The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-31 00:00:00

BRIGADE.

be built ; and in the south or D district there are •
eight stations in operation, with five now being
built and six not yet begun. These make a total
of 43 fire stations now ready for any call, five sta-
tions building, and 12 to be built; that is to say,
by the close of the present year there will be 60
fire-engine stations in the north and south of
London, instead of the 17 that were maintained
under the old Fire Brigade system. Each of
these four districts, as we have said, forms a dis-
tinct group by itself, each station in the group
being under the charge of an engineer, and each
central station in a group being under the charge of
a foreman of the district. All the sub-stations of
the groups are connected by telegraph with their
foreman's station, and all the four foremen's sta-
tions are in the same way connected with Captain
Shaw's headquarters in Watling-street. Thus, the
first call or alarm of fire is transmitted through all
sub-stations to the foreman of the district, and by
the foreman to Captain Shaw at Watling-street,
where everything in the nature of fire and fire-
alarms—which latter, of course, are ten times more
numerous—is known almost as soon as it occurs.
The foreman of the district takes it upon himself to
order whatever may be fitting to meet the imme-
diate necessity, but after that all pressing directions
are given through the telegraph by Captain Shaw
till he himself arrives upon the scene, and this is, as
a rule, within a few minutes after the first alarm
has been given. In the fire at her Majesty's Thea-
tre, Captain Shaw and the portion of the brigade
under his immediate- command were in the Hay-
market within eight minutes of the time the first
alarm was telegraphed to Watling-street.
At all principal fire stations, whether they are
those of groups or sub-stations, three engines are
always kept in readiness day and night—a steam
fire-engine, a large powerful engine worked by
hand, and a small engine drawn by hand, to be
pulled out and set to work at once in case of fire in
the immediate vicinity of the station. The steam

fire-engines are, of course, of great power, and
equal to three of the most powerful hand-worked
engines. They are about three times as expensive
to build, but last about three times as long, and, of
course, are not nearly so costly to work. A .few
pounds of coal, in fact, triple the amount of ser-
vice done by the paid labour of 30 men. It used
to require from 12 to 15 minutes to get up steam in
the boilers of these engines, but by a very simple
arrangement this source of delay is quite obvi-
ated now. The fires are all ready laid in the
furnaces, though not lighted, but a gas jet from a
flexible tube is kept playing upon the boiler from
the firebox, and the water inside it is always
kept at such a point as to give a pressure of a
few pounds of steam. After this, to get up full
power by lighting the furnaces is only a matter of
from two to three minutes, just the time allowed
for the engine to be horsed, manned, and ready to
start from the first instant of receiving the alarm.
Steam fire-engines are, of course, as much superior
to hand-worked engines as rifles are to the old
Brown Bess. Yet hand-worked engines can never be
altogether abandoned, and for these reasons : a
band-worked engine with its firemen weighs about
a ton, and two horses can and often do travel with
it to fires at the rate of 12 or 14 miles an hour ;
a land steam-engine, without its firemen, weighs
over three tons, and neither two, nor three, nor
four horses can drag this load at any great pace
for long. The hand-worked engines,
therefore, are
instantly despatched as the avant-courriers of
those worked, by steam, for the use of which in
the early outbreaks of fire there is rarely a
sufficient supply of water. in the matter of sta-
tions the Fire Brigade is at present but ill-
supplied, men, horses, and, in some cases, even
engines, having to be distributed up and down dif-
ferent parts of the same street, an arrangement
which must of necessity cause extra delay in bring-
ing them all together at the first alarm. This evil,
however, is not just now of great weight, for as fast
as proper sites can be obtained well-built barrack
fire-stations, with rooms for the men, stabling for
the horses, and houses for the enginess, are being
erected. Some of these new stations, such as those at
'Westminster, Camberwell, and Peckham, are really
model buildings. Others, as in the city, where
private houses have been adapted, are far from
offering such facilities as the force ought properly
to have.
The whole personnel of the Fire Brigade is divided a
into seven classes. First come the foremen of dis-
tricts, who receive 10s. day, with lodging, light,
fire, and uniform. Next come the engineers, who
iu charge of sub-stations get 6s. a day, and, like
all the rest, whether high or low in rank, have
the same perquisites as to lodging, lights, fire,
and clothes. The sub-engineers in charge of the
Gd., of the second class 45., of the
third class 3s. Gd., and the fourth or probationary
class 3s. All men
steamrsfit
class fire-engines
4nsg.ines get ss. a day, the firemen of the
injured, whether by accident or
whilemake
a ikte.receive full pay till fit
These conditions are in the
of the labour-mark t
present state e very liberal,
onthadtuty hours' duty into 24, or
pay is given a great
deal is expected in return. The fireman's regular
dtois
buter aeastteu, thern sta
duty must be 12 hours a day, and any emergency
of fire may me time if good
seamen, and
even more. Strange as it may seem,
f ro
servedm yawroehui nincaghl
1, men,
nearly all havewar. The
reasons for this choice, the risks to which they
thahobwleeovfearl,lmtuhechfitroeo-
men are chosen
they are called, and
a sufficiently long
interesting and too lengthy subjects to be disposed
article. In another we shall endeavour to explain
are
ee
exposed,
sedOf tthheosflerfiesretse
how the men are drilled, and of what kind are
of in a few words at the close of
the fires which they attend and how they attend
them.

