The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-09-05 00:00:00

THE LONDON FIRE BRIGADE.

At present, as for some time past, much dissatis-
faction exists among the Metropolitan Fire Brigade,
consequent upon the excessive and harassing work they
have to perform, and their inadequate pay, as they
consider it. The result, so far, is that several of the
men have seceded from the brigade and betaken them-
selves to other employment, and many of those that
r. main are more or less discontented. Under the old
system, when the force was paid by and was under
the control of the Fire Insurance Companies, it was
composed of about 130 men, posted at seventeen dif-
ferent stations; but now, since it was transferred to
the Metropolitan Board of Works, the number of men
has been nearly trebled, and so have the stations. The
whole brigade is CI Imp ksed now of 340 men, in-
cluding the chief arid a foreman for tash disttict, and
is distributed over four extensive districts, embracing
the whole metropolitan area 01 er which the Board
, of Works operates, and subdivided into forty-six
stations. Four large floating-engines are, besides,
I constantly maintained on the 1 hames, each with a
proper complement of men. There used only to be
two. Again, eighty-eight escapes are kept up in ,
various parts of the metropolis for the ihotection of
lli e from tire, a duty for more than twenty years ciis-
charged by the Royal So iety, a purely voluntary and
benevolent body, and to each of these a fireman is
attached during the whole night all the year round.
This fire-escape duty is discharged by the men in
turn throughout the whole brigade, and they complain
that, though engaging them throughout the whole
night, it does not exempt them from work during the
day, insomuch as in the dayt me, when they ought to
, be resting, they are liable to be called out in case of
I need to a tire, and should no such emergency arise, to
work at cleaning engines. The consequence is that
these men are so weakened for want of rest that they
are often found sleeping at their posts at comparatively
early hours in the evening while on fire-escape duty.
Of late cases have occ.isionally arisen where men have
been on duty four days and nights running without
ever having had their clothes off. This state of
things is calculated seriously to affect the public
interest in two ways—first, in lessening the pro-
tection of life from tire, which fire-escapes, nume-
rous and well manned, are designed to afford, and
again in exposing property to greater risk from fire.
Besides the duties expected from the brigade, which
have been enumerated, it is also bound to keep a
special guard, day and night, at the Custom-house, the
General Post-office, and various theatres, the Seamen's
Regiotry-office, and other public establishments.
Formerly, it had to assign men to that special duty at
the Custom-house and General Post-office only. At
the recent great fire in Southwark, from the excessive
strain which had been previously put upon the men
ft r some time before, and, from secessions from their
number, it is sail that some time elapsed before they
could muster sixty men in the emergency. awl that in
the meantime the fire raged furiously. The pay of an
ordinary fireman is a guinea a week, and out of that
he has to pay ls. towards lodging and 6.1. to a superan-
nuation fund, the latter being returned to hirn in the
event of his leaving the service.

THE REV. MONSIGNOR TALBOT ON
RELIGION IN ENGLAND.
On Sunday the Rev. Monsignor Talbot, Chamber-
lain to the Pope, preached at St. Mary's Catholic
Church, Moorfields, London. In the progress of his
discourse, which was an appeal for a fund to restore
the Church of St. Thomas at Rome, the rev, dignitary
spoke at some length regarding the attitude of religion
in England.
He had, he said, come from Rome, from the only city in
the world in which religion was predominant. For some
months past he had been travelling through the cities and
villages of England, and he was grieved to behold the
spiritual desert which existed in this beautiful island. The
higher classes pursued their pleasures And the bent of their
predominant ideas, while the poor, abandoned to their own
vices, were in some places in a state of brutality. How had
it come to pass that this beautiful island was a spiritual
desert ? The atemer constituted a sod story. England was
once the island of saints To St. Peter the order was given
to evangelize the world, and he em commissioned not to
confine his teaching to the Jews, hut ti extend it also to the
Gentiles. Ile it was who sent encyclical letters all over the
world, and directed Apostles to preach the Gospel through
the nations of the earth. St. Patrick, who found Ireland
peopled by a race id savages, tiled to evangelize that country,
tot failed at first, because he had not received the blessing
of the Vicar of Christ. lint, having gone to Rome and re-
ceived that benediction, lie converted the whole country,
which still remained an example of devotion to the Holy See
and to the Catholic Church. So it was also with St. lionif me,
who converted the Germans after his mission had been blessed
by the Pepe.
Having sketched the history of the conversion of England
by St Augustine, the preacher pt.-weeded to say that 400
years atter that apostle of the faith had come to this island,
the land WAS conquered by a race who were clad in iron from
head to foot. That people commenced by insulting the Holy
See, and the devotion of the simple Saxon inhabitatits to the
Vicar of Christ became less fervent day by day. So things
proceeded until Thomas a Becket, a Saxon, was murdered by
the barons of Henry 11.. a Norman. Thomas a Pecket was
the humblest of men, and the holiest of prelates. All history
had Wafted his character. Ile loved the poor, and gave
th.sm all he could bestow ; his humility was proverbial, and
still he was put to death Why ? Because be defended
the poor. and the rights of the poor and of the Church.
Henry VIII. accomplished what Henry If. had begun.
Ile deserted allegiance to the Holy See because the
Pope would not sanction a sacrilegious marriage It
was an afterthought to say Gnat he did so because
the people of England did not believe in transubstantiation
and the Invocation of saints. Although he was repeating a
sad story he was cheered to see rising up all over the island
side by side with the magnificent cathedrals built by our
Catholic ancestors simple and unassuming temples of
God. Ile was cheered also to observe the increased
devotion to the Holy See, and to know that the sons of the
highest in the land were willing to enrol themselves as
simple soldiers to defend the Vicar of Christ from the
assaults of the miscreants of Italy. Catholic worship was
being extanded, and he hoped that the day was not far dis-
tant when this country might seek for union with the Holy
See, and make reparation for the past. Ile then briefly
sketched the history of the Church of St. Thomas in Rome,
and said tbnt row it eve in ruins England was the only
country in the world which hod not Its national rhurch in
the capital of Chficfcistions. If the Catholic Orucla wan