Like any good home owner, I pay for fire insurance, and the insurance company makes a good effort to protect my home from fire. And I proudly display their fire mark on my house. That way, their fire brigade knows that I am paid up and deserving of protection. Some of my neighbors use the same fire company. Others have different fire marks. A few don’t have any, and if their house catches fire, the neighbors’ homes will still get water pumped onto them by the brigades whose marks they display. It is all a fine system that our kingdom has, one of choice!
Some people have started to complain that this system is not ideal. They seem to think that fire fighting should be a royal function. I see not why; since I pay for mine, I don’t see why others should be allowed to freeboot it. But perhaps they have some issues with the fire companies. The Lord Mayor did decree that all, both freeholders and lessors on royal land, should be allowed to buy fire protection, but some malcontents may find the choices inadequate. Therefore the Lord Mayor has suggested a compromise, which I suppose is a fine one:
A Public Fire Company for All Who Want It
Thus the City will set up a fire company of its own. In order to not become a burden on the public exchequer, it must set its prices to cover all of its costs, so it will also not unfairly compete with the fine businessmen who collect private insurance payments and pay both their own subscribers’ loss claims and the fire brigades who help minimize them. And those of us who love our fire company can keep it. It really should satisfy the malcontents. Those who want free fire protection for all are far too radical and could impair the stability of the kingdom.
[ed. note: Before the mid-19th century, fire fighting was often left to private companies, who put their fire marks on houses that they protected. No fire mark, no protection. Fire marks are a tourist sight in old places like London, but did spread to the colonies. Something about a recent debate reminded me of them.]