320 Cookery. 
Their mode of washing linen by means of beaters also, greatly 
contributes to its consumption, 
2dly. Why is Great Britain the principal manufacturing na- 
tion in Europe ? Because their taste in eating has driven them to 
the necessity of using stone coal for fuel ; and of perfecting their 
iron manufactory, on which all other manufactures depend. 
The people on the continent of Europe, prefer small dishes, 
soups, and stews, which can be cheaply and conveniently cooked 
with charcoal. The English have from time immemorial been at- 
tached to large joints, particularly of roast meat. This has driven 
them for cheapness to the use of coal, the cheapest of all fuel, and 
the very ground work and basis of all manufacture. 
Their large joints require knives and forks, of large dimensions, 
and of good temper : hence, as an article in perpetual use three 
or four times a day, neatness, goodness, and cheapness early found 
their way into this branch of the iron manufacture, and gradually 
extended itself to every other branch. 
Sdly. Why is it that the system of paper credit is more preva- 
lent in England than the rest of Europe ? 
Paper money will be first used, and more extensively used, in 
those places where gold and silver are comparatively scarce. It 
will be long before it comes into play, in a country where precious 
metals are abundant. The precious metals will be abundant in 
those countries, where they are in the greatest demand and in ge- 
neral use for domestic purposes, and the common wants of life. 
Owing to the English taste in eating, and their gross method 
of cooking, steel knives and forks have banished silver. For the 
latter metal is not fit to cut up a buttock of beef, or a sirloin. 
While in France, the use of soups, stewed meats, and salads, have 
rendered a silver four-pronged fork and a spoon necessaries of 
life to every man, woman, and child in the country. This has ex- 
tended the use of silver to evey other article of the table : thus, 
plates, dishes, and tureens— plateaux, waiters, and candlesticks, 
there, are silver. In England, the neatness and cheapness of the 
pottery manufacture, especially since it has been directed by the 
taste and science of Bentley and Wedgewood, has superceded, 
even among the English nobility, the necessity of silver services. 
Then again, the system of plated goods in England, dependant on 
the general state of their manufactories, as controuled by their col- 
lieries, has banished solid silver from their houses : to which a 
very inefficient and defective police has greatly contributed. 
Hence, in France the precious metals, particularly silver, have a 1* 
