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The now Quarterly is decidedly superior , on tlio whole , to the Edinburgh . The opening article—one on " Fires and Fire-Insurance "—may rank , in point of freshness and interest , with the article in the Edinburgh on Mexzofanti . It is a complete account of the organisation of the London Firebrigade , and includes a summary of the statistics of fires , their causes , &c . ; and the arrangement of the article is masterly . Here is nn extract :
In ooutnuit to tbo immense rabble of . Humble engines ana cue Batthi-liazouks of private establishments , we have the Rmall complement of men and material of the ilro brigade . It consists of 27 largo horse- engines , capable of throwing 88 gallons a minute to a height of from 60 to 70 feet , nnd I ) smaller ones drawn by hand . To work them there arc 12 epgiiieota , 7 sub-engineers , 82 senior firemen , fl 9 junior firemen , and 14 drivers , or 104 men and 81 horses . In ' addition to these persons , who form the main establishment , and live at the different stations , there is nn extra staff of 4 firemen , 4 drivers , and 8 horses . The members of this nuppleinontary force are also lodged at the stations , as well as clothed , but are only paid when their services are required , and pursue in the daytime their ordinary occupation * . This not very formidable army
iof ; 134 : laea and 81 bosses , fntH its reserve of -8 men wad 8 bosses , is distributed ( throughout the metropolis , which is divided into four districts , as follows i-r-On . tha ( north side of the river—1 st , From the eastward to Paul' 8- « h « ui , St . Paul ' s- ^ churcb . - y ard * AHersgate-street , and < JosweH .-street-ro * d . ; 2 nd , Erom St . Paul's , &c , to Tofc-¦ tenHam-couTt-road , Crown-street , and St . Martin ' s-lane ; 3 rd , JTrom Totienham-courtload , &C ., westward ; 4 th , The entire south , side , of the liver- At the head of each district is a , foreman , who . never leaves it unless acting under tha sjqpex&oi ; orders- , •© £ Mr . Braidwood , the' superintendent or general-in-chief , "whose head-quarters are iq WatHng-tftBeet . In comparison with , the great Continental cities , such a force seems truly insignificant . Paris , which , does not cover a fifth part of the ground of JLondon , land is not much more than , a third as populous , boasts 800 sopeurs-poTtjtpiers : ~ yr . & intake op , however * fox want of numbers by activity . Again , our look-out is admitrabla : tfae 6000 police of the metropolis , patrolling every alley and lane throughout Sts length and breadth , watch fora&re as terriers watch at rat-holes , and -every mas
ds stimulated by the Jcnowledg * , that df he is the first to give notice of it at-any of tha ( stations , it is half-a-sovereign in his ' pocket . In addition to the police , there are tba thousand « ager eyes of the night * c&bzsen and the houseless poor . It is not at ail HmWmmdtL fiir ft cabman to -earn ifrur er&vb shillings of a night by driving fast to Itbe different stations and giving the alarm , receiving « shilling from each , for the " calL . " In rtio&t Continental cities a watchman takes his-stand during the night on the topmost point of some high 'building , and gives notice by either blowing a born * firing a gun , or ringing a bell la Germany , the quarter is indicated by holding out towards it a flag by day and a lantern , at night . It immediately suggests itself that a . sentinel placed in the upper gallery of St . Paul ' s' would have under Ms eye the ¦ whole metropolis , and couMmake known instantly , by means of -so . electric wire , the position of a fire to the head station at Watling-street , in the same manner as the Americans do in Bostotu . This plan is , however , open to the'objection , -that London is intersected by a sirafous river , which renders it difficult to tell on . which bank the
conflagration is raging . Nevertheless , we imagine that the northern , part of the tows could be advantageously superintended ; . from such a height , whilst the southern half might rest under the surveillance of one of the tall shot-towers on that bank of the Thames . The bridges themselves have long been posts of observation , from which , a large portion of the river-side property is watched . Not long ago there was a pieman on London-bridge , who eked out a precarious existence by keeping a good look-out up and down the stream . Watling-street was chosen as the head- < quarteTS of the ' fire brigade for a double reason : it is very nearly the centre of the City , being close to the far-famed London Stone , and it is in the very midst of what may be termed , speaking igneously , the most dangerous part of the metropolis—the Manchester warehouses . As the fire brigade is only a portion of a vast commercial operation : —fire insurance—its actions are regulated by strictlyHSommercial considerations . Where
the largest amount of insured property lies , there its chief force is planted . It will , it is true , go any reasonable distance to put out a fire ; but of course it pays most attention to property which its proprietors have guaranteed . The central station receives the greatest number of " calls ; " but as -a 4 BOnmt » nder-in- ^ ihief does not turn out for a skirmish of outposts , so Mr . Braidwood keeps WmselfTe « dy &raffairs < H ' tt more serious nature . When the summons is at Bight—there aTe sometimes as tnany as half-a-dozen—the nreman on duty below apprises the superintendent by means of a gutta-percha speaking-tnbe , which comes up to his bedside . By -the light of tiie ever-burning gas , he rapidly consults the London Dweetory , and if the csftl BnwnM . bft to what is called " a greengrocer ' s street , " or any of the small thoroughfares in * yparts of the town , he leaves the matter to the foreman -in whose district it ib , and goes to sleep again . If , however , the fire should be in the Gity , or in any "one of the great West-end thoroughfares , he "hurries -off on the first engine .
