N speaking of the scientific part of manufactures, equity commands us to put aside all that narrow spirit of nationality which raises a barrier between one people and another. Science should be cosmopolite; its conquests are, so to speak, common property. Every one enjoys them, and the men who spend their lives in labouring for the welfare of their fellow-beings, who consecrate their genius, their hours of study, their whole existence, to useful inventions,-these men, I say, have strong claims upon the respect and gratitude of the whole world.

Who, for example, would blame us for placing in our gallery of illustrious mechanics, the Scotchman, James Watt, or Humphrey Davy, the Englishman? Are not some names as popular in our continental countries as in Great Britain? Assuredly;

and it would be most silly to omit them in a work such as ours; for, if this were done, it might, without hyperbole, be said, that these celebrated names were actually noticed in the omission itself.

The Institute of France professed the same opinions with regard to this subject; and proved them, in 1808, by calling James Watt to a place among its eight foreign members.

James Watt, born in 1736, at Greenock, in Scotland, was at first a simple workman in the establishment of a mathematical instrument maker in London. His weak health obliging him to return to his native country, he fixed himself at Glasgow, and at the age of twenty obtained the title of philosophical instrument maker in the university of that city.

But James Watt's merits did not end here. From a skilful workman, he rose to the rank of an engineer of the first order. Important canal improvements spread his reputation throughout England. At last a discovery of the highest importance procured him an imperishable fame as a mechanician.

This

James Watt happened to be intrusted with the repairing of a model of a steam engine, constructed upon Newcomen's plan, and destined for the instruction of the students at Oxford. circumstance gave him an opportunity of examining the defects in this machine and the means of remedying them, and inventing improvements.

In Newcomen's plan there was a great loss of heat, consequent upon the injection of cold water, for the purpose of condensing the vapour. Watt invented a plan for completely condensing the vapour in Newcomen's atmospheric engine, without cooling the cylinder. This was effected by means of a condenser detached from the cylinder. Other fortunate efforts followed. He added a pump, put in motion by the engine itself, and which draws off the hot water and air from the condenser.

To give an idea of the importance of the successive improvements made by Watt in Newcomen's atmospheric machine, it

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will be sufficient to state that the economy in fuel was valued at sixty per cent.

Notwithstanding these advantages, it is to be presumed that Watt's discoveries would have remained buried in the obscurity of his workshop, if it had not been for the well-directed and generous assistance of Matthew Bolton, one of the first of the Birmingham manufacturers. Watt, of a reserved disposition, mixing but little with the world, and carrying his modesty to a degree of timidity and shyness rarely to be met with, was not capable of turning his discoveries and inventions to advantage. Matthew Bolton, understanding the whole force of the young man's genius, obtained accurate information of the extent of his labours as a mechanician, and placed the whole of his fortune at Watt's disposal.

Bolton had expended, in the establishment of workshops and foundries, as much as 1,250,000 francs, from which he had not yet received any return. Soon after, in order to assure full success to Watt's machines, he offered to provide them gratuitously to all those who wished for them, and to keep them in repair at his own expense; asking, as sole indemnity, one-third of the money saved in fuel by the new engine.

Such liberal conditions brought the engine into use for working mines, and the profits which accrued to Bolton and Watt were very great.

Encouraged by this success, Watt continued his researches. with a zeal truly worthy of his extraordinary genius. What he sought now was the application of steam to manufactures of all kinds; and he laboured hard to construct an engine, by means of which the power of steam could be applied to any mechanism whatsoever.

In this manner he succeeded in the completion of the true steam engine, and placed in the hands of mankind a continual, uniform, and constant power, infinitely divisible, and equally susceptible of increase as well as of general application.

James Watt, although he received neither instruction nor for

and encouragement afforded by Napoleon, her days of prosperity came back to her.

At the exhibition in 1806, the richness and beauty of the Lyons silks were much admired, especially in velvets and satins. What marvellous improvements have been made in the preparation of silk and the art of weaving it, since its introduction. into France from the country of Seres?

It was not until the seventeenth century of the Christian era, that this event, so remarkable in the annals of history, took place; previously the true nature of silk was not understood in European countries. The Romans, masters of the universe, were long in ignorance of the uses to which it might be applied; so that among them silk was sold for its weight in gold.

In the introduction to his Universal Dictionary of Commer cial Geography, the conscientious Peuchet gives an interesting account of the curious circumstances attendant upon the origin of the cultivation of silk in Europe.

"The Emperor Justinian," says he, "desiring to free the commerce of his subjects from the exactions of the Persians, endeavoured, by the aid of his ally the Christian King of Abyssinia, to take from the Persians a part of the silk trade. He was unsuccessful in this attempt, but a sudden and unexpected event placed within his reach, to a certain degree, the object he had laboured to attain.

"Two Persian monks having been employed as missionaries in some of the Christian churches, which, according to Cosmas, were established in different parts of India, had opened a road for themselves into the country of Seres, or China. There they observed the silk-worm's labours, and made themselves acquainted with all the processes by which this fine thread is converted into so great a variety of beautiful stuffs, attracting general admiration. The hope of future gain, or perhaps a holy indignation at beholding infidel nations in the sole possession of so lucrative a branch of commerce, induced them to return immediately to Constantinople.

"There they explained to the emperor the origin of silk, and the various modes of manufacturing and preparing it. Encouraged by his liberal promises, they undertook to bring thither a sufficient number of those industrious little creatures, to whose efforts man owes so much. Consequently, they filled hollowed cane-stalks with silk-worms' eggs; hatched them in the warmth. of a dunghill; fed them on the leaves of the wild-mulberry, and the worms multiplied and worked in the same manner as in the hot climates where they first attracted the attention of man."

A great number were soon naturalized in different parts of the Grecian empire, and especially in the Peloponnesus. Afterwards (in 1130), Sicily undertook, and with great success, the breeding of silk-worms, and the example was followed in various towns throughout Italy. Manufactories of considerable extent were established in all these places, and the new production made up into different stuffs. The same great quantity of silk was no longer brought from the East; the subjects of the Greek emperors were no longer obliged to have recourse to the Persians