ELIZA COOK'S JOURNAL. among their ranks. A great ball was given in the town "Scarcely, mother; though it would not be a bad match either;" replied her son. "There will be some fine fellows, Julius," said the father; "you must look out sharp, my boy." "I rather fancy," said Julius, satisfactorily smiling upon his really fine figure in the glass, "that the sharplooking, and shooting, too, will be from the other side, my dear sir." "Pooh, pooh, you are a puppy, Julius," said the kind father, jokingly-but in that manner that puppy meant lion. The reigning belle of H-, was Rachel Graham, with whom and her aunt the Moths were upon most intimate terms; amiable, studious, and the admired of all; she was one of those fortunate beings upon whom greatness is thrust. In London, she would have been like the far-famed needle in the bundle of hay; in the country, she shone by her own light, which was powerful enough to pierce into every corner. Each neighbouring hamlet contained a monument to her honour, in the hearts of those whom she had been instrumental in relieving by words or deeds; but, to the great disgust of the young men, and contempt of the ladies, she did not dance. To this young lady, many said Julius was engaged; to this, Mrs. Moths invariably gave an ill-tempered reply-for she was merely the daughter of a government pensioner. To tell the truth, Julius had not only fallen in love with Rachel, but had made his mother his confidantebut she, like a wise general, endeavoured to evade, not oppose the feeling. into the tender plant a proper notion of self-respect. Now, it is astonishing how naturally the idea of self-importance takes root in the human mind, and how naturally all little men set themselves up upon a pedestal of their own making As a child, he soon became his parents' pet, and everyone else's bore; there never was such a sweettempered child, if we except a little scratching and tearing, and wilfuluess, which Mrs. Moths always explained away as natural to healthy children. So carefully, so elaborately was Julius dressed, that his first ideas were, that his clothes were as much the indispensable gifts of nature as his skin: the clothes being deemed of so much importance, it soon became familiar to his mind that their wearer could be no inconsiderable personage, and the latter idea arose, in a great measure, from contrast; for, when walking in the lanes with his mamma, he could not help being struck with the difference between himself and the little country urchins in their tattered dresses. And it was with no little pride that, after having been checked by his mamma from playing with any of these, because he was a gentleman, that he repeated to himself the word "gentleman" over and over again; he soon attached an idea to the word, and one fully en suite with that other one of his, that he was born in a superfine suit of clothes. He was a strange child, with a mind which seemed to commence developing itself with the seeds of an old full-grown one, rather than the freshness and ignorance of a perfectly new one; and it was not to be wondered at that, at ten years of age, it was said that he walked upon stilts. He was a fine boy, with a noble spirit, but not proud, at least so his mother said; how kindly he used to give a beggar a penny, walking afterwards still more erect, and just giving a neat shake of satisfaction with his head, how inwardly and outwardly satisfied he seemed; indeed, he had arrived at that state of perfection, that his parents considered him too good The morning before the ball, Julius, in passing through for this bad world; indeed they told him so, ay, and without intending any of that pleasant and salutary satire the town, had been introduced to the daughter of Sir which induced the early Egyptians to exorbitantly praise F. P., a blazing beauty of twenty-five, as opposite to their monarchs, more for the purpose of telling them Rachel as the lion to the fawn; tall, stately, yet elegant It and graceful, with eyes like Jove's, "to threaten and what they ought to be, than what they really were. was painful to the parents to sometimes hear that Julius command," the glances from which made poor Julius was voted among his school-fellows a self-conceited bore, wince, and so shook his pedestal, that the proud peer of and by the schoolmaster, the dullest boy in the school. creation trembled upon it, and the bright, dazzling colours But then Mrs. Moths said, the first was not to be won- before him outpainted the figure of the milder, Rachel dered at, since Mr. Moths had chosen to send such a boy from his heart, at least for a moment. Strange sensations to such a school, where there were scarcely any but flitted through his frame, but his self-possession recalled tradesmen's sons. As for being dull in his learning, to his memory that she was but a poor, weak woman after Mrs. Moths considered that his health would be the better all; a woman mailed in beauty and dignity, it might be, for that; besides, it was an established fact, that all but yet a woman only, and therefore to be conquered. Her dazzling pride awed him, but he loved it; it was the geniuses were dull at school. magnetism-the electric influence of a kindred spirit. Sir F. P. was reputed proud, very proud, but also very poor, and this was the youngest of several unmarried daughters-so much the more his chances of success; but home-and Julius felt