipe could be got to bear upon the seat of
the fire itself. The statistics of the operations of the London
Fire-engine Establishment from 1833 to the present time, show with
what success the system originated and so admirably carried out by Mr
Braidwood has been pursued. Of the whole number of fires not one in
fifty now proceeds to the extent of total destruction of the premises.

Previous to the organization of the Fire-engine Establishment there
were no official annual reports of the fires in the metropolis. No one
person by himself was indeed in a position to know all of the fires
that happened, any more than, but for Lloyds', could we know of all
the wrecks which take place around and upon our coasts. It was
impossible, under such a state of things, that either the value of
insurance to the insured or its risk to the in