From The Economist. History of the Iron Trade, from the Earliest ternoster Row. PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION. been the progress. But the change in the mode of procuring the metal, seems hardly equal to the multiplied uses to which it has come to be applied. Mr. Scrivenor's book is more valuable for the historical anecdotes collected, than for its statistical description of the NOT having seen, that we recollect, the for-present condition of the iron trade, though mer edition of this book, we shall treat it as a this is useful, and amongst them, we find none new work, worthy of attention, because it con- more remarkable than the following account, cerns one of the most important and increas- which we quote, in order to show the wisdom ing businesses of the country. In all times, of former legislation, of a Parliamentary meawherever iron has been known, it has been sure of the early part of last century:described as the most useful of all the metals, and in our time, when to its thousand other} uses, it has become the substitute for animal In 1719 a bill was brought into Parliament, power, and enables us to surpass in speed, the with the object of rendering the laws concerning swiftest race-horse, and travel thousands of the importation of naval stores from the British miles with no more fatigue than sitting for a admitting from them all sorts of timber...... American plantations more comprehensive, by length of time in our arm-chair, or walking in But the colonies were surprised and disappointour carpeted room; when it is the pillars of ed by some clauses in the bill, that rather than our houses, and the frames of our ships, the submit to them, they preferred to forego entirely ornaments of our rooms, and of our wives and the benefit it would have conferred upon them, daughters-in our age, which is appropriately and they were very glad to have it dropped altocalled the iron age, it has become so multifa-gether. Such, for instance, that none of the riously useful, that it seems almost impossible plantations should manufacture iron wares of for men ever to have lived without it. We any kinds, out of any sows, pigs, or bars, what required, probably, to discover in almost mod- soever, under certain penalties." By which ern times, a nation in which it was unknown, clause no smith, in the plantations, might make to convince us that there was a time when the colonies must have been brought into a miseraas much as a bolt, spike, or nail, whereby the substance was unknowm, and to find it out, ble condition, the smith being, above all other and apply it, was one of the earliest and great-trades, absolutely necessary in all employments est advances in the progress of civilization. At there; amongst the rest, that of ship-building, present the make of iron in this country, in- would have been utterly destroyed, although creasing year by year, is not much less than thereby they made a great part of their returns 3,000,000 tons; in 1852, it was 2,700,000 for the British manufactures. The House of tons; the value of the iron exported in vari-Peers added another clause-"That no forge ous shapes, is not less than 15,000,000l, and going, by water, or other work whatsoever, probably, the whole value of the manufacture making sows, pigs, or cast iron, into bar or rod should be erected in any of the plantations, for is upwards of 30,000,000l. This is a great iron." mass of national wealth, obviously the result entirely of labor and skill. There is no fertil- This proposed measure was quite equal to ity of soil to give any portion of the value; the laws of Spain, so often spoken of with de the iron-stone, except for the labor, would be served execration, to forbid the cultivation of mere rubbish; and the whole is the product the vine and the olive in its American coloof much industry and skill, in many succes-nies; but to the greater disgrace of the Britsive ages. In that it would be difficult to fix ish Legislature, it was proposed after the a property, and the skill and the knowledge Spanish enactments, and probably after exare almost universally diffused, and their pro-perience had demonstrated their malevolent ducts, too, are cheaply dispensed amongst all folly. The bill of 1719 is worthy of being nations. Mr. Scrivenor writes the history of now especially remembered as a proof of the iron from the beginning, and describes the great prevalence, a century and a half and earliest and the latest processes for obtaining two centuries ago, of the idea that nations the metal. Between the rude clay furnace, could be enriched by stopping the growth of described by Park, in his "Travels in Africa" others, even of their own colonies, in wealth. -a modern representation, probably, of Not to reverence such wisdom is, by some persome of the earliest invented furnaces, which, sons, still held to be sad