243 



gaged in such a manufacture, select it.* It also appeared to 

 me more permanent in the crucible than when of higher or 

 lower standard. But the same conclusion is forced on us 

 from another ground. Bronze contains tin ; now this metal, 

 for all commercial purposes, may be said to be confined to the 

 south-west of England,! and, therefore, the bronze trade 

 must have originated with persons who were in communica- 

 tion with Britain. But in ancient history we find only one 

 people of whom this can reasonably be supposed, the Phoeni- 

 cians, who, like ourselves, seem to have been the great manu- 

 facturers and merchants in olden time. That they had facto- 

 ries, if not colonies, in Spain, at a very early period, is known 

 to all ; and it seems most unlikely that such enterprising 

 navigators would stop there. Of course, one can attach little 

 weight to the remote traditions of Irish history, if unsupported 

 by other probabilities ; but the traces of Phoenician inter- 

 course which they exhibit are borne out by the admixture of 

 Punic words in the language, and by usages which show that 

 the worship of the god Baal, and other Sidonian rites, had 

 once prevailed in the island. Their traffic in amber proves 

 that they must have gone yet further, even to the Baltic ; 

 for then, we may be sure, the land carriage of precious ma- 

 terials through various and hostile regions was almost im- 

 possible. All, too, that we know of early antiquity shows 

 that they had the bronze trade in their hands. Even down 

 to the time of Aristotle, tin was described by the epithet 

 ' Tyrian ;' and in every nation where bronze was in common 

 use, their presence can be traced or inferred. In Egypt, 

 where this compound was of universal use, we know that the 



* The technical importance of atomic proportions is remarkable. Specu- 

 lum metal is 4Cu + ISt; gong metal is 8Cu + ISt; that referred to is 

 14Cu + iSt ; the hardest metal used for cannon is l6Cu 4- ISt. 



■f There are tin mines in Malacca, but we have no evidence that they 

 were worked so early ; and if they had been, it is quite improbaible that their 

 produce found its way to the Mediterranean. 