The next article , entitled Life of Dalton—Atomic Chemistry ' , is partly Biographic , and partly Scientific , and without being very brilliant and striking , is decidedly able . It is followed by a short paper highly laudatory of Mr . John Leech ' s Pictures of Life and Character . One has only to read a few sentences of this pleasant and peculiar little paper , to be aware that Mr . Tha . ck . ebay is the -writer , It opens thus : — ; We , who can recal the consulship of Plancus , and quite ( respectable old-fogyfiea times , remember amongst other amusements which we had as children the pictures at which we were permitted to look . There was BoydeH ' s Shakspeare , black and ghastly
ganery of mmky-Opie 3 , "g ^^ Oberon , Hamlet , with starting muscles , Tolling eyeballs , and long pointing quivering fingers-, there was little Prince Arthur ( Northcote ) crying , in white satin , and bidding good Hubert not put out his eyes ; there was Hubert crying-, there was little Rutland being ran through the poor little body by bloody Clifford ; there was Cardinal Beaufort ( Reynolds ) gnashing his teeth , and grinning and howling demoniacally on his deathbed ( a picture frightful to the present day ); there was Lady Hamflton ( Romney ) waving a torch , and dancing before a black background , —a melancholy museum indeed . Smirkc ' s delightful Seven Ages only fitfully relieved its general gloom . We did not like to inspect it unless the elders were present , and plenty ot
lights and company were in the room . . . • ,, "«*__ -, _ - « r Our story-books had no pictures in them for the moat part . Erank ( dear old Frank I > had none ; nor the Parent ' s Assistant ; nor the Evenings at Home ; nor our copy of the Amides Enfans : there were a few just at the end of the Spelling Book ; besid e * the allegory at the beginning , of Education leading up Youth to the temple of Industry , where Dr . Dilworth and Professor WalkingTiame stood with crowns of laurel there were , wo say , jnst a few pictures at the end of the Spelling Book , little oval grey woodcuts of Bewick ' s , mostly of the Wolf and the Lamb , the Dog and the Shadow , and Brown , Jones , and Robinson with long ringlets and little tights ; but for pictures , bo to speak , what had we ? The rough old woodblocks In the old harlequin-backed fairy-books had served hundreds of years ; before our Plancua , m the time of Priscua Plancus—in Queen Anne ' s time , -who knows ? We wore flogged at school ; we wore fifty boys in our boarding house , and had to wash in a leaden trough , under a cistern , with lumps of fat yellow soap floating about in the ice ana water . Are our sons ever flogged ? Have they not dressing-rooms , hair-oil j flipbaths , and BaSen towels ? And what picture-books the young villains have ! wn « hathese children done that they should be so much happier than we were i ¦ _•
ve Of funny pictures there were none especially intended for us children . There was Rowlandson ' s Dr . Syntax ; Doctor Syntax , in a fuzz-wig , on a horse with legs like sausages , riding raooa , making love , *™ j """ £ with rosy exuberant damsels . Those pictures were very funny , and that ^"""" g * and the gay-coloured plates very pleasant to witness ; but if wo could inot reaa the poem in those days , could we digost it in this ? Nevor'hole ^ apart from the ^ gt Uich wo could not master , we remember Dr . Syntax P l ° ft 9 ant& ' . ^ J ^/ fT ^ SSSJtffi ^^ ^^^ ¦ K « " ^^^ ^ gelasma of the fish . , ,. Here is a description of the caricatures that uaod to « tt » M *« r g" »^ fiithera : —
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( Mties tireTiofct . b . 'e legislators , t » ut iAxe judges and police of literature ; They do not The politioal article i n the present numbe of the Edinburgh Review takes the shape of a tiistorical sketch of " The War in the Crimea . " It is throiighout an apology for Ministers , and is -written in the spirit of the mildest and smallest Whlggism . Everything that the allied governments have done la the East has been done as well as , in the circumstances ,. it possibly coiild be ( Jone—euch is the doctrine c > f the article ; it wmds up with , a raoommendation to let the Ministers patch up a peace . In the present temper of our contrymen , flashed wifli thfe excftemellt xst tiliaic * - customed efforts and with the heroic achlevments of tiie ¦ aritty , it in ^ reqtdw somfe courage ha a Minister to speak of peace on any terms , not absolutel y"itteonsistent with the strength and the rights of the empire to which we are Oppesetl . Yet peace is sfiH our object , and our only object . We have * ouna otrrselves bytreaty to "Prance , aflahe has bound herself to us , to seel : no territorial aggrandisement or advaniiage hi this
