sentenced them to the ecclesiastical censure as by his diligence in teaching and preachthey so much dreaded. Those who know ing he has secured their affection, and be the meek and gentle temper of the pastor, come one of the most successful African will be surprised to learn, that his reproofs Missionaries in our church. possess so much of the thunder of the Vatican. On parting with our excellent brother, 1 confessed to him the object of my visit. DisBut he is entitled to the affection of his satisfied with all that I had accomplished, in colored flock: for to them he is. truly a shep- the evangelization of the four thousand blacks herd. He treats them as the poor of his in my own parish, I had come to try and Parish-baptizes all their children, marries discover his secret: and I had found it out. them, even those who have lived together It was patience, punctuality and indomitable for years, visits the sick, buries their dead, perseverance-in plain Saxon, hard work. and recognizes fully his pastoral relations to This the Lord will ever bless. them. And by his pastoral fidelity, as well on. took the trouble of presenting the child for baptism. The priest was so accustomed to see her, that he recorded "illegitimate "' without thinking of asking any questions. Mercier ascribes to these women, to the Foundling Hospital, and the Hôtel Dieu, where poorer French patients were received, the rareness of infanticide in France. He adds, as a remarkable fact: MIDWIVES AND MAN-MIDWIVES. Since I for-that the door of a midwife who received patients warded the Note to "N. & Q." on the above at her own house could not be forced, without a subject, I remembered that Mercier, in his warrant from the highest authories. The ordiTableau de Paris, had something to say there-nary fee paid by these abandoned Ariadnes was On referring to the work in question, I twelve francs a day. The "lady of the house" And more details than you would care to insert; but the substance of the historical matter amounts to this :-At the commencement of the seventeenth century, "accoucheurs " were scarcely known in France. Ladies of the royal families of Europe were the last to abandon the old fashion of employing women on the occasions referred to. Generally speaking, the matrons accepted the change of men for women reluctantly; but became reconciled to it, by the superior ability and knowledge of the male practitioners. Down to the end of the last century, Spanish husbands had a considerable repugnance for a man who exercised this useful office. They agreed with the learned Hequet, who, at the beginning of the century, published a work entitled: De l'Indécence aux Hommes-an opinion which cannot be disputed. 'accoucher les Femmes. A law of Henry II. awarded death as the penalty to be paid by any girl who, expecting to become a mother, should conceal the fact. The law still existed, but it was laughed at, in Mercer's time. In 1788, he gives these curious details: "Elle (la fille) dit qu'elle va à la campagne; mais elle n'a pas besoin de sortir de la ville, même du quartier, pour se cacher et faire ses couches. Chaque rue offre une sage-femme qui deçoit les filles grosses. Un même appartement est divisé en quatre chambres égales, au moyen de cloisons, et chacune habite sa cellule, et n'est point vue de sa voisine. L'apartement est distribué de manière qu'elles demeurent inconnues l'une à l'autre. Elles se parlent sans se voir." It was a singular rule of French law which decreed death against the concealment of a birth, "C'est de voir quelquefois la fille d'une sagefemme servir sa mère dans des fonctions qui reveillent certaines idées, et au milieu de tant d'exemples de foiblesses, conserver sa chasteté intacte. Si elle tombe dans le piège, ce ne sera pas faute d'avoir eu sous ses yeux des motifs propres à la retenir sur le bord du précipice;" -Notes and Queries. J. DORAN. "ACOMBLETH."-In the French language there is a word, comble, which signifies" raised to the highest pitch of; " and in reply to the Query of J. B., I would suggest that acombleth is derived from it. "A horse that acombleth," i.e. "a horse that prances or rears." I have searched in vain for the word in many dictionaries and encyclopedias, as also in an old edition of the Sportman's Dictionary; but even there, there is no such word. -Notes and Queries. THERANIA. O UNKNOWN Beloved One! to the mellow sea Branches in the lawn make drooping bowers; Vase and plot burn scarlet, gold, and azure; Honeysuckles wind the tall gray turret, And pale passion-flowers. Come thou, come thou to my lonely thought, Now, at evening twilight, dusky dew down Soft stars crown the grove-encircled hill; Breathe the new-mown meadows, broad and misty; Thro' the heavy grass the rail is talking; Trace with me the wand'ring avenue, O Unknown Beloved