compunction in his heart-his traitor heart-to one so fair, so good, so confiding as Rachel. In the lap of luxury, and amidst a halo of self-idolatry, Julius grew into manhood; strange idiosyncrasies grew with him; at twenty-one he became a thorough-grown lord of the creation, and with a full determination to make the most of his peerage. It so happened, that Julius had been allowed by his parents to live in town by himself in his lodgings, and had there associated with a certain circle of young men, most of whom acted as satellites to our hero-star. The chief requisite to obtain his friendship was to tacitly admit his patronage. Julius felt himself a great deal too illustrious to seek for high society; he preferred, in fact, to lead rather than to follow; and that led him amongst a clique, who could better afford to follow than to lead. We mention the fact of this association, because the young men forming it, being for the most part of disreputable habits, and consequently without the right of entré to family circles, held strange notions of the fair sex-a notion formed chiefly from the patterns with whom they occasionally mixed. When Julius returned into the country to become steady, he carried with him, very much to his mamma's horror, this same low estimate of the opposite sex; but still he was a dashing young man, and possessed admirers But what could he be thinking of? the attack upon a woman's heart, after all, was but that of a boy Yet there who throws stones into a river; a ripple-a little noisethe boy leaves the spot, and all is forgotten. was something in the retiring sweetness of Rachel's manner that made her but the more piquant; the intensity of deep love shone from her eyes, and Julius could not but admit to himself that it had shone upon him; the rememAll Rachel did or said arose brance was thrilling; but, then, such a wife would be more fit for a country curate. spontaneously from her mine of natural wealth; her actions and words flowed from the main-spring of her nature-a kind, loving heart-the brain guided, not controlled. Julius, on the contrary, was wrapped up in himself; he talked, walked, dressed, danced, rode to gratify himself; he did not sue or strive for the admiration of others; that was his due that he had a right to com 364 mand; but it was none the less a necessary of his existence. Julius's first great ambition had been to gain the heart of this fair girl. To do it, he stooped, not stepped, from his pedestal; he had gained it, but he could not love a woman whose whole mind was not absorbed with ad Oh! could Mahomet's miration of him. Rachel, too simple in herself to ob- ASSOCIATION OF WORKMEN ON THE LAND. serve this want, or even to comprehend it, was seldom lavish in her open admiration. This short-coming had rendered Julius of late petulant; the accidental meeting Rachel had become but a did the rest. of Miss Pshadow, an outline in his heart,-but the outline still remained. A hurricane was brewing in his heart as he entered the dining-room, where his father sat alone, awaiting dinner. Ir was a remark of Sir Walter Scott, that, "whenever a Scotchman gets his head above water, he makes for the land." The situation thus described is not peculiar to Scotchmen, but is an instinctive tendency all the world over. Every man desires to have some spot of land which he can call his own; and it is this strong desire implanted in man's nature, which is, year by year, attracting out of this country several hundred thousands of our "There will be a glorious meeting to-night at the ball, working men to distant colonies and to the United States, Julius," said the latter. "Pretty well, I dare say, for the country," said Julius. "Pretty well for the country, you proud young dog; why, there will be the prettiest women and the handsomest men in the county there; and if you do not take care, a certain pretty girl of our acquaintance will not be found wanting in admirers and offers, Julius. Take care, Julius, or you'll have your little fawn run away with from under your very nose, you dog," said the father, laughingly. "If you allude to Miss Graham, sir, I have no other wish, as a friend, than to see her well married.” "Hem!" said the astonished old gentleman; what's up now, Julius-a quarrel?" "why, "No, sir; but the fact is, I scarcely think that Miss Graham would be happy with me, as my wife, and I am too much her friend to wish her unhappy." "Eh, eh," said the father, more astonished than ever, and then, with more passion than he had ever before addressed his son-" You are a scoundrel, boy; have you not sought her; have you not professed love to her very face; is it not a settled affair? By Jove, sir, shall marry her, and that's flat." you where the ownership of land is of so much easier attain- We see the same strong desire also displayed in the eagerness with which the working classes supported Mr. O'Connor, in his recent experiment, (which has unhappily proved a delusive one,) to found a National Land Association, and also in the rapid extension of Freehold Land Societies over the country within the last two years, during tion of whom belong strictly to the operative classes, have which, not fewer than 30,000 men, a very large proporis of the most hopeful kind; it is worked by men of busienrolled their names as members. This last experiment ness habits, and of earnest purpose, and it cannot fail to