426 Chronicles of Science. [July, 



Welsh Gold Mining, which a few years since was of great pro- 

 mise, has almost entirely failed to he remunerative ; but two mines 

 produced any quantity of gold in 1866, Vigra and Clogan being 

 one, and Castell Cam Dochan the other, and from the Quartz lodes 

 of these mines about 1,200 ounces of gold were obtained. 



Metallurgy. 



There has been for some time an evident want of activity in our 

 Metallurgical processes. The causes of this are sufficiently obvious. 

 The unfortunate attitude assumed by the workmen — more unfor- 

 tunate for their future than for the future of masters — and the 

 general disturbance of trade being the principal ones. Resulting 

 from this, we find but few of our great manufacturers exhibiting at 

 Paris ; but beyond the influence of trade depression, there is another 

 influence yet more potent, which has prevented the display of the 

 finer specimens of English manufacture. Exhibitions have not, as 

 a rule, been found profitable. The regular system of the workshops 

 has to be disturbed, and much inconvenience suffered, which the 

 resulting advantages have not been found to balance. It is there- 

 fore most fallacious on the part of Dr. Lyon Playfair to assume that 

 English manufacture is retrograding, because the display of our 

 metallic industries at Paris is an imperfect one. A glance at the 

 Catalogue will convince any one that our highest-class manufac- 

 turers have not exhibited. Yet Dr. Playfair, writing to Lord 

 Taunton, thus expresses himself: — " I am sorry to say that with very 

 few exceptions, a singular accordance of opinion prevailed that our 

 country had shown little inventiveness, and made but little progress 

 in the peaceful arts of industry since 1862. Deficient representa- 

 tion in some of the industries might have accounted for this judgment 

 against us, but when we find that out of ninety classes, there are 

 scarcely a dozen in which pre-eminence is unhesitatingly awarded to 

 us, this plea must be abandoned. My own opinion is worthy only 

 of the confidence which might be supposed to attach to my know- 

 ledge of the chemical arts ; but when I found some of our chief 

 mechanical and civil engineers lamenting the want of progress in 

 their industries, and pointing to the wonderful advances which other 

 nations are making, when I found our chemical and even textile 

 manufacturers uttering similar complaints, I naturally devoted 

 attention to elicit their views as to the causes." 



It is not necessary to quote any further from Dr. Lyon Play- 

 fair's letter, which proceeds to inform Lord Taunton that the one 

 great want of England is technical schools. 



Dr. Playfair is exceedingly illogical. In the first place, his 

 complaint is that " our country had shown little inventiveness since 

 1862 ; " and then he speaks of the " wonderful advances which other 



