mmittee weekly, or oftener, if required.

Any false entry, for the purpose of concealing absence, is
punished--for the first offence, by the reduction of one step, and for
the second by dismissal.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote F: At a fire which took place in one of the best streets in
Edinburgh, and which began in the roof, the persons who rushed into
the house on the first alarm being given, threw the greater part of
the contents of the drawing-room and library, with several basketsful
of china and glass, out of the windows; the fire injured nothing below
the uppermost story.]

THE EDINBURGH FIRE BRIGADE.

In forming the brigade in Edinburgh, where the firemen are only
occasionally employed, the description of men, from which I made a
selection, were slaters, house-carpenters, masons, plumbers, and
smiths.

Slaters make good firemen, not so much from their superiority in
climbing, going along roofs, &c., although these are great advantages,
but from their being in general possessed of a handiness and readiness
which I have not been able to discover in the same degree amongst
other classes of workmen. It is, perhaps, not necessary that I should
account for this, but it appears to me to arise from their being more
dependent on their wits, and more frequently put to their shifts in
the execution of their ordinary avocations. House-carpenters and
masons being well acquainted with the construction of buildings, and
understanding readily from whence danger is to be apprehended, can
judge with tolerable accuracy, from the appearance of a house, where
the stair is situated, and how the house is divided inside. Plumbers
are also well accustomed to climbing and going along the roofs of
houses; they are useful in working fire-cocks, covering the gratings
of drains with lead, and generally in the management of water. Smiths
and plumbers can also better endure heat and smoke than most other
workmen.

Men selected from these five trades are also more robust in body, and
better able to endure the extremes of heat, cold, wet, and fatigue, to
which firemen are so frequently exposed, than men engaged in more
sedentary employments.

I have generally made it a point to select for firemen, young men from
seventeen or eighteen to twenty-five years of age. At that age they
enter more readily into the spirit of the business, and are much more
easily trained, than when farther advanced in life. Men are frequently
found who, altho