for Aden

A War Department Circular was yesterday re-
ceived by CoL Campbell, superintending the Royal
Gun Factories at Woolwich, announcing the deci-
sion of the' Secretary of State, and acceding to his
request to be permitted to utilise some of the old
cast-iron guns of small calibre, to be converted by
the puddling process into bars and eoi's for the
manufacture of the new Fraser guns recently
adopted for the service.
The results of the annual rifle practice place the
Royal Marine Artillery again at the head of the
list of all the regiments under the Crown, the
figure of merit for the year 1867 being 157.88,
made up of the first period, 46.62 ; volley, 23.52 ;
first-class shots, 87.74 ; and no 'third- class shots.
But what they have reason to pride themselves on
more particularly is the very high percentage of
marksmen, which amounts to 37, being probably 20
per cent. higher than other regiments, with the ex-
ception, perhaps, of one or two. Such a result says
much for the training of this distinguished corps,
for it must be remembered they no longer get skilled
and seasoned men from the Marine Infantry as of
yore, but are recruited from civil life precisely the
same as the Line. g
A naval court-martial, by order of the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty, assembled on
board the flagship Fisgard, in the river at Wool-
.and commenced proceedings at 10 a.m. on
Wednesklay, under the presidency of Commodore
William Edmonstone, C. 8., for the trial of Pay.
master Thomas Goodman (sth of December, 1862)
belonging to her Majesty's 4-gun screw sloop
Shearwater, in basin at Woolwich, Commander
Thomas E. Smith, to be paid out of commission.
The Court consisted of Commander Smith,
prosecutor ; Commander Jackson, Fisgard ; Com-
mander Loftus F. Jones, Royalist ; Lieutenant
Bridger, Royalist ; and Lieut. Stanhope G. Price,
commanding the iron paddle vessel Lizard, on night
duty guarding the powder magazine at Erith. Mr.
F. J. Lory, paymaster and secretary to the Commo-
dore Superintendent of the yard, acted as officiating
Judge-Advocate ou behalf of the Board of Admi-
ralty, and the accused was defended by Mr. Spar-
row, solicitor. The charges were as follow :—Habits
of intemperance, carelessness in keeping and ren-
dering his accounts, and a deficit in the amount of
cash intrusted to his charge (said to be nearly
£700). The Court arrived at a unanimous decision,
and, taking into consideration his numerous cer-
tificates of good character, thought that the
justice of the case would be met by the accused be-
ing dismissed her Majesty's service, the defalcations
to be made good by his trustees.
The screw gun vessel Landrail, 5 guns, Comman-
der Horatio L. A. L.. Maitland, arrived at Spit-
head yesterday from the West Coast of Africa.
Her dates are Ascension, December 13 ; Sierra
Leon, 24th ; and St. Vincent, January 3. Off
Cape Finisterre she experienced a very heavy gale
from the N.W., and thick fogs in the Channel, but
with these exceptions she has had a very favourable
voyage home. She is ordered to Sheerness to be
paid off, after having been three years in com-
mission.
The yacht Black Eagle, Staff-Commander
Whillie, left Portsmouth harbour yesterday, and
crossed the Solent, with the Duke of Marlborough
(Lord-President), the Earl of Bradford (Lord
Chamberlain), Lord John J. R. Manners, Mr. S.
C. Cave, M.P., who proceeded to Osborne, where a
Privy Council was held, returning again in the
afternoon. Professor 'Wheatstone accompanied
the Cabinet Ministers.
The following appointment has been made in ,the
Royal Naval Reserve :—John Weeks to be hono-
rary Lieutenant.
The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Navigating-Lieut. Charles
Love, additional, to the Fisgard ; Navigating Sub.-
Lieut. George A Broad to the Supply ; and Hon.
Patrick Maurice Hely Hutchinson nominated a
naval cadet.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON'S LETTER,