forgetfulness of what nowithstanding the enormous waste, and a is due to our ancestors. We will quote anyield extremely small in proportion to the other anecdote, which Mr. Scrivenor borrows mineral and means employed, left the furnace from the "Chronicles of Old London Bridge,” owner iron enough to repay him for his trouble to call attention to the facts it records, as hav-and one of the great furnaces of Wales, ing some bearings probably on the science running off, day after day, throughout the of magnetism, and on some geological theoyear, its eight or nine tons, how vast has ries: A GALVANIC ACTION IN THE EARTH. bolts, and other parts of the iron-work as were An eminent London cutler, (Mr. Weiss, of the subjected to the experiment, except the straps: Strand,) to whose inventions modern surgery is these, which, in addition to their sonorousness, under considerable obligations, has remarked, possessed a degree of toughness quite unapthat steel seemed to be much improved when it proached by common iron, and which were, in had become rusty in the earth, and provided the fact, imperfect carburets, produced steel of a rust was rot factitiously produced by the appli- quality infinitely superior to any, which, in the cation of acids. He accordingly buried some course of his business, Mr. Weiss had ever berazor-blades for nearly three years, and the re-fore met with; insomuch, that while it was in sult fully corresponded to his expectation. The general request among the workmen for tools, blades were coated with rust, which had the ap- they demanded higher wages for working it.pearance of having exuded from within, but These straps, weighing altogether about eight were not eroded, and the quality of the steel was tons, were consequently separated from the solid decidedly improved. Analogy led to the con- points, and these last sold as old iron. The exclusion that the same might hold good with re-terior difference between the parts of the same spect to iron, under similar circumstances; so, shoe, led, at first, to the supposition, that they with perfect confidence in the justness of his were composed of two sorts of iron; but besides views, he purchased as soon as an opportunity the utter improbability of this, the contrary was offered, all the iron, amounting to fifteen tons, proved by an examination, which led to the inwith which the piles of London Bridge had been ference that the extremities of the piles having shod. Each shoe consisted of a small inverted been charred, the straps of iron closely wedged pyramid, with four straps, rising from the four between them and the stratum in which they sides of its base, which embraced and were nail-were imbedded, must have been subjected to a ed to the pile; the total length, from the point, galvanic action, which, in the course of some six which entered the ground, to the end of the or seven hundred years, gradually produced the strap, being about sixteen inches, and the weight effects recorded. about eight pounds. The pyramidal extremities of the shoes were Mr. Scrivenor's book is more valuable for found to be not much corroded, nor, indeed, the historical matter contained in it, than for were the straps; but the latter had become ex- its present description of the iron manufactremely and beautifully sonorous, close resem-tures of the world. It does not include the bling, in tone, the bars and sounding pieces of an latest informatiom that can be obtained, and Oriental instrument, which was exhibited, some time since, with the Burmese state carriage.is wholly deficient of those pictorial illustra When manufactured, the solid points in questions which are necessary to make readers tion, were convertible only into very inferior form any ideas of casting, founding, puddling, steel; the same held good with respect to such slitting, and rolling. CONTRIVANCES FOR WINDOW FLOWER-BEDS. The thing really required has not yet been invented, at least I have not seen any advertisements on the subject. The object to be attained, is to provide space for a little flower-bed, extending all along the outside of the window, and projecting as farout as the taste of the amateur gardener may suggest. This bed should be filled with fine leaf mould, and, if planted, with bulbs in the winter months, and geraniums in the summer, would become a very pretty object, affording a constant subject of interest and employment to the ladies of the family. A large slab of stone, or slate, should first be firmly set, and on this a bed might be formed of tiles of earthenware, or terra cotta expressly made for the purpose. The tiles might be made in pieces, so as to be capable of fitting to window-sills of any size:-some should be flat, others at right angles to form the sides, and the outside tiles should have holes, or a gutter terminating in a hole, conveniently placed, to allow of the surplus water draining off. Iron castings should be adapted to the support of these tiles, so that when all were laid, there should be a firm flower-bed of not less than say six inches in depth. Might not a thriving branch of industry spring up in the supply of these flower-beds, to assist in gratifying so universal a taste as a fondness for flowers ?