war which shall not be common to the interests of Europe . 1 ? Q one has ever yet attempted to show that any exclusive or preponderating British interest was engaged in the quarrel ; though British interests of fte first Order are identified with the independence of the East , and Trith tlte general cause for which we are coTtrteitrding . Those interests and those lights behig defined by bur aHiattces with i&e powers pTrrsuingthe same objects , we have no motive to put forward any pretensions different 'from theirs •; and if the people of ffrfa country Trere so tmreasonable as to attempt to prolong ifee horrors of war , atid to impose incalculable sacrifices of treasure and of life notdhly on this nation hut on the rest of Europe , after the essential objects of the warlkave been obtained , we should ourselves become an object of distrust and alarm to other nations ,, and we should lose that influence in Europe which , thanks to the disinterestedness and temper of the British Government , has never been more conspicuously displayed , nor more beneficially exerted , than at the present tune .
Another article in the number , bearing generally on politics , is one entitled " Parliamentary Opposition . " It is an attempt at a scientific appreciation of the faculties necessary to a successful Parliamentary oppositionist , and also of the uses of Parliamentary opposition . As there are no allusions to existing politicians , the article has a thin and somewhat abstract character ; there is also too much of quotation from Livt and the Philippics of Cicero in it—as if the writer had not forgotten his essays in the Union Debating Society . In fact , the article reads like a faint reminiscence of ; a chapter of
Abistoti-e ' s Rhetoric . Still it is suggestive , and by no means commonplace . Characterising Parliamentary opposition as consisting in the Science of Objections and the Science of -Alternatives ^ -that is , in the knack of pointing out faults in a proposed measure , and the knack of suggesting alternative measures to the one proposed— -the writer discusses , in detail , the various tricks of the oppositionist in practice ; the general effect of -what he says is both to lower the estimate one is apt to form of what is necessary for an opposition leader , and also to show that " Her Majesty ' s Opposition " is an essential element in our Parliamentary Government .
By far the most interesting article in the number is one on " Cardinal Mezzofanti , " giving an account of the life and acquirements of that unparalleled linguist , who , before he died , could write , read , or speak , some seventy different languages . This is precisely the kind of article that one likes to meet with in a Review—pleasant , full of information , and yet novel . The writer prefixesToTiis account of MezzofAuti a series of brief-notices of all the most celebrated linguists before his time , commencing with Methkihates , the famous King of Pontus , and coming down to 1774 > which was the year of Mezzofanct ' s birth . The article is of a kind from which it is useless to make extracts ; and whoever takes up the Review will bo sure to read it , whatever else he may skip . A good deal of the information in the article , we may mention , is derived from a memoir of Mezzofanti , read before the Philological Society by Mr . Thomas Watts , of the British Museum , a gentleman whose own acquisitions as a linguist are , according to all accounts , not surpassed , if they are equalled , in Britain .
The remaining articles in the Edinburgh are—one on " Charles the Fifth , " one on " Modern French Literature , " one on " The Siege of Rhodes in 1480 , " one on " Private Bill Legislation , " one on " The Monasteries of Mount Athos and Lord Carlisle ' s Diary , " and one on " Marsden ' s History of the Puritans . " There is nothing very remarkable in any of these articles ; one or two of which are solid and useful , while others are so trite and so little superior in execution to the most common and most ephemeral writing , that we wonder on what principle they are selected for the Edinburgh .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 20, 1855, page 63, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2074/page/15/
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