The Bishop of London published a letter ad-
dressed by him to the Metropolitan of the South
African Church, protesting against the announced
consecration of the Rev. Dr. Macrorie as Bishop of
the see now filled by Dr. Colenso. It was contended
that the highest courts of the realm had pronounced
that see to be legally held by the present bishop,
and although Dr. Gray maintains, that from the
ecclesiastical point of view, the present incumbent
has been deposed, yet this is contested by the
Bishop of London, who therefore thinks such a con-
secration would be opposed both to the secular and
ecclesiastical tribunals. The Pall Mall Gazette
writes one of the sneering and scornful articles in
which it delights on this episcopal dispute. It
contends that different people mean different things
by the word bishop, and the arguments " pro" and
" con" do not affirm and deny the same, but very
different propositions :—" Dr. Gray does not deny
what his opponents assert ; on the contrary, he
would admit its truth. He, however, means by a
bishop something quite different from that which
they mean. A bishop, in his eyes, is a person who
by the performance of an invisible miracle called
consecration has obtained the power of working
another invisible miracle called ordination, which
enables the persons ordained to work in their turn
other invisible miracles, especially in the adminis-
tration of the sacrament. It is this power of work-
ing invisible miracles which is the specific differentia
of a bishop in the eyes of many people ; and when
they say that a man has ceased to be a bishop, or
has been deposed from his bishopric, they mean that
by appropriate means he has been deprived of the
power of working these miracles. According to this
view Dr. Colenso is a mere sham. He may be called
bishop, he may be enabled by the law courts to
preach in certain pulpits and to prevent other people
from doing so, he may draw his salary, but his mi-
raculous power has gone from him. lle is a mere
dead stick, incapable of transmitting to others what
he no longer possesses himself. The powers of a
bishop are as personal as his appearance or his cha-
racter. The law can no more give them or take
• them away than an Act of Parliament could make
Dr. Colenso ten years younger or six inches shorter
than he actually is. As to the words "of Natal"
in the expression Bishop of Natal, what is meant
is, that thaumaturgists of the class in question have
a set of rules amongst themselves by which each
man is forbidden to exercise his miraculous powers
except in a certaia district under pain of being in
certain cases deprived of them altogether." At first
it was proposed to perform the ceremony at St.
Helena ; it was then changed to Scotland, but this
was abandoned in deference to a vigorous protest
from some of the most attached members of the
Episcopal Church. It was not stated where Dr.
Gray intended to consecrate the new Bishop, but it
was announced to take place on :Saturday last.
The Bishop of London affirms the Royal mandate
to be legally required before a Bishop can be conse-
crated in England. The production of the mandate
is demanded in the course of the Consecration
Service, while the Bishop elect declares his belief
that he is called to his office, not only according to
the law of the Church, but to that of the realm.
Against this the Standard maintains that the law of
26th George 111., cap. 84, alluded to by Dr: Tait,
applies only to consecrations to English dioceses
or to dioceses legally constituted by the Crown
in our colonies. 6, Otherwise the Crown has no
rights in the matter. This is the case in all
colonies which possess a local representative Go-
vernment. The Crown cannot assign dioceses or
territorial jurisdiction, and therefore declines either
to issue its mandate or grant its letters patent. The
consecration of Archdeacon Bethune as Bishop of
Niagara is a case in point. The Metropolitan of
the Church in Canada applied to the Crown for its
licence, to enable him to proceed to the consecra-
tion, bit the Duke of Newcastle, the then Colonial
Secretary, replied, that in consequence of the
Westbury
judgment it appeared that the Crown
had no right to issue its licence ; that it would be
contrary to its dignity to assume a power which it
did not possess, and that the bishops were quite
competent to proceed to consecrate without it.
Bishop Bethune is, astounding as it may seem to
Dr. Tait, a living example of the possibility of the