- Correspondent of the Builder. A CURIOUS SURPRISE. A SEVEN YEARS' SLEEP.-A letter from San Francisco to Mr. R. R. Harris, of this city, from his brother, relates a curious incident that occurred there a short time since, which we do not recollect having seen in print. Her Britannic Majesty's exploring ship Plover arrived at San Francisco a short time since from the Polar Sea, where she had been ice bound since 1847. When she left San Francisco, some years ago, it was a mere trading station, resorted to by a few vessels in pursuit of hides, and the town or place contained only a few adobe houses. The captain and crew of the Plover expected to find the same San Francisco in 1854 that they left in 1847. The captain, therefore, sailed into the bay without a pilot, and approached the city in the evening. He was much amazed at the numerous lights he saw. When he awoke from his dream of seven years the next morning, he found a noble city occupying the site of the ancient San Francisco. He had known nothing of the Mexican war, and cession of California to the United States, and the many other great events that had taken place during the time he had been locked up in the frozen regions of the North. [Rochester Union, Dec. 5. From The Spectator. IRISH SONGS WITHOUT WORDS.* Most lovers of the national music of Scotland are acquainted with the collections of the Melodies of that country published by Messrs. Wood of Edinburgh. They are three in number: "The Songs of Scotland," The Melodies of Scotland without Words," and "The Dance Music of Scotland." All of them have been noticed in this journal with merited commendation. They are carefully and judiciously edited; contain much interesting matter in comparatively narrow compass, and at comparatively small cost; are handsomely brought out; and, above all, derive a peculiar literary value from the introductory dissertations and copious notes of Mr. G. F. Graham, whose learning, research, and extensive knowledge have thrown much light upon the antiquities and characteristics of the national music of Scotland. heard in all our streets, accompanying the departing steps of our soldiers now in the East. Lough Sheeling" has a C sharp several times introduced, to accommodate the tune to the modern key of D minor; whereas the flat seventh in a minor key is a very characteristic note in Scotch and Irish melody. In "Cruiskeen Lawn." the chromatic ascent from F natural to F sharp is a thing unheard-of in this kind of music; and the whole version of the air is not so good as that in general use, which is given in the appendix. Paddy O'Carrol" is weakened by the second F in the first bar, instead of E, the most characteristic note in the tune. "A lovely lass to a friar came," a most beautiful air, is sadly injured by the four monotonous closes on the key-note; the close in the middle of the second part ought to have been on the dominant. In some other instances, the editor has followed his brother collectors in altering notes in the airs so as to make them more susceptible of modern harmony; but, those alterations are neither so many nor so material as those made by Stevenson in his arrangement for Moore. Mr. Surenne's basses and harmonies are skilful, judicious, and musicianlike; and this instrumental dress, in which he has clothed these pretty tunes, is very elegant and becoming. To those publications the present is a sequel. Apparently, the publishers have not thought it expedient to bring forward a new collection of Irish songs-with the music, that is to say, united to poetry; that field having already been occupied by Moore. This collection, like the Scottish melodies without words, is entirely for the pianoforte player. It is exceedingly agreeable to lovers of music, albeit they do not sing, to be able to Mr. Graham's share of the work consists of his enjoy the beauties of popular vocal melody introductory Dissertation on the Music of Irethrough the medium of the piano; and so much land. Like his previous essays of the same kind, is this felt to be the case, that all our favorite it is full of curious and interesting matter. We operas, published without the words, are now in can only indicate the topics which he has so ably universal use. To edit a collection of national and acutely handled. His remarks on the labors tunes, however, without words, is much more dif- of Bunting, the most voluminous and celebrated ficult than to edit an opera in the same way. among the older Irish collectors, are particularly The opera air is fixed and determined, and