weight of pig iron; and the fusibility principally depends on the quantity of carbonaceous matter contained in the iron, which is as various as the numer ous shades between white iron and dark grey foundry iron.

By following this process a considerable saving of pig iron is effected, at a very trifling increase of expense for ore and additional labour beyond the expense of the usual mode of working. This is one great advantage of the process, but the most important consists in being able at all times to develop, in the first stage of the manufacture, a certain quantity of strong fibre, which is increased during the ulterior operations, and conjoined with great hardness.

Iron ore when used in the puddling furnace, whether with pig iron or with refined metal, decarbonates the iron by means of oxygen which it presents to the carbon united with the iron, and at the same time it calls into existence an unusual display of fibre. This remark applies as well to refined metal as to pig iron, and no degree of fusibility on the part of the pig iron retards the full and beneficial effect of the iron ore, provided it be applied in proper quantity.

I consider pig iron, and not refined metal, as the true source of strength, hardness, and fibre in bar iron, particularly when cold, and as these qualities can at all times be obtained by a judicious selection of pig iron, and the use of iron ore, we may consider ourselves in possession of a method by which these three great requisites to the production of railway iron are secured. I have only further to remark, that it is probable the piling and rolling in the first instance may be done away with in the making of railway iron, by hammering the puddled balls into large and solid blooms, to be afterwards rolled into rails. By following this line of operation the great evil of lamination, as it is called, or a separation of the piles hitherto so injurious to durability, would be got rid of.

PORTER'S PROGRESS OF THE NATION.

When the first volume of Mr. Porter's work appeared, somewhat more than a twelvemonth ago, we ventured a few strictures on the general characteristics of the undertaking. Those strictures

are still perfectly applicable, as the second volume, in the mode of handling its subjects, varies in no essential respect from the first, though the subjects are of course of a different nature, the former being devoted to" Population and Production, ," while the present refers to "Interchange," including conveyance by sea and land, and all the ramifications of trade and commerce, and the less congenial heads "Revenue and Expenditure." As before, Mr. Porter has recourse for nearly all his materials to those inexhaustible storehouses of statistical lore, the parliamentary reports; and, also as before, he may be complained of for the wholesale manner in which he has converted them to his own purposes, and the too little pains he has taken to discriminate between the good and the bad,

-the well and the ill-founded, which, in statistical reports, are often separated by, as "thin partitions as do the bounds divide" between wit and madness in the moral world. With all its faults, however, the work is a valuable one, if not for any higher excellencies, for bringing a multitude of previously-scattered facts within a convenient space for reference and examination.

The first chapter is on "Internal Communication" generally; and here, almost at the very outset, we meet with a brilliant specimen of statistical exaggeration. It is introduced when the roads of France are under discussion, in comparision with those of England, and seems to be intended as a preparative for certain amazing details which follow, as to the loss of iron from horse-shoes on the French roads, which are even more incredible, if that may be. The reader may well be tempted to exclaim, "Who'd have thought it?" on meeting with such nice calculations as the tollowing:

"In the first report of Messrs. Villiers and Bowring on the commercial relations between France and Great Britain, the following curious calculation is given, in order to show how severe a loss is entailed by the high price of iron upon one class of persons

The Progress of the Nation, in its various Social and Economical relations, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present time. By G. R. Porter Esq. F. R. S.-Sections 3 and 4, Interchange; and Revenue and Expenditure. London. 1838. C. Knight and Co: small 8vo. pp. 379.

The

in France, the cultivators of the soil. lands cultivated in France are supposed to amount to 22,818,000 hectares, equal to 57,045,000 acres English, and it is calculated that a team of oxen would cultivate 15 hectares: hence the quantity of ploughs employed in France is estimated at about 1,500,000. M. de la Rochefoucault represents the annual use and waste of iron at 40 kilogrammes per team, but it has been more frequently estimated at 50 kilogrammes, making for the whole consumption 75,000,000 kilogrammes of iron, which, at 90 francs per 100 kilogrammes, consumes 67,500,000 francs, equal to 2,700,0007. sterling. Now, though this estimate is too high for an average calculation, it is unde niable that the iron could be imported from foreign countries at half the price, and the loss to agriculture alone must be taken at above one million sterling per annum!'"p. 3.