effect, before many years are over, a large extension of the small landed proprietary of Britain. The members regard the Land as a Savings' Bank, into which they deposit their earnings; and many are induced to economize, with the laudable ambition of becoming possessors of a portion of land, who, otherwise, would not be disposed to save at all. My opinion of working men," said Mr. Bowley, before Working Classes, "is, that they have a very great dispothe Select Committee on the Savings of the Middle and "Indeed, sir," said Julius, rising from his seat, "Isition to get possession of something that they can see and will not be compelled to marry a woman, for the sole pur-feel-real property. I believe that there are numbers of pose of making her unhappy. No, sir; you ought, at least, to know my nature too well to believe that there is so much selfishness in its composition." This was a home stroke to the old gentleman; for he had foolishly imagined, that it was the very embodiment of the essence of selfishness which had wrought the change in his son's feelings; but seeing the matter in its true light, he became mollified. "You are a noble fellow, my boy; but, but, a little too sensitive in such things. The girl loves you, Julius; she is good, amiable, pretty, and clever; take her for a wife, my boy, and you will be the envy of the town, not to say anything of the proud daughters of Sir F. P., who, I am told, expect to carry everything before them." working men who would save their money in that way, not in the ordinary Savings' Banks at all, if they could have the property before them, which they could feel certain was becoming their own; and that it would be like an insurance office, and compel them to become saving, like a man insuring his life, who would not save without it." And Mr. Millbank stated, before the same committee, that "at public meetings which he had attended, when mention was made of the possession of land, there was a great deal of enthusiasm immediately manifested." But his opinion was, that many were deterred from acquiring land, by the apprehension that they could not hold it in a corporate capacity. A large proportion of those workmen who may desire But they can combine with this view: The reader will easily understand, that Mr. Moths had to possess land are disabled from doing so by the difficulty The last of obtaining it. touched the tenderest chord in his son's heart. words of his father were a phrenotype to the son's me- they can associate, economize, purchase land, and proceed mory; he had been thinking how to gain the attention of to act together as a body of joint proprietors and cultivathe haughty beauty he had met in the morning, and now tors; and association upon the land, with this view, is it flashed across his mind: jealousy! ay, jealousy! the perfectly practicable, and as easy as to associate together rare beauty must be jealous of Rachel! he would apply for the purpose of joint production in manufacture. The the test at night; and at that thought his countenance operations of agriculture, tilling the ground, sowing, reapfacilitated by co-operation amongst small proprietors. lighted up with delight, and he said "You are right, ing, harvesting crops, thrashing, and so on, are greatly father, you are right." In France and Germany, the peasant proprietors find great advantage from its practice,-indeed, without such almost impossible. There is a weakness in the comparaco-operation at particular seasons, small farming would be tive isolation of the small farmers; and they would gain strength, power, and efficiency, by combining in associa tive groups, where they could push improvement in culti vation to its highest point, and greatly economize the cost of production. "God bless you, my boy; how happy I shall be to see you settled with such an amiable creature." And the old man's tongue ran glibly on, picturing future years of pleasure. At first with shame for humanity we record itJulius, in the self-satisfaction at the dawn in his mind of his new scheme, felt emotions of unutterable contempt at the rejoicings of the kind old man; but the vivid picture of future happiness, so graphically drawn, sent strange soil. Mr. Hole thus describes the experiment in his work on Social Science* :— Looking at the land and association from this point of view, the working classes of this country have been directing their attention with increased interest for some "An experiment of an agricultural character was time past to the subject of joint proprietorship and culti- tried by the Dutch Government in 1818, when paupervation of the soil. A very large number of them were ism there was even greater than it is in this country. It contributors to the experiment at Tytherly several years adopted the plan of locating paupers on waste lands. ago, which broke down mainly through an injudicious The total expense of each family of six to eight persons, investment of capital, and from the want of men of busi- was about £150, including the building of each house; ness as well as of practical acquaintance with the opera- the furniture and implements; the clothing; two cows, tions of agriculture to conduct it. Mechanics and or one cow and ten sheep; cultivation and seed, first manufacturing operatives have been trained to other pur-year; advances in provisions; advances of other kinds; suits, and must, necessarily, waste a