OILING THE WAVES. 285 



chemical manufacture, and that it involves many other 

 chemical manufactures, some of them, in their present state, 

 the results of the highest refinements of modern chemical 

 science. 



While the fishers of the Hebrides and the peasants on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean are still obtaining soda by 

 burning seaweed as they did of old, our chemical manufac- 

 turers are importing sulphur from Sicily and Iceland, 

 pyrites from all quarters, nitrate of soda from Peru and the 

 East Indies, for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, by the 

 'aid of which they now make enormous quantities of caustic 

 soda from the material extracted from the salt mines of 

 Cheshire and Droitwich. These sulphuric acid works and 

 these soda works are among the most prosperous and rapidly 

 growing of our manufacturing industries, and their chief 

 function is that of ministering to soap-making, in which 

 Britain is now competing triumphantly with all the world. 



By simply considering how much is expended annually 

 for soap in every decent household, and adding to this the 

 quantity consumed in laundries and by our woolen and 

 cotton manufacturers, a large sum total is displayed. For- 

 merly, we imported much of the soap we used at home; 

 now, in spite of our greatly magnified consumption, we 

 supply ourselves with all but a few special kinds, and ex- 

 port very large and continually increasing quantities to all 

 parts of the world; and if the arithmetical rule given above 

 is sound, the demand must steadily increase as civilization 

 advances. 



OILING THE WAVES. 



THE recent gales have shown that if " Britannia rules 

 the waves" her subjects are very turbulent and costly. 

 Our shipping interests are now of enormous magnitude, 

 and they are growing year by year. We are, in fact, be- 

 coming the world's carriers on the ocean, and are thus rul- 

 ing the waves in a far better sense than in the old one. 

 Our present mercantile rule adds to the wealth of our 



