... years ago there was no proper fire police to protect the Metropolis against what is commonly called the "all-devouring element." There was, it is true, a force of 300 parochial engines set on foot by Acts which were passed between the years 1768-74—Acts which are still in existence—but these engines are under the superintendence of the beadles and parish engineers, who are not the most active of ... — Fires and Firemen • Anon.
... imperilled condition of the United Provinces, and, by necessary consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate of Protestantism, from Friesland to Hungary, threatened by the insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of Austria, the ancient church, and the Papistical League, what were hundred thousands of men marching towards Bohemia, the Netherlands, and the duchies, with the drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of Spain, Italy, and Catholic Germany, compared with ... — The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley