If we look at the mere number of fires irrespective of the size of the industrial group upon which they committed their ravages, houses would appear to be hazardous according to the order in which we have placed them.  Now, this is manifestly absurd, inasmuch as private houses stand at the head of the list, and it is well known that they are the safest from fire of all kinds of tenements.  Mr. Brown, of the Society of Actuaries, who has taken the trouble to compare the number of fires in each industrial group with the number of houses devoted to it, as far as he could find any data in the Post-office Directory, gives the following average annual percentage of conflagrations, calculated on a period of fifteen years:—­

Lucifer-match makers 30.00
Lodging-houses 16.51
Hatmakers 7.74
Chandlers 3.88
Drapers 2.67
Tinmen, Braziers, and Smiths 2.42
Carpenters 2.27
Cabinet Makers 2.12
Oil and Color Men 1.56
Beershops 1.31
Booksellers 1.18
Coffee-shops and Coffee-houses 1.20
Cabinet Makers 1.12
Licensed Victuallers .86
Bakers .75
Wine Merchants .61
Grocers .34

It will be seen that this estimate in a great measure inverts the order of “dangerous,” as we have ranged them in the previous table, making those which from their aggregate number seemed to be the most hazardous trades appear the least so, and vice versâ.  Thus lucifer-match makers have a bad pre-eminence; indeed, they are supposed to be subject to a conflagration every third year, while the terrible victuallers, carpenters, mercers, and bakers, at the top of the column, shrink to the bottom of the list.  These conclusions nevertheless are only an approximation to the truth, since it is impossible to procure a correct return of the houses occupied by different trades.  Even if a certain class of tenements is particularly liable to fire, it does not follow that it will be held to be very hazardous to the insurers.  Such considerations are influenced by another question, Are the contents of houses forming the group of that nature that, in case of their taking fire, they are likely to be totally destroyed, seriously, or only slightly damaged?  For instance, lodging-houses are very liable to fire, but they are very seldom burnt down or much injured.  Out of 81 that suffered in 1853 not one was totally destroyed; only four were extensively affected; the very large majority, 77, were slightly scathed from the burning of window and bed curtains, &c.  Among the trades which are too hazardous to be insured at any price are—­we quote from the Tariff