great deal of time flax and wool to be spun; and seven acres of uncultiand labour before they can equal even the rudest boor, whose whole life has been a training to the practical work of agriculture. Let the mechanics and manufacturing operatives once get over their first difficulties, and acquire the requisite adaptation for their work, and there is no question that they will make far sharper, cleverer, and in all respects more valuable workmen than even those who have been regularly bred to the work; for Hodge is terribly boorish, densely ignorant, and full of prejudices. But at Tytherly they had not sufficient time to inure themselves to their new work before the financial difficulties of the undertaking broke it up, and the association was dispersed. The idea had, however, taken firm root in the minds of the working-class; and the National Land scheme would not have been supported to the extent that it was, had not the public opinion been previously created among them. Of late years a more hopeful experiment has been commenced by the Redemption Society-enrolled under the Friendly Societies' Act in 1845-which has recently entered on the possession of an estate situated near Carmarthen, in South Wales. Mr. George Williams, jun., of Gorze, who had dwelt for some time in the American communities, and entertained the desire of establishing similar communities in this country, with a view to remedy the evils of our present antagonistic modes of life, offered to the society the reversion of an estate of 160 acres of land, upon which was a mortgage of £1,200. This generous offer was accepted, and the society duly commenced its operations. It is yet, however, in its infancy, and has not yet had time to afford any striking illustration of the advantages of associative agricultural life in this country. They intend, however, also to combine trade and manufacture with agriculture. In the words of the projector vated land. The settlers were expected to repay their advances in rent and labour, in 16 years, and maintain themselves in the interval. Upwards of 30,000 paupers were thus located, who speedily became self-supporting, placed on a spot where everything was against the experiment. The very soil had to be created; the colonists were located free from the great towns and populous places; they were deprived of the advantages of accumulated capital, of mechanical and horse power; and yet they succeeded in literally making the wilderness to blossom as the rose, and the social and moral wilderness of pauperdom give place to a wealthy and thriving peasantry." An experiment of a similiar kind was made some years ago at Ralahine, in the county of Clare, Ireland, by Mr. Vandeleur, who founded an association of agriculturists upon his estate, with a view to the improvement of their condition, physical, moral, and social. The experiment was conducted with remarkable success for some years; the condition of all the members, eighty-one in number, was greatly improved; but unhappily the pecuniary embarrassments of the landlord brought his affairs into the hands of his creditors; he left the country, and the experiment was put a stop to. It is very desirable that opportunities of a more favourable kind should be given for the fair trial of a system of agricultural association in this country, either by private individuals for their own advantage, as in Mr. Vandeleur's case, or by Poor Law Boards, for the purpose of rendering productive unprofitable soils, as well as of training the pauperized adult population to habits of rural industry, and turning to account the labour which now goes to waste. Mr. Hole mentions the result of an experiment of this kind made by the Chorlton Union. A piece of moss land worth nothing was, in the space of two years, made worth £50 "The plan is to cultivate the farm well, and to erect an acre; the sum of £629 6s. 3d. of wages was divided residences for the members, workshops, factories, and among 385 paupers who had accepted work, and a profit schools; uniting agriculture and manufactures, consum- of £176 8s. was left in favour of the plan. In the same ing the agricultural produce in the maintenance of the way, at Farnley Tyas, near Huddersfield, in 1842, the ableresident members, and disposing of the manufactured bodied poor reclaimed some acres of moss land. In four articles to the outside members in all parts of the coun-years, the committee who managed it had relieved all try; establishing a state in which all shall labour, where men of different creeds and characters may work together for their common good; in which the produce of each shall be cast into the common store, and the wants of all supplied from it; at the same time educating the children of the members, and, in some cases, the adults. In this association no anarchial doctrines are preached, no meddling with the laws or rights of property; but simply a trial whether working men and others sympathizing with them, by clubbing their capital and purchasing property, farming, building, manufacturing, training, &c., cannot, on the whole, live to a better purpose for themselves and England than they are now doing in this competing state." their able-bodied poor in a healthy and industrial mode, had converted a barren waste into a healthy garden, and thereby permanently augmented the wealth of the country; and had moreover, gained ten per cent. on their