450 Persian orruM. 
still the exports of British plate-glass have increased about tenfold since 
1849. No manufacture of this description exists in all the eastern 
hemisphere, nor in the whole of America. The Japanese looking-glass 
still consists of costly, highly-polished steel. At home, glass is now 
extensively used in slabs for flooring and underground purpose, com- 
bining as it does greater strength than the York flag, with the additional 
advantages of conveying light ; and flags tested at Woolwich dockyard 
have been found to bear a pressure exceeding a ton weight. About 
twenty-five years ago a supply of such slabs was required for the pur- 
pose of flooring a palace of one of the native princes of India, but the 
excise restrictions then prevailing precluded its supply from England at 
less than 30s. per foot ; it could now be afforded at 3s. to 4s. The 
successful application of glass also to the sheathing of iron ships, as 
recently tested in the Eoyal Navy, and the consequent freedom from 
the incrustation inseparable from both wood and iron, indicates a new 
and important opening in the further progress of the trade. In fact, 
its true position has yet to be attained, when the resources of this 
country shall have stimulated that more full development of which it 
is susceptible, and Great Britain shall, as the author of the freedom of 
this industry predicted, " supply almost the whole world." 
Persian Opium. — Opium is produced at Meshed, and is exported to 
Bokhara and Khokand. The opium produced at Yezd is said to be of ex- 
cellent quality, but exporters have of late so adulterated it, that it is said 
the whole quantity which has lately been sent to China will probably be 
returned. A French gentleman went out last year to make inquiry as to 
the quality of opium produced in Persia, with a view to supplying the 
hospitals in France. He expressed himself highly satisfied with the 
result of his investigations, having found the best Persian opium to 
contain as much as 17 per cent, of morphine, but that it would be neces- 
sary to take great precautions in purchasing, to prevent adulteration. 
Chefoo-Peas are largely imported in junks from New-chwang 
and are then transhipped on board foreign vessels, for convey- 
ance to the southern ports, Canton (through Hong Kong) taking 
the largest quantity. When these peas are crushed into cakes (bean 
cake) they are exported to Swatow, at which port they are used as 
manure for the sugar crops. The number of mills employed in the 
manufacture of these cakes is considerable. The process is slow and 
simple. A huge stone wheel (to a pole passing through the centre of 
which a mule is harnessed) crushes the peas as it passes round a circular 
narrow causeway, into which they have been thrown. These, in their 
crushed condition, are packed in moulds and placed in a press, whence 
they are extracted free of the oil, which has passed into the receptacle 
prepared for it. 