66

All this is circumstantial enough, at any rate for a rough calculation," in which a few odd thouands may be thrown out of the reckoning, if convenient, without endangering its general correctness. But would it not have been as well to have been a little more particular in laying down the authorities for the main fact that on which all the rest depend the astonishing waste of iron in French farming? One authority, whose name is given, it will be seen, guesses forty kilogrammes per team; but this does not answer the purpose; anonymous estimates, therefore, are adduced to raise the amount (high enough already) to fifty,--and this alone, in so extensive a calculation, makes a difference of something more than five hundred thousand pounds in the gross total! Yet, of such stuff is the matter of our statistical works too often made,and, whether the estimate had been ten kilogrammes or a hundred, the calculation would have been relied upon-(and copied)—as quite authentic. Dr. Bowring is a practised hand in the line, and always sufficiently sweeping in his assertions, notwithstanding he has ever and anon met with some awkward contradictions in the course of events. remember his sending forth a well-paidfor and bulky report on the French system of keeping the National Accounts, in which he strongly insisted on the absolute impossibility of official depredation, owing to the ingenious checks imposed by the methods pursued, and the

We

general clearness and publicity of the whole affair. No sooner, however, had this report been issued, than the news arrived that one of the cashiers had absconded, after having pursued a system of peculation undetected for several years, taking with him a quantity of public money, the amount of which was unknown, in consequence of the impossi"clear" bility of unravelling the very accounts of his department. This singular occurrence Dr. Bowring has evidently consigned to a mental oblivion, and, in spite of it, he still flourishes as the most imperative and infallible of go vernment commissioners.

A little further on, we find a still richer bit from the reports, referring to the roads of Ireland, and, we must take it for granted, the production of a native writer, though Mr. Porter, who quotes it very seriously without any cominent on its peculiarities, is not, we believe, a gem of the Emerald Isle. It is, perhaps, necessary to assure our readers that we quote verbatim :

"The fertile plains of Limerick, Cork, and Kerry, are separated from each other by a desolated country, hitherto nearly an impassable barrier. This large district comprehends upwards of 900 square miles; in many places it is very populous. As might be expected, under such circumstances, the people are turbulent, and their houses being inaccessible for want of roads, it is not surprising, that during the disturbances of 1821 and 1822 this district was the asylum for whiteboys, smugglers, and robbers, and that stolen cattle were drawn into it, as to a Notwithsafe and impenetrable retreat. standing its present desolate state, this country contains within itself the seeds of future improvement and industry."-p. 11.

This fairly beats Dr. Bowring! He never ventured to tell us of a "deserted country" which in many places is "very populous," nor did he speculate on what

might be expected" under such (very extraordinary) circumstances; though, even if he had, he would probably not have anticipated the knowing procedure of the rapparees, in taking advantage of the places being inaccessible to drive their cattle into it, at the same time securing a snug retreat for themselves in the houses of the inhabitants of the desolate waste! Of a verity, it takes many strange themes to make up a report" of the orthodox dimensions; but we do not see why Mr. Porter should be driven

to such matter to fill his more slender and select miscellany. He should have made a more unsparing use of the crucible, and rejected without remorse all such self-evident trash as that we have quoted.

on

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After chapters severally on "Turnpike Roads" and on "Canals," the information contained in which is less novel than important, we arrive at the most interesting in the volume ;- those "Steam Navigation" and on "Railways." The succeeding ones in the division 'Interchange" are devoted to details connected with shipping and commerce generally; and as to the remaining division "Revenue and Expenditure," that deals too much with the awful theme of "Taxes" to be at all pleasant to any but a thorough-bred political economist. We shall therefore restrict the remainder of our notice to the two chapters in question.

The following summary view of the present state of water conveyance by steam is at once neat and comprehensive.

"The facility in moving from place to place, joined to the great econony both of time and of money that have accompanied the adoption of this mode of propelling vessels, have excited the locomotive propensities of the English people in a most remarkable degree. The countless thousands who now annually pass in steam packets up and down the river Thames, seem almost wholly to have been led to travel by this cheap and commodious means that have been thus presented to them, since the amount of journeying by land is by no means lessened. The number of passengers conveyed between London and Gravesend by steam packets in 1835 was ascertained by the collection of the pier dues at the latter town to have been 670,452, not one in a hundred of whom would have been induced to make use of the Dundee boats just described. It was stated in evidence before a committee of the House of Commons in 1826, that at least 1,057,000 passengers, including those to and from Gravesend, pass Blackwall in steam vessels every year. In confirmation of the fact, that the establishment of additional facility in travelling is embraced by persons who would not otherwise be induced to quit their homes, we may refer to the continually increasing number of licenses for stage-coaches issued every year from the stamp-office, and to the great and constantly-increasing number of omnibusses which are continually traversing the great thoroughfares of London, without displacing the hackney-carriages

which were previously in use.