transactions, and had their original relief fund undiminished. Here, we think, we have a solution of the perplexing difficulty of pauperism, and a perfectly intelligible and common-sense mode of dealing with it. But association upon the land has been carried to a much further extent abroad, than it has yet been in this country. The Moravian settlements on the continent are not of recent origin. They have stood the test of time, and become "respectable." The Moravians of Herrnhut are a wealthy community, living in a beautiful The result of similar experiments in various countries would induce us to hope that success may ultimately * "Lectures on Social Science and the Organization of Labour." | crown the labours of the Redemption Society in South resumé of the whole subject; treated in a temperate, careful, and By JAMES HOLE. Published by J. Chapman.-An excellent Wales. The home colonies of Holland and Belgium, business-like style. The question of labour, machinery, the land established by the Government for the purpose of employ-question, and association, are very ably discussed in the course of ing the destitute poor in productive labour, strikingly would ascertain the bearings of political and social economy viewed thesc lectures, which are worthy of careful perusal by those who illustrate the advantages of co-operative labour on the in a large light. The members increase its means of doing good, first within, and then beyond its own circle." district, highly cultivated and fertile. But it is in the United States of America where the principle of association has been the most systematically and extensively employed, in connection with agricultural operations. It may be mentioned that the superior education of the American people gives them a power to associate, which is enjoyed to only a very limited extent by the people of this country. The people of the New England States associate to form academies, schools, colleges, savings' banks, lyceums, and libraries, trust companies, local banks, and for all conceivable purposes. Most of the factories, and those the best, are co-operative concerns; the managers, and often a considerable portion of the workmen, are partners in them. Most of the fishing vessels of the States are worked by their owners; the sailors being usually the holders of the shares in them. It is the same with the lines of packet-ships which sail between the ports of New England and Liverpool, they are divided into shares, owned by the ship-builders, the merchants, the master, and the mates. Association is also practised to a considerable extent on the land; the oldest establishment of this kind is that of the Shakers at Mount Lebanon, near Albany, in the State of New York. This colony was established in 1780, and is now extremely rich. The founder was Ann Lee, a woman who was actuated by the belief that the early Christians held property in common, and she started a sect with this as one of the fundamental dogmas. Their numbers now amount to between 4,000 and 5,000, and they have nearly thirty societies or communities in which all the members live and labour in common. Buckingham and Miss Martineau, when in the States, both visited the Shakers, and agree in testifying to the extraordinary success which has attended them in the accumulation of property. Mr. Of the cultivation of their lands, as well as of their industry and cleanliness, Miss Martineau speaks in the highest terms. She says, "there is no question of their entire success as far as wealth is concerned. A very moderate amount of labour has secured to them in perfection all the comfort of life they know how to enjoy. and as much wealth as would command the intellectual luxuries of which they do not dream. The earth does not show more flourishing fields, gardens, and orchards, than theirs. If happiness lay in bread and butter, and such things, these people have attained the sumMUI bonum. Their store shows what they can produce for sale. If such external provision, with a great amount of wealth besides, is the result of co-operation and community of property among such an ignorant, conceited, inert society as this, what might the same principle of association effect among a more intelligent set of people, stimulated by education, and exhilarated by all the blessings which providence hath placed within the reach of man?" Besides the Shakers, there are numerous other agricultural associations in the United States; probably not fewer than 50,000 persons belong to those at present in existence. There is a flourishing community of Harmonites on a part of the Ohio, near Beaver, called Economy ; and there is Rapp's settlement at Harmony, now conducted, we believe, by Robert Dale Owen. There are the Davidites to the north of Toronto, in Canada; the Fourierites, in Massachusetts; the Mormons, in their embryo State of Deseret. A recent writer on the United States, under the name of " Rubio," says, "it is a singular thing that these communities are all, without exception, prosperous; not only making money, but unlike individual farmers, possessing it and keeping it." Doubtless they have great advantages in the cheapness of land in the States; but the benefits of co-operation in labour, and the great economy which is the consequence, are calculated to produce equally satisfactory results in even the old countries of Europe, as the Moravians have already