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entitled to consideration : we may, however, remark that 
amongst them is a splendid collection of tools of varied 
forms of construction ; such as lathes and machines for boring, 
planing, grooving, and slotting-, including- steam-hammers, 
riveting-, punching, and wood-cutting machines of every 
description. All these are well and ably represented by the 
first makers, and for these as well as for the paper and letter- 
printing-machine makers, too much cannot be said ; the inge- 
nuity and skill with which these valuable and important machines 
have been produced surpass all description. 
If we examine the state of society as it now exists, in comparison 
with what it was nearly a century ago, and obsei-ve the amount 
of work then done by manual labour without the assistance 
of machinery and the steam-engine, it will be found that the 
labour of one individual in those days was not more than one 
hundredth part of what it is at present; and this immense 
increase of work does not arise from any increase in the 
muscular strength of man, but from his having called to his 
aid that all-powerful and never-failing agent steam, and the 
beautiful organisms to which its power is applied. 
We might instance innumerable examples by which the 
ingenuity of man has, by appliances and the adaptation of 
machinery, turned to account the natural products of the 
earth to supply his wants, and contribute to the social 
comforts of his existence. In the manufacture of cotton, 
one man will spin one thousand times more yarn than could 
have been done before the introduction of the steam-eno-ine 
o 
and machinery ; and in the manufacture of iron, the work of 
one individual with the aid of the rolling-mill, is increased 
nearly in the same proportion. Other manufacturing processes 
have undergone the same beneficial changes, and we have 
reason to hope, from the exertions of an intelligent and 
well-conducted population, that the advantages thus gained 
will be preserved and increased throughout future generations. 
Having thus glanced, however imperfectly, at some of the 
leading objects in the machinery department of the great 
International Exhibition recently closed, we may safely state 
in conclusion, that more splendid and more instructive examples 
of the useful arts were never at any previous time brought 
under the inspection of the public. There is no department 
of practical science which has remained unrepresented, and the 
student, mechanic, or engineer, had only to read in his own 
department of study the great page of nature and art which, 
at this Exhibition, was laid open for his perusal. It is a great 
privilege for the present generation to have had before their 
eyes the finest specimens of the manufacturing machines in 
operation in their day, and in the construction of which it 
