what was requisite
for the proper security of the first city in the world. Mr. Braidwood
had long felt this truth, but, acting for a private association, he
could only go to the extent of the limited resources at his disposal.
It was, more than anything else, the great fire at Cotton's Wharf that
first directed public attention to the necessary insufficiency of any
private establishment for the general suppression of fires, and that
has led to the legislation under which the Fire-engine Establishment
was, on the 1st of January last, taken over and extended by the
Metropolitan Board of Works. London will now, it is hoped, be better
protected from fire, because of the increased extent of the means of
protection; but it can hardly be expected that the discipline of the
brigade will be improved.

Apart from the public value of Mr. Braidwood's career in increasing
the common security against a common foe, there was much in his
personal, intellectual, and moral qualities worthy of admiration. He
was a man of strong and commanding frame, of inexhaustible energy, and
of enduring vitality. The constitutions of but few men could have
withstood such long continued wear and tear as fell to his. He braved
all weathers, all extremes of heat and cold, could sleep or wake at
will, and could work on long after others would have given way. He was
always at his post, and in no moment of difficulty or danger did his
cool judgment or his steady courage forsake him. It was this, together
with his considerate bearing, and on occasions of special trial his
almost womanly kindness to his men, that inspired them with unlimited
confidence in him and in his plans. Beyond this, he was a man of
superior mind, with strong comprehensive and generalising faculties.
His various published papers, and a correspondence of which but few
could know the extent and importance, as well as his ready, clear, and
exact manner in stating his views before committees and before those
in authority, who so often consulted him, all attest an order of mind
which, in a different sphere, would alone have won distinction for its
possessor. His profession was one in which it happens that almost
every person thinks himself competent to give advice; yet, without any
assumption of authority, Mr. Braidwood could make it felt wherever he
pleased that he was a master in the art of extinguishing fire. But he
was not on this account the less ready to listen to suggestions, and
the