known to stop on their way to a fire to exchange shots from revolvers.
It was therefore determined to incorporate the divided force, and
place it under the management of one superintendent, each office
contributing towards its support, according to the amount of its
business. All the old established companies, with one exception,[*]
shortly came into the arrangement, and Mr. Braidwood, the master of
the fire-engines of Edinburgh, being invited to take the command,
organized the now celebrated _London Fire Brigade_.

[*] The West of England Fire-Office, which retains the command of its
own engines.

At the present moment, then, the protection against fire in London
consists, firstly, in the 300 and odd parish engines (two to each
parish), which are paid for out of the rates. The majority of these
are very inefficient, not having any persons appointed to work them
who possess a competent knowledge of the service. Even women used now
and then to fill the arduous post of director; and it is not long
since a certain Mrs. Smith, a widow, might be seen at conflagrations,
hurrying about in her pattens, directing the firemen of her engine,
which belonged to the united parishes of St. Michael Royal and
St. Martin Vintry, in the city. We question, indeed, if at the
present moment any of the parish-engines are much better officered
than in the days of widow Smith, with the exception of those of
Hackney, Whitechapel, Islington, and perhaps two or three others.
Secondly, there are an unknown number of private engines kept in
public buildings, and large manufactories, which sometimes do good
service when they arrive early at small fires in their neighborhood,
although, singularly enough, when called upon to extinguish a
conflagration in their own establishments, they generally "lose their