The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-05-22 00:00:00

r Two Gentleme,

o dine in tow

excepted,) can be a
[ENTS, in one of the .

elegant

ommodated w•i
antest and mostsalubrious

ulars see Reference Liet at the STANDAIV

rPO be LET, Rent £52 10s,, a commodious'HOUSE,
nearliamliton-square, three minutes' walk from Wood-
-• has a Surgery attached, and was lately occupied

. ,
by a respectable Surgeon.
Apply to W Al. WESTH EAD, 5, Cievel

,nd. street, Birkenhead

SHORE-SIDE,

BOOTLE

be' LET, Four commodious HOUSL,
1 _Stables, Coach-houses, Gardens, and every mavenieucu

S, with

f respectability
yto.Mr. BOOKER, Solicit

for fa mil
A

iteuts moderate

WALTON-ON-THE-HILL.
', an excellent HOUSE,. with Flower and

Kitehea Gardens. The Hons.? is beautifully situated,
commanding a most extensive view of
_the surrounding

mind door, and five Bedrooms. 'This would forma good
for.a:Sorgeon. Immediate possession may be had.
Apply toTHADmAs WYLIE, Surveyor, Sweeting-street, Liver-

E2lstlrante gotirts.

LETTER FROM THE AGENT,OF THE WEST OF
ENGLAND INSURANCE COMPANY.

TO TUE

EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

IR,—'Fill.you allow me, in my-capacity of, agent to
one of the most important Fire-offices carrying-on business
in Liverpool, to call your attention toe subject which isof great
interest both to the officers and to the public. I allude to the
establishment provided by thejocal authorities-for the.extin-
gnishment,offires. It is not possible to- overrate the impor-
tance of this matter either to us or to the public. I-think I
need fear noquestion when I say that the proper maintenance
of this force is one of the most important dizties.which devolves
on the municipal ?body. I wish, therefore, Mull the public
attention to the manner in which it is discharged, andl think
I can convince any •raisonable man that it is extremely;inetli-
cient and capable of great improvement.
The first and most,rialpable objection to it,is the obvious in-
consistency of attempting to unite the two duties .of,fireman
and policeman. .1 believe that Liverpool is the only large town

for it here is economy. Now, I need not pointout to you how
easily the slightestfaunin the system may in a momentsamil-
fice property, not to speak of life, of infinitely greaterNalue
than the amount •which could be saved by parsimony in the
course of a century. 'rids very tendency to economise, how-
ever, shows the inexpediency of taking the extignuishment of
fires out of the hands. of the insurance Companies, whose inte-
rest it was to protect-themselves, ane placing it in the bands of
a body whose sole object is to make their annual accounts look
well in the eyes of their, ,constituents, and whose subordi-
nates feel it to he an irksome:addition to their daily Tontine of
duty. _ _

The system at present is this: most of the engines belonging
to the town are kept at a central stationinTemple-court, where
Mr. Hewett, the manager, and -two other men, reside. The fire-
men are distributed among the other policemen doing 4uty all
over the town and suburbs by day and night. When an alarm
of fire is given it is the duty.of.the policeman who first observes
at instantly to run to the station to Mr. Hewitt, who then starts
,for the spot. The alarm is then, and not until then, spread
;over the town from the station, andthe consequence is, that the
engines often arrive before a single:fireman, and the latter drop
in.one by one (if zealous, in a state •of exhaustion, if lazy, at
their leisure,) from their other duties, and often arrive an hour
after the fire might have been extingui.ied by a proper force
in the first instance. The watermen are also frequently late
from,the same defective plan of passing the alarms. I have
seen-thousands of pounds' worth of property sacrificed, merely
because, after the arrival of theengines, there were neither fire-
men nor watermen arrived to work them.

The system adopted for country fires is worse still. Hewett,
with two engines, and two or three men, ,hurries out, the body
of firemen (twenty or thirty in number) being left to find their
way on foot as they best may, I lave seen theta riding in an
empty market cart at the rate of two miles an hats, and often
arrive at the Are after it is out. The Watch Committee charge
for this valuable service one shilling per hour for the first-
class men, and sixpence per hour for the second-class men,
from the time the engine leaves the station, though the men
themselves get nothing. The Watch Committee can compel
this monstrous imposition to be paid for by their act. They
also charge for the use of the engines.
I have no wish to be accused of self-laudation, but may
point to the different management of the West of linglend
establishment, where seven men reside on the spot, and are
ready to turn out in a moment with the engine. Nothing so
absurd can happen with us as the arrival of engine after engine
without hands, and attended only by Mr. Hewett and one or
two other men. _ _

Is it. not lamentable that so important a matter as the pre-
servation of our lives and properties from fire should be en-
trusted to a set of perscns who, though efficient in their parti-
cular capacity, feel that one shilling a week extra wages is a
very inadequate remuneration for the risk of life, fatigue, and
injury to health from getting wet in the performance of their

It would be better for the public if the alarms were passed
immediately from the burning premises all over the town, so
as tc
as

.e with Mr. Hewitt

could point out many fires as

with wilieh it
That neither

Iv bad

W. WHITEHOnik