THE SUGAR TRADE. 271 
combined with, a solution of slacked lime or phosphate of lime or 
magnesia. Eighthly, as a mordant for fixing colours in dyeing ; ninthly, 
as a means of fixing gold or other metal leaf on to fabrics, leather, or 
other materials. In this case, the vegetable albumen, in the form of a 
dry powder, is rubbed or spread on the surface of the fabric or other 
material ; the gold or other metal leaf is then placed over the part to 
be figured, and it is fixed thereon by the pressure of a heated die or 
roller, on which the design is made in relief. The metal may be applied 
in any other form, instead of in leaf. 
THE SUGAR TRADE. 
We Englishmen, in our national pride, are too apt to pre-suppose that 
we can beat all foreigners in machinery and its applications to our own 
particular province. But this over- confidence in our own merit has 
lately had some severe shocks in the inability of English to compete 
with foreign machinists in supplying locomotive engines and other 
machines. Presumptuous persons have even ventured to hint that we 
are far inferior to the French, and even to the Scotch, in everything 
connected with sugar -making ; but the chilling reception given to their 
insinuations has discouraged a repetition of the attempt to shake the 
confidence of Londoners in the skill of their countrymen. The foreigners 
certainly use a far better class of sugar for refining, and it would be 
worth while to find out why they do so. Is it because the continental 
consumption of brown sugar is limited, and that in consequence of this 
fact the refiners buy a strong and fine sugar in order to leave as little 
pieces as possible ? If this explanation be correct, it is evident that the 
reason of the foreigners making cheaper sugar is found ; for in order to 
enable the pieces and bastards left after extracting the loaves to compete 
with raw sugar, the London refiners have been obliged to sell the lower 
products at little or no profit, and to get their profit from the stoved 
sugar. The English public use brown sugar in very large quantities, 
and there is thus some apparent justification for the practice of buying 
comparatively low qualities at a cheap rate, with the view of supplying 
the consumption of brown as well as of white sugar ; and the system, 
though wrong in theory, answered very well while an extra protection 
duty was levied on the foreign refined. Since the imposition of the 
12s. lOd. instead of the 18s. 4d. rate, the practice has to some extent 
been abandoned by our refiners, to enable them to keep the Dutch and 
French goods out of the market, but we might surely with profit use a 
stronger sugar for refining. Some light has recently been thrown on 
the kinds most suited to the refiner by examinations carried on with 
VOL. VI. F F 
