re are numbers who can bear testimony to the patient, honest, and
appreciative manner in which he considered the many and diverse
propositions submitted to him as the head of the Fire Brigade of the
first city in the world. The soundness of his views and opinions is
sufficiently attested by the success of his practice--a success which,
but for the Government tax upon fire policies, would have long since
made fire insurance in London almost the cheapest of all the forms of
protection of property from danger. The London Brigade was
insignificant in numbers and tame in display when compared with the
eight hundred _sapeurs pompiers_ of Paris, with their parade and all
their accessories of effect--insignificant and tame, too, after the
glittering apparatus, imposing paraphernalia, and deafening clatter of
the "Fire Department" of New York; but Mr. Braidwood's chosen men knew
how to do their duty, and considering the differences in the mode of
building and of heating, and in the extent of lighting in the three
great metropoli just named, it is an easy matter, on reference to
statistics, to prove that none others have done better.

Above all, Mr. Braidwood was a gentleman of deep Christian feeling;
and those who knew him best had never doubted that, had it been his
lot to linger long in pain, knowing the end that was to come, his calm
but unwavering faith in a better future would have sustained him
through all. Brought up from childhood in the faith of the Scotch
church, he was a regular attendant upon the ministrations of the Rev.
Dr. Cumming. In his own quiet way he did much good in the poorer
districts of London, and he took a special interest in the ragged
schools of the metropolis. What he was in his own home may be best
inferred from the crushing force with which his dreadful yet noble
fate fell upon those who were dearest to him. His family had already
too much reason to know the dangers which had always attended his
career. A step-son had fallen, five years before, in nearly the same
manner, and now lies buried in the same grave. Eleven members, in all,
of the brigade, had perished in the discharge of their duty during the
time Mr. Braidwood had commanded it: a fact which, taken with daily
experience, pointed to other victims to follow. Such consolation,
then, as a stricken widow and a mourning family could have, next to an
abiding faith in the goodness of God, was in the recollection of the
virtues and noble qualities