One. In the mystic realm, and in the time of visions, There I hold thy hand in mine, thou dearest Then my tears are love, and thine are love, Is thy voice a wavelet in the list'ning darkness? Nights that weep and wail? Art thou Love indeed, or art thou Death, O Unknown Beloved One. -Allingham's Poems. THE BIRD IN THE STORM. THE rain was falling, the winds were calling, Says the little wee bird: "Tis I." "Ah! is it not dreary, and are you not weary, Poor little wee bird?" I said. "How lonely and queer you must feel out here, Just under the Tempest dreadAh! birdie, you'll soon be dead!" SLEEPY HOLLOW. BY HENRY T. TUCKERMAN. Beneath these gold and azure skies, Is tempered by the humid earth, And zephyrs born of summer's prime, Give a delicious coolness birth. They freshen this sequestered nook With constant greetings, bland and free; The pages of the open book All flutter with their wayward glee. As quicker swell their breathings soft, Cloud shadows skim along the field; And yonder dangling woodbines oft Their crimson bugles gently yield. The tulip tree majestic stirs, Far down the water's marge beside, And now awake the nearer firs, And toss their ample branches wide. Through the dark foliage of the pine And lofty elms, the sunshine glows. The trees of life their shafts uprear; Red cones upon the sumac play, And ancient locusts whisper near. From wave and meadow, cliff and sky, Let thy stray vision homeward fall; Behold the mist bloom floating nigh, And hollyhock wide edged and tall; Its gaudy leaves, though fanned apart, Round thick and mealy stamens spring, And nestled to its crimson heart, The sated bees enamored cling. Mark the broad terrace flecked with light, That peeps through trellises of rose, And quivers with a vague delight, As each pale shadow comes and goes. The near, low gurgle of the brook, The wren's glad chirp, the scented hay, "While the storm is ringing, is my time for And e'en the watch dog's peaceful look Says the little wee bird to me; "Though the clouds be dim, yet I warble my And I die not, though cold it be; So the song it is gushing, and seems as if The atmosphere tempest-stirred; Softly and clear it falls on the ear, Through clouds and through darkness heard The song of the sweet wee bird! -Chambers' Journal. E. Our vain disquietudes allay. O, were our lives attuned to glide, And breathe its tranquil joy alway; Undimmed by doubt or fear or care; Fond glances e'er would light the eye, Smiles wreathe the lip, peace crown the brow, For the content would never die That can but live in memory now! WILKIE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON IN GREAT BRITAIN.* From The Spectator. tury, large importations were necessary for the consumption of the country, though Protectionists clamored as loudly about iron coke for coal or charcoal, the invention of as latterly about corn. The substitution of the steam-engine, and improvements in the manufacture, especially Cort's invention of 'puddling," towards the end of the last century, gave a wonderful stimulus to the home trade; which was further increased by the introduction of the hot-blast at a THE principle of making iron-that is, of extracting the metal from the ore and separating from that metal the dross of refuseis, like the principles of most other arts, simple enough. The difficulty lies in properly applying the principle-and, in these times, cheaply. "The method formerly everywhere adopted for obtaining iron from the ore, and which method is still in use in some parts of the Continent of Europe, in America, India, &c., was to break the ore into small pieces, and heat it in contact with wood-charcoal,the fire being urged with bellows worked by hand or water-power, until the iron was deoxidized or reduced into a metallic state, and softened into a pasty mass; it was then taken out of the fire, and being placed under a hammer, the cinder or earthy matter was forced out, and the iron to some degree condensed. It was then again heated and hammered until the desired form was obtained. "A small quanity only of material can be operated upon by this method; and it is necessary not only that the iron ore should be rich and comparatively pure, but a large quantity of wood-charcoal is required in the process; and even under these conditions a large amount of metal is wasted, and the labor is great in proportion to the quantity of iron procured." This simple and primitive method turns out the best metal; and, with all our science, when iron of a very superior quality is wanted, we now import it: but the mode above described is with us, dear, wasteful, and impracticable. The charcoal cannot be furnished in a country like this, or indeed in one far less populous and advanced in cultivation. A scarcity of wood for smelting purposes began to be felt in England towards