its valuable. Giving Bunting due credit for what he harmonies are sufficiently indicated by the com- has achieved, Mr. Graham exposes his faults and poser; but a national tune, handed down by tra- errors, which arose chiefly from his overweening dition, assumes so many forms at different times vanity. Bunting maintains that the oldest Irish and in different places, that is is impossible to tunes have been handed down unchanged for determine its "set" by any positive authority. centuries, and asserts that his collections exhibit We must endeavor to find the set most gen- these tunes in their pure unchanged forms; a erally adopted; and, where this is insufficient, doctrine and assertion at variance with the fact, we must decide between different forms to the and inconsistent with what has been said by best of our taste and judgment. All the col- Bunting himself. Mr. Graham, however, conlections of Scotch and Irish airs, even the most modern, differ widely in their sets of many melodies; and, though we may prefer one to another, it is difficult to assert that the one is right and the other wrong. In examining this new collection of Irish airs, it seems to us that Mr. Surenne has on the whole shown good taste and judgment in regulating the text of melodies, as well as in their selection. The volume contains two hundred and twenty-three; and we do not find that any noted or popular air is missing. The editor says that" the sets of the airs are given after an attentive examination and comparison of those contained in the collections that have been published at various times in England, Ireland, and Scotland." In doing this he has generally chosen well, but, we think, not always. The girl I left behind me" has a less spirited close than the tune we have so lately * The Songs of Ireland without Words; for the Pianoforte. Arranged and edited by J. T. Su renne. Published by Wood and Co., Edinburgh. cludes his strictures by saying-" These remarks do not infringe upon the praise justly due to Bunting's industry and enthusiasm,--qualities which enabled him to rescue from oblivion many of the finest melodies of Ireland, and thus to add a peaceful and beautiful wreath to the honors of his native country." Mr. Graham's remarks on the peculiarities of structure which are found in Irish melodies, though he does not profess to discuss the subject fully, are very instructive to the musical student. These peculiarities (common to Scotch and Irish music) have been explained on too narrow grounds. Because many old tunes want the fourth and seventh of the scale, theorists jump to the conclusion that these omissions are essential features of old Scotch and Irish melody, in the teeth of the fact that the notes in question are found in multitudes of tunes undoubtedly genuine. Mr. Bunting reduces the peculiarities of Irish tune to a still narrower compass; they are all owing to the use of the major sixth." This," he says, "it is that stamps the Scotic character (for we Irish are the original Scoti) on every bar Graham,-that the melodies in question are not of the air in which it occurs, so that, the moment formed upon one but on a variety of scales, those, this tone is heard, we exclaim, that is an Irish namely, of the ancient Greek modes, preserved melody!" Now, the use of the major sixth, as in the old chants of the Romish Church. And an emphatic note, certainly gives a character it is easy to see how it came to be so: the people, to some Irish airs, but this is not peculiar to constantly accustomed to listen to the chants of them. If," says Mr. Graham, "the marked oc- the church, naturally used the same kind of cancurrence of the major sixth of the scale is a suretilena in their secular songs. and characteristic test of genuine Irish melody, then by parity of reasoning, the marked occur- the instruments used in the British islands in the rence of that same sixth in the melodies of other middle ages, and upon other topics connected nations may be used to prove those melodies also with Mr. Graham's inquiry; and his essay is an to be of Irish extraction." The sound view of important addition to our stock of musical litethe matter is undoubtedly that adopted by Mr. 