The num

ber of passengers conveyed by the Hull and Selby steam-packets in the twelve months which preceded the opening of the Leeds and Selby Railway was 23,882, whereas, in the twelve months that followed that event, the number conveyed was 62,105.

"The published lists of steam-vessels belonging to different ports in the United Kingdom show the extent to which this new mode of voyaging is adopted by the public. Scarcely any two ports of conveyance can be pointed out between which steam communication is not maintained as well for the conveyance of passengers as for the transmission of goods. Besides this, the communication is regularly maintained with all the principal neighbouring ports on the continent of Europe. From London vessels proceed to the French coast almost every day; to Holland three times a week; to Belgium as frequently; to Hamburg twice a week, and to Lisbon and Cadiz every week. From the coast of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire daily departures takes place for France. From Hull three vessels depart every week for Hamburgh, and one is dispatched to Rotterdam; the greater part of the important traffic which formerly was carried on in sailing vessels between those ports is now conveyed through the more quick and certain agency of steam."-p. 48.

There is indeed no part of the world in which steam navigation has been so assiduously cultivated as in our own country. Even the United States, with its thousands of miles of "seaboard," and its endless length of navigable rivers, cannot stand the comparison for a moment; while all other nations are a century behind the Yankees. The English steamers, indeed, far exceed in number those belonging to the rest of the world put together, brother Jonathan included, who contributes a hundred and fiftyseven out of three hundred and sixty-six, composing the entire list of foreign steamers. The English list alone exhihits a total of just six-hundred vessels, exclusive of the steamers,-now a very numerous class-in the employ of government-thus exhibiting a majority of two hundred and thirty-four in favour of England over all the rest of the world!

The table exhibiting these results, which is compiled from information furnished by the British Consuls at the various ports, contains many other particulars of interest. As might be expected, France is the most active of the con

tinental nations in steam navigation,— her number of vessels amounting to not less than seventy; the three next highest, Holland, Sweden, and Russia, are neckand-neck in the race, a fact highly creditable to Sweden, where steam must have been enthusiastically welcomed to have produced such a result. While commercial Holland owns but twentyeight steam-vessels, and powerful and extensive Russia only twenty-six, it could hardly have been anticipated that Sweden, without either of these qualifications in any thing like the same degree, should number twenty-seven. Yet, such is the fact; a fact highly honorable to the activity and energy of the Swedes of the present day. It appears in even stronger relief, when contrasted with the backwardness of some other countries of as high, or higher pretensions-Spain and Portugal, with their four steamers each, Prussia with its three, or Belgium—industrious, manufacturing Belgium-with its solitary one! Even Turkey, it appears, has two (are these the Egyptian steamers? they do not appear elsewhere in the list); and Barbary no less than eight, a number which appears incredible, until it is explained that they all belong to Algiers, and might, therefore, be more properly given to France. In the new world, brother Jonathan reigns paramount; since, notwithstanding the adaptation of South America for this species of transit, the incessant and ridiculous revolutions among the numberless "independent states" into which the country has been split, have cast such a damp upon improvement, that the whole of that immense continent, we might add, also, the states of Spanish origin in the northern one can only boast of three steamvessels, the whole of which belong to Brazil. Steam must work its way in that quarter ere long, however, and a few years will probably witness a peaceful "revolution" produced there by its agency, more important, and beyond all challenge more gratifying, than the miserable squabbles which have so long disgraced and degraded it.

The English are probably destined to have the chief hand in working this change, as they have had hitherto in introducing steam to the old world. It is not in England alone that the works of the English engineer in marine machinery are to be seen, though that he must have

been tolerably active at home, is evident from the plain fact of the increase in our number of steamers from two in 1814, with the burthen of 456 tons, to six hundred in 1836, carrying sixty-eight thousand tons! His handy-work has also appeared in every part of the globe where steam has penetrated; as witness again the consular returns :

"Among the particulars which the Consuls were required to give relative to this subject, was the place where the engines were manufactured. The returns made from Russia do not comply with this part of the order, which has been otherwise pretty well attended to. In the United States of America, the machinery, as might be expected, is almost wholly the production of native engineers; only six out of 157 steam-vessels belonging to the States being furnished with English engines. If we exclude from the account these vessels, and also, for the reason just given, the 26 Russian vessels,-although there is reason to believe that the greater part, if not the whole, of the machinery of the latter is of English construction-there will remain on the list 183 vessels, of which 97, or more than one-half, are indebted for their machinery to Englishengineers."-p. 61.