proved. The rapidity with which these communities produce wealth, induced Rubio to urge the emigrating population of this country to adopt the principle, and emigrate in Associations, large or small according to circumstances. He says, "The union and co-operative labour is doubly effective in feiling trees, raising log buildings, &c. ; indeed, it is a continual bee,' to use the country phrase, every one assists the other, while all the profit of store-keeping, banking, or any other legitimate pursuit, goes into the Mr. Buckingham says, "as far as the history of the general accumulating fund, instead of enriching an indiviShakers can establish the fact, it has certainly shown, dual, and becomes public wealth in opposition to private that where property is held in community and not indi- wealth. Manufactures, building, and mining succeed to vidually, the disposition to bestow it in works of charity tillage, and, by good management, such societies ultimately and benevolence to others is greatly increased. And that become the richest in the country. If fifty families should the property itself is better managed, for accumulation agree in London, on this principle, and embark for the and preservation, no one can doubt, who has watched Gore or London district, or some of the adjoining districts the progressive advancement which this society has made of Canada West, and club their little funds together to in the augmentation, as well as improvement of its pos- purchase an improved farm, they could not fail of success. sessions; and the neatness, order, and perfection by Of course there must be rules and regulations laid down, which everything they do or make is characterized. This and a leader appointed to preserve order, and enforce is so much the case, that over all the United States, the economy and honesty. Every one must sign the agreeseeds, plants, fruit, grain, cattle, and manufactures, fur-ment, and the creation of wealth, after the first year or nished by any settlement of Shakers, bear a premium in two, would be astonishing." * the market, above the ordinary price of similar articles from other establishments. There being no idlers among | them, all are productive. There being no intemperance among them, none are destructive. There being no misers among them, nothing is hoarded or made to perish for want of use; so that while production and improvement are at their maximum, and waste and destruction at their minimum, the society must go on increasing the extent and value of its temporal possessions, and thus Mr. Sidney gives advice to nearly the same effect in his "Australian Hand Book," where he says that "the principle of association in cattle-breeding, in Australia, might be carried to any extent, by the union of colonial experience with capital, on a system in which all engaged should have an interest in the success of the establishment, instead of being mere hired servants." * Rubio's Rambles in the United States, pp. 130-1, Some one may be disposed to cry out, "oh, this is those volatile substances in the soil which would otherSocialism!" Our reply is, "don't be scared by a name." wise pass off by evaporation. Mixed with the sewage of The legislature has already recognised this kind of Socialism towns it instantly absorbs all the volative gases, renderin the New Poor Law, in Drainage Bills, in Public Edu-ing the whole inodorous, and producing a compound of cation, and such like; and the middle classes have very extreme value as a manure. extensively employed the same agency in the establishment of Joint Stock Banks, Railway Companies, Gas Companies, Shipping Companies, Water Companies, and so on. If the principle and practice of association be good for them, why not for working men? If it have made wealth for the few, why should it not also be employed in the service of the many? Assuredly it is a great power, and we firmly believe that the secret of the permanent elevation of the working class is to be found in that principle, and nowhere else. PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS. PERHAPS there is no science which furnishes such unexpected and startling results as chemistry, and not the least astounding of these is the recent proposal to extract from the bogs of Ireland (those incubi of the soil which spread over three of its twenty million acres, rendering them uncultivated and barren), a variety of useful, and therefore valuable products. That ammonia or smelling salts, vinegar, wood spirit, candles surpassing those of wax in hardness and beauty, naphtha a solvent for India rubber and gutta percha, and inflammable gas in enormous quantities should be obtained from a peat bog, seems more like the dream of a visionary, than the sober reasonings of a modern utilitarian philosopher; yet it is an unquestioned fact, that these and other valuable substances are, by the magic of chemistry, to be thus produced, not that any one of them exist ready-made in the peat, but are formed when the elements composing it are made to take on new arrangements under the influence of chemical operations. Geologically considered, peat bogs are recent formations, they are found in moist situations where the temperature is low, wherever a forest, or even a few trees are overthrown, in such a manner as to prevent the drainage of the water; mosses then spring up in abundance from the damp soil, accompanied with