to Commerce, Physiology, and Agriculture. 427 



all who take an interest in the productive resources of our own island, 

 as pointing out in what way the labour of England can most profit- 

 ably be employed. We would also draw attention to the views of 

 the Professor on political economy, which seem to us as sound as they 

 are liberal and enlightened. As a specimen, we extract the following 

 passage from a letter on the trade in sulphur : 



"It is no exaggeration to say, we may fairly judge of the com- 

 mercial prosperity of a country from the amount of sulphuric acid 

 it consumes. Reflecting upon the important influence which the 

 price of sulphur exercises upon the cost of production of bleached 

 and printed cotton stuffs, soap, glass, &c, and remembering that 

 Great Britain supplies America, Spain, Portugal, and the East, with 

 these, exchanging them for raw cotton, silk, wine, raisins, indigo, &c, 

 &c, we can understand why the English Government should have 

 resolved to resort to war with Naples, in order to abolish the 

 sulphur monopoly, which the latter power attempted recently to 

 establish. Nothing could be more opposed to the true interests of 

 Sicily than such a monopoly ; indeed, had it been maintained a few 

 years, it is highly probable that sulphur, the source of her wealth, 

 would have been rendered perfectly valueless to her. Science and 

 industry form a power to which it is dangerous to present impedi- 

 ments. It was not difficult to perceive that the issue would be the 

 entire cessation of the exportation of sulphur from Sicily. In the 

 short period the sulphur monopoly lasted, fifteen patents were 

 taken out for methods to obtain back the sulphuric acid used in 

 making soda. Admitting that these fifteen experiments were not 

 perfectly successful, there can be no doubt it would ere long have 

 been accomplished. But then, in gypsum, (sulphate of lime), and 

 in heavy-spar, (sulphate of barytes), we possess mountains of sul- 

 phuric acid ; in galena, (sulphate of lead), and in iron pyrites, we 

 have no less abundance of sulphur. The problem is, how to se- 

 parate the sulphuric acid, or the sulphur, from these native stores. 

 Hundreds of thousands of pounds weight of sulphuric acid were 

 prepared from iron pyrites, while the high price of sulphur conse- 

 quent upon the monopoly lasted. We should probably ere long 

 have triumphed over all difficulties, and have separated it from gyp- 

 sum. The impulse has been given, the possibility of the process 