So much for the powers of steam directed by British ingenuity on water; turn we now to similar triumphs on dry land. Mr. Porter's chapter on "Railways" commences with a condensed view of the rise and progress of the system.

This

we extract, though perhaps some objections might be raised on account of its sins of omission, rather than of commission. It must be taken for no more than what it professes to be--a very rapid sketch of a very extensive subject. If our author could have spared more room, he would doubtless have entered at greater length into the history of the invention; as it is, he dismisses it in a few lines:

:

"It has been said that railways were first brought to use in this country at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when they were employed in some of the Newcastle collieries.

The railways then constructed were very different from the scientificallyconstructed works to which we are now accustomed to apply that name, and it was long before any progress was made towards their improvement. They were first constructed altogether of timber, and it was not until 1767 that the first experiment was made, and that upon a very small scale, to determine the advantage of substituting iron for the less durable material. Nor does it

appear that this experiment was successful, or followed by any practical result; for in a volume published by Mr. Carr, in 1797, he sets up his claim to be considered the inventor of cast-iron railways. The railways which were constructed up to the beginning of the present century, were all private undertakings, and each was confined to the use of the establishment-generally a collieryin which it occurred. The public railways of England are strictly creations of the present century. It was in 1801 that the first Act of Parliament for the construction of a work of this kind, obtained the sanction of the legislature. The number passed since that time has been

No great invention has perhaps been so much indebted for its progress towards perfection, to unforeseen circumstances, as the railway. It may be said to have forced its own importance and utility on the attention of mankind by its own unassisted efforts. It does not seem, now that we are accustomed to be wheeled along by a steam-engine at the rate of forty miles an hour, that the Liverpool and Manchester line-the parent of a numerous and flourishing progeny -could ever have been looked upon as a medium for the mere transmission of cotton-bags and coal-sacks, and that, too, at the pace of a fly-waggon, and (can this be possible?) by the help of horse-flesh ! Yet these things were even so. Fortunately, whatever were the ideas of the projectors, the work was undertaken; and, once undertaken, each successive improvement evolved itself (with a little assistance, of course), until the whole system had attained to its present perfect condition, perfect, that is, until the next improvement points itself out to public attention. Among other matters, the railway was obliged in person to convince its originators, that they knew absolutely nothing of its destined uses.

"It is a singular fact, that of all the railways hitherto constructed and contem

plated up to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line, not one was undertaken with a view to the conveyance of passengers. In the prospectus published by the projectors of that work, it was indeed held out as probable that half the number of persons then travelling by coaches between the two towns might avail themselves of the railway in consideration of the lower rate for which they would be conveyed, and the Di rectors expected to realise an income of 20,000l. per annum from this source; but the chief inducement held out to subscribers was the conveyance of raw cotton, manufactured goods, coals, and cattle. The great success attending this splendid work being in a principal degree attributable to the passengers conveyed by it, the chief inducement thenceforward to embark in similar undertakings has been the number of passengers, and not the amount of goods to be conveyed. Hitherto it has been found, in nearly every case where a railroad adapted for carrying passengers has been brought into operation, that the amount of travelling between the two places has been quadrupled. In the case of the Liverpool and Manchester railway, the income derived from this source has enabled the company to meet a large amount of extraordinary expenses, and to divide regularly 10 per cent. annually upon the capital, although the outlay in the construction of the work has been more than double the sum contempla'ed in the original estimates."-p. 65.

What a pity that a railway cannot make its own estimates, as well as lecture (practically) on its own advantages! With this extract we take our leave of Mr. Porter's present volume, though we shall probably again pay our respects to him when the third appears, which, according to present appearances, will complete his task.

ANALYSIS OF MILK-SUPPLY OF PURE MILK.

Sir,-As you have so recently had a paper on the milking of cows (vide No. 765, page 6), perhaps a few remarks on the article milk itself, will not prove inopportune. They are extracted from a valuable essay, by M. Barreul, lately published in Paris.

"By the extension of the use of coffee (caffè au lait), the quantity of milk now consumed in Paris, is at least double that which was used eighteen or twenty years ago. the number of milch cows in the vicinity of the city, has not increased in any thing like

But