'rature. Much curious information is given respecting BULLION IN THE BANK. To the Editor of the Economist. SIR,In your money article of the 11th inst., commenting on the Bank-of-England Return, you very naturally mention that the decrease of bullion is the reverse of what was expected from the late large arrivals." In the Times, and some other journals, this unexpected diminution in the bullion forms also the subject of observation. In the present feverish condition of the money market, this apparently incomprehensible drain occasions all sorts of mischievous surmises; and, coupled with the further advance in the price of grain, and the serious but glorious events in the Crimea, a sufficient handle is furnished to the Bears to depress Consols very perceptibly. This enigma is, however, easily solved. The Scotch term of Martinmas fell on the 11th instant, when it behooved the banks to have recourse as usual to the coffers of the Bank of England, for a large supply of gold, to meet the periodical expansion in the circulation, consequent on the increase which takes place in the transactions at this period of the year, just as regularly as the season comes round. The gold taken from the Bank of England to meet this temporary excess in the circulation of the Scotch banks, cannot have been less than £500,000. What a different aspect might matters have had, if the last Bank Return, in place of a decrease of £50,000, had shown an increase in the bullion to the extent of £450,000. HOMOGRAPHY. HOMOGRAPHY is a new art, an art of yesterday, or rather of to-day, for which the inventor makes the following extraordinary claims:- Whoever possesses a printed book, possesses the stereotype plates of that book; whoever has an old litho graph, a copy of an extinct edition, an impression of a steel engraving, has by a wonderful process of transfer, the original stone, the original type, the original plate, the original block. An octavo of 500 pages can be executed at a trifling cost, in six days. Reprints cost but half the price of the first composition; and engravings, after expensive originals, may be made for a few sous. Storeotyping will be done away with; the first edition will be printed from type, and any one copy furnishes the plates for all successive editions. Rare editions are annihilated, as one copy may be multiplied to infinity, and that, too, with all the typographical peculiarities of the epoch in which it was first printed. Books in foreign lan guages, in dead languages, in Hebrew, in Greek, in Sanscrit, may be reproduced by workmen completely ignorant of them. The following is the history of the process, as described by Victor Meuieri, the scientific feuilletonist of the Presse. The inventor, Mr. Edward Boyer, a chemist of Nismes, undertook to solve the problem that the inventor of lithography, Senefelder, of Munich, sought in vain to solve -to reproduce upon stone any typographical work, lithograph, or engraving, of which a single copy is in exist ence to do it instantaneously, cheaply, without damaging the original, and so exactly that the This tampering with the resources of the Bank most practised eye cannot tell the difference; happens now, as it has happened before, at a and, finally, to multiply the copies to infinity. critical juncture,- engenders distrust, aggravates In principle, M. Boyer arrived at a solution in the prevailing feverishness, and confers no addi- 1844; he has spent ten years in researches tendtional stability on the Scotch banks by this tem- ing to simplify, cheapen, and render practicable porary acquisition of gold. This state of things the process. He has now succeeded, and steshould evidently be altered. The remedy is plain: reotypes a quarto page in ten minutes, as extend the authorized issues of the Scotch banks he actually did in presence of M. Mennier. A to a sum equivalent to the average of their circulation for six weeks succeeding the money terms of Martinmas and Whitsunday. Practically, this would remove the present absurdity of keeping half a million in gold suspended betwixt London, The process is of course a secret, and will not Edinburgh, and Glasgow twice a-year, and, theo- be disclosed even in specifications for a patent. retically, would furnish a limit for the circulation M. Boyer does not intend to patent his invention; in every respect as unobjectionable as that ob- he will control and superintend the business in tained by the plan adopted by Sir Robert Peel. France, and will sell the secret to foreign Nov. 15, 1854. cast of the Temptation of St. Anthony, which lately cost a Paris publisher $280, might have been furnished by M. Boyer for two cents and a quarter! J. countries. From The Economist, 18 Nov. CALIFORNIA.-AGRICULTURE AND TRADE. WE learn from California by the last arrivals, as we have in fact before heard, that agriculture is making great progress in that new habitation of civilized man. The New York Shipping List of the 1st inst. says: The world has known California, hitherto, as but the "El Dorado" of the Pacific, the modern Ophir, providentially ordained to supply all mankind with the precious metals-in short, as a spot on earth's surface, predestined, probably, to attain no higher rank than that which has been assigned to States and communities exclusively devoted to the comparatively low level of mining pursuits. be quite as creditable as any of which the older States on the Atlantic slope way legitimately boast. The capacities of her soil for farming purposes, we sometimes think, approach the fabulous; but