the end of the sixteenth century. Under James the First and his successor, one of the Dudleys made money by substituting coal for wood in smelting-the Lord Dudley and Ward of our day was a great iron-master, as is, we believe, the present Lord Ward. The Dudley process, however, fell out of use for nearly a century. In 1713 it was revived by Abraham Darby at Colebrokedale in Shropshire; but till the close of the last cen The Manufacture of Iron in Great Britain; with Remarks on the Employment of Capital in IronWorks und Collieries. By George Wilkie, Asso. Inst. C. E., Civil Engineer. Published by Fullar ton. later date. "In the year 1740 the quantity of charcoal pig-iron made in England and Wales was 17,000 tons; in 1788 it was 13,000 tons, but in the latter year the pig-iron made with the coke of fossil coal amounted to 48,000 tons, making a total of 61,000 tons. The improvement of the steam-engine by Watt, and the introduction of the process of puddling, for the conversion of cast-iron into wrought-iron, by Cort, in 1783, gave great impetus to the manufacture; and in the year 1796 the make of pig-iron rose to 125,000 tons, and in 1830, including Scotland, to 678,000 tons. In the year 1829, James B. Neilson obtained his patent for the use of hot blast, the most important modern improvement in iron manufacture, causing both great economy of fuel and increased production of iron in a given time; and in 1839 the make of pig-iron in Great Britain was 1,248,000 tons, which increased to 1,999,000 tons in 1847, and to 2,700,000 tons in 1852." Whether iron be made in the primitive mode by charcoal and a pair of bellows, or by the expensive and elaborate processes of modern hot-blast furnace, the principle and object are of course the same. The foreign earthy substance mixed with the metal in the ore or iron-stone must be got rid of by heat, as well as the impurities this process leaves, and the metal finally brought to a state that shall be infusible at a white heat, which constitutes "bar or wrought iron. This, we have seen, is done under the primitive plan, though with waste of metal, fuel, and "men's time." Notwithstanding the science that has been brought to bear upon the subject, this cannot be done by the blast-furnace, which only turns out pig or cast iron, subsequently made wrought or bar iron, by several processes in which remelting and puddling (stirring) form the most important features. The whole process cannot be minutely followed without the drawings and 1 1 3 ! into the hearth in the form of carburet of descriptions of Mr. Wilkie's volume, though | may be comparatively cool,-for if a furnace The fire is a matter of nicety, which only practice can attain. The "blast," whether "hot" or enters from the bottom of the furnace through an arrangement of pipes, and is driven by the power of steam. The hotblast is a "saving"; the cold draught of air rushing upon the fiery mass of the furnace abstracts heat and causes a great "waste" of fuel. There are other advantages in this direction; but the cold-blast makes the best iron, "cold-blast pig-iron is usually 15s. per ton [about twenty per cent] blast pig iron." Like the fire, of which, higher in price than the same description of indeed, it almost forms a part, much of the success depends upon the management of the blast. When all the processes have been properly gone through, the ores brought by heat and the atmosphere to a "mine "-the mine "If the heat is insufficient the operation mixed with a right flux-the fire duly apwill not succeed-if the heat is too great or too suddenly applied, the materials will fuse plied to the raw material so as chemically to into a slag or cinder, and become nearly or change its nature and separate the earths wholly unmanageable. What is required is, from the iron and form the two distinct first, a gentle heat to expel the water, car- bodies of metal and slag-the lower part of bonic acid, &c.; then an increase of tem- the furnace is reached, and the fused matter perature, but not amounting to a melting- falls upon the hearth or crucible according heat, while the deoxidizing process is to its specific weight, the iron taking the proceeding. After the iron is reduced to a lowest place, the slag on the top of it. metallic state, the particles may be made to When the slag or "cinder" reaches a ceradhere together in the form of wrought-iron, or the metal may be further subjected to tain height, it flows through an opening exsaturation with carbon, and it will then pass pressly contrived for it, in a condition like into carburet of iron or cast-iron. What is molten lava. The iron is let off in a melted termed "working too fast" at a blast-fur-state, by cutting away the stopping of the nace consists in carrying the heat too high tapping-hole, and conducted into moulds