rushes, reeds, and sedges, these go on growing at the surface, whilst the roots die, and form the peaty soil; this process continues uninterruptedly for years, gradually extending on all sides, and so rapidly does the formation take place, that at Lochbroom, in Rosshire, peat is now cut where a forest stood within half a century. In the common manner of burning peat for charcoal, the latter substance is the only product obtained. But a plan has been recently proposed by Mr. Reece, by which all the products of the combustion are retained. This is accomplished by means of a tall furnace of brick-work, the chimney of which passes into a condenser, where the vapours are cooled and retained. Treated in this way, peat yields a quantity of tar of a peculiar character, and a highly ammoniacal liquor, both of which are received and contained in the condenser; and in addition an enormous quantity of an inflammable gas, which passes off and may be burned so as to produce intense heat. The ammonia of the condensed liquid is united with acetic acid, which is the same acid as that which gives its sourness to vinegar; on the addition of lime the acetic acid unites with the latter, forming a compound called acetate of lime, the value of which, as a source of vinegar, is about £14 per ton. The ammonia, which is set free when the lime is added, is united with sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol, and furnishes a compound termed sulphate of ammonia, the value of which as a source of sal ammonia, or smelling salts, &c., is about £12 per ton. Another product is also separated from this liquid: it is a spirit, which is much used for dissolving shell lac and resins, for stiffening hats, and forming polishes and varnishes; this is usually known in the arts as wood naphtha; but as the term naphtha is applied to a variety of substances it is more correctly termed wood spirit; its value is about 5s. a gallon. The tarry products are decomposed by oil of vitriol, and yield several substances, the most important being a body called parraffine, resembling-when it has been bleached and purified wax or spermaceti. It is transparent, fusible, and inflammable, burning with a clear white flame, free from smoke; mixed with wax, spermaceti, and other materials now used in making candles, its value is so great that one of the largest candle companies of London have offered to take any quantity at 1s. per pound. In addition to paraffine, the tar also yields a quantity of liquid naphtha, similar to that obtained from coal tar; this, when purified, may be used as a solvent for India rubber or gutta percha; when set on fire, it burns with a dense flame, giving out much smoke, and can only be burned in such lamps as are The quantity of peat existing in Ireland is almost especially fitted for using oil of turpentine or coal inexhaustible. The depth of the bogs varies from about naphtha, such as the recently introduced portable gas or four to forty feet, and an acre nine feet in depth yields vapour lamps. The tar also yields a considerable quannearly eleven thousand tons; the most ordinary employ-tity of greasy oils, which appear to be well fitted for ment of this substance is for fuel, for which purpose it is oiling machinery, making cart-grease, &c. simply cut and dried; heated in close vessels, or burned Such, then, are the substances capable of being obin a covered manner so that the air has not free access, it tained from peat, and their wholesale value at the is converted into charcoal, four tons of dried peat yield-present time; the only question that remains to be ing one ton of charcoal, the cost of which is about twenty three shillings-whereas the price of wood charcoal is from four to five pounds per ton. Peat charcoal is a substance of great value; in Bavaria and Bohemia it is used for smelting and refining iron, for which purposes it is peculiarly well adapted, from its freedom from sulphur, which always exists in small quantity in coal and coke, and injures very materially the quality of the iron. Peat charcoal possesses in a very high degree the power of absorbing both the colour and odour of decaying liquids. If the most offensive and turbid ditch water be shaken for a few minutes with a small quantity of recently made peat charcoal, it will be found, on running it through a strainer, to be perfectly deodorized. From its power of absorbing ammonia and other gaseous substances produced during the putrefaction of animal and vegetable remains, this substance furnishes a most admirable manure, retaining decided, is whether the cost of the peat and of the various operations is greater or less than the value of the materials obtained; this can only be decided by practical experience. Our own opinion is, that not many years will elapse before peat will be regarded as one of the greatest sources of wealth in Ireland. It may, perhaps, aid our readers in forming their own conclusions if we add a table of the actual quantities obtained from 100 tons of dry peat in Mr. Reece's operations 10,000 gallons of liquor holding in solution --- sufficient ammonia to produce 1 ton of the sulphate, sufficient acetic acid to yield 14 cwt. of acetate of lime, and 52 gallons of wood spirit. 1,000 gallons of tar yielding }{ 300 lbs. of parraffine, 200 gallons of naphtha, 100 gallons of greasy oils. 6,270,000 cubic feet of inflammable gases, and 4 tons of ashes. |