the fact is indisputable, attested as it is by the most impartial and competent au thorities-that breadstuffs enough may be raised in California in a single season, with average good weather, to feed, not only her own numerous and rapidly multiplying population, but the teeming communities on the adjacent coasts. Something of the same kind is going on in Australia. South Australia is becoming a great agricultural country; Tasmania is not behind; and, now that the gold fever has somewhat abated, the people of New South Wales and Victoria will return to their pastoral and agricultural pursuits, which, exclusively, a few years ago, were the sources of their The mining rapidly accumulating wealth. A nobler and more honorable destiny, it is now clear, is in store for our sister State. Her age of gold is sensibly fading away before the and town population, as their occupations dawning of a new and better era, in which ag- become less lucrative and as their numbers riculture and the arts are to lay a deeper, broad-are swollen by emigrants, will overflow on the er, more enduring foundation for her future land, and the pursuits of agriculture giving greatness, than any it were in the power of mere them necessary subsistence, will engage their gold and silver to provide. During the few years which preceded the dis- attention. Already California provides a large covery of her mineral wealth, it is no violation part of her own food, and Australia, which of truth to assert that California was wholly nelatterly has also derived considerable supplies glected, because of the entire ignorance existing of breadstuffs from the States, will soon proThey are too bulky with regard to her real riches. The all but uni-vide them for herself. versal excitement of which that remote region to be imported from the Antipodes when there was at first the common centre, however, is now, is an abundance of soil to supply them. Now, as we have intimated, substantially at an end. this change, which is clearly seen to be the consequence of the natural progress of the people of both countries, will relieve the East ern States of the Union from the demand of these countries for breadstuffs, and more will be available for Europe. The gold discoveries have not only helped to stimulate industry and consumption in Europe, they have also caused a stream of people, and of food for them, to flow from the resources of the older States; these will speedily be so far changed, that the stream of people will still flow on, but it will be to create there food for themselves and others. Our new State is just beginning to discover that she has, in an almost prodigal abundance, the means to feed and clothe herself, and need not, therefore, of necessity, be so large a customer to South America, to the Atlantic States, and to Europe even, as she has been, and is at present, to their enrichment and her own proportionate impoverishment. Her gold mines, it is true, are as prolific as ever; but then the truth seems just beginning to break in upon her social and political economists, that gold gotten there, if paid away for food brought all the way from Chili or the Atlantic cities, in vessels that have to be roundly remunerated for bringing it to their doors, does not yield so handsome a return for Another change worthy of notice is obvithe labor and expense of unearthing it, as would the same labor and expense devoted to the cultiva- ously in progress. We adverted last week to tion of the soil, and producing, instead of gold-the immense number of Germans who now wheat, corn, oats, rye, and other cereals. An en- emigrate to the United States, and will there terprising people, thrown, as it were, on their become more powerful food producers than in own resources, like those of our countrymen who their own country. They will help to supply have settled down on the distant shores of the the wants of Europe. This large immigration Pacific, are never slow to act out a new idea, if continues. At the same time a severe check the idea is a practical or practicable one. Hence, has been given to the trade of the United within the year or two past, a harvest in Califor- States, to the progress of railway making, to nia is come to be regarded as something not coal and ore getting, and to manufactures. wholly a solecism. We are regaled almost every arrival now, with None of these is now so profitable as it was, glowing accounts of the immense crops of wheat and the check given to manufacturing and that have been raised during this season in vari- commercial pursuits, combined with a high ous sections of the State, while the yield of corn price of agricultural produce, will direct a and oats, with the smaller products of the field more than usually large proportion of the emand the garden, are represented, on all hands, to igrants to agricultural pursuits. The railways |