up in the stack, and thus melting the ma- formed of sand on the floor of the castingterials into slag or cinder, instead of producing such a temperature as will allow of the proper gradual chemical actions taking place. "The hottest part of the furnace must be at the tuyeres, the heat gradually decreasing upwards, so that the throat of the furnace house. In The chemical actions in converting castiron into wrought are not so numerous as in separating the metal from the ore. technical language, cast-iron is carburet of iron-a combination of iron with carbon; and wrought-iron is the decarbureted cast-quantity of fruit is small compared with the blossoms: a large proportion of the embryo iron. "Wrought-iron differs from cast-iron in or young of many creatures never reach maits mechanical structure, and in containing turity; what looks like the solid matter of less impurities. The greater the amount of the great globe, philosophers tell us, could carbon that iron contains, the more fusible be compressed into a small compass; and is the metal: as the quantity of carbon is what a waste there is in space! It is the lessened the more infusible the iron becomes; same in human productions. What sort of work would a painter or poet produce who used up and after the carbon is expelled from the iron, it no longer melts on being subjected to a white heat, but becomes soft and pasty, and the particles of metal adhere together, allowing of the malleable iron being shaped into any required form, and also giving rise to the remarkable property of welding, by which pieces of malleable iron may be joined to each other at a high temperature. iron. all his artistical matter? Even in the iron-trade, "waste" is essential to excellence; the best iron costs the most, in a measure through the rejecting or losing precess; our system of using up everything not only lowers the quality of the article but the national reputation. After remelting, the process of conversion It seems that a good many capitalists have mainly consists of stirring ("puddling ") of late engaged in the "hot-blast" business to allow the escape of the gas, and ham- without understanding it, and have as a mering to get rid of impurities; for the rolling into "bar" is a form of convenience. of this class Mr. Wilkie's Manufacture of consequence burnt their fingers. To people The process is not so well fitted for gene- Iron in Great Britain is primarily adralized description as that of making cast-dressed; and it will be found very useful as a warning guide. Besides an historical Notwithstanding the scientific and practi- sketch of the trade, it gives a brief minera cal struggles after" cheapness," waste still logical account of British iron-ores, and of goes on in the manufacture of iron. The the chemical questions involved in their transcoal loses from twenty-five to forty per cent mutation. It furnishes a description accomin weight during conversion into coke; and panied with plates of the various buildings there seems no help for it. Gas, it appears, necessary in the manufacture of iron, with cannot practically be supplied from long dis- critical remarks on their structure. The tances, and there is no town to use it on the different processes employed are sufficiently spot. To transport the coal to a gas-work explained, as well as some of the subsequent and bring back the coke, would cost more operations to which iron for use as a mathan it would save. A good deal of fuel, or terial is subjected. Mr. Wilkie concludes at least the heat it furnishes, is wasted by with some remarks on the employment of passing out of the "throat" (top) of the capital in iron-works and collieries, with furnace into the air, and though methods of which last the manufacture of iron ought turning it to account have been devised, to be connected for cheap fuel. Though o opinions differ as to their utility; and we casionally technical, the book is plain, brief, conceive they are scarcely so useful as Mr. and it may be recommended as a succinct Wilkie thinks, on account of the first con- yet sufficient account of the iron-trade. trivance and subsequent management neces- To a man intending to embark his money sary to render them available. Besides the in the business, a course of chemistry in loss of metal in the slag, the whole of the connexion with mining, and a visit to an Blag itself is an encumbrance to the earth, iron-furnace district, will probably be of all efforts to turn it to account having failed. more use than any reading that can be We know not whether this effort to waste or put before him; but Mr. Wilkie's book reject nothing is not struggling against Na- would form an excellent introduction and ture; most assuredly, a good deal of 80-help to his practical studies. called waste goes on in her processes. The |