was brought forward ostensibly for the benefit of the " people," it was stated at the time in the Council by a member of the Health Committee (that committee, we believe, having opposed the scheme), that it was in reality a park for the gentry, and something was said to the effect that it was intended as a kind of barrier between the poor and rich. A member of the council, a draper, who advocated the project very warmly, and who, we believe, inhabits a handsome house beyond the boundary of the intended Park, said something about the necessity of a "Rotten Row" for Liverpool, where the poor would have the pleasure of seeing the equipages and attire of the rich. About the same time a discussion took place concerning the short water-supply of the town, and the chairman of the Water Committee said regarding the Corporation Baths for the poor, "that the town could not afford water for such luxuries!" Here, then, we have two items of 368,000l. for widening a wide street in the town and forming a Park outside of it. And it has been stated in defence of this latter proceeding, that a good deal, if not all the "Parkmoney" may be recovered if properly dealt with. Just as if the same rule would not apply much more forcibly if the same money had been laid out in sanitary improvements within the borough.

But, about the time stated, the Town Council committed an act in direct opposition to the wishes of the community, as expressed in strong terms by nearly all the local papers, of whatever creed or politics, which cannot be too severely reprobated, and of which we can hardly think some of the persons concerned had seriously weighed the consequences. They virtually drove away from the town the gentleman who was not only the most willing but also the most able to deal with the great danger which has been hanging over the town so long and which threatens the country at large, we mean Mr. McGowen, the legal adviser to the Board of Health and Deputy Town Clerk.

As far as we can gather from the local press, and from reliable information which we have received, the circumstances of this proceeding were as follows:

The Town Clerk, Mr. Shuttleworth, was compelled by indisposition to retire from his office, and amongst the local applicants was naturally Mr. McGowen, his Deputy, who had been twelve years in the service of the Corporation; of the Health Committee more particularly, and in whose favour all the local candidates withdrew. Mr. Rayner, the Town Clerk of Bradford, was the only other competitor, and when he heard how strong a feeling had been manifested in favour of Mr. McGowen he also withdrew. A powerful cabal was however formed, consisting of some leading men "on both sides of the house" (for, as we hear, party politics run tolerably high in the Liverpool Town Council), and these persons succeeded in inducing Mr. Rayner to renew his application, and under a promise

that a separate office should be created for Mr. McGowen, they also induced a small majority of the council to elect their nominee, contrary to the wishes of the Health Committee, who pleaded hard for their best coadjutor, and also against the voice of the large mass of the townspeople. Shortly afterwards, Mr. McGowen was offered the Town Clerkship of Bradford, and seeing, as he said, that there was no intention to provide him with an office, he accepted it. Then followed laudation and regrets, a corporate testimonial, and after his departure (if we are rightly informed) still greater perplexity in regard to the health of the town, for immediately afterwards the cholera outbreak occurred. Many were the rumours at the time concerning the motive which induced a number of gentlemen to propose, and others to countenance this suicidal conduct. Personal animosity and cliqueism were the more generally credited causes, but it was even rumoured that the exigencies of party politics of a wider (we cannot say higher) nature than mere local ones had necessitated the act. Be that as it may, our readers will agree with us that it is little to the credit of the Corporation of Liverpool, and that it is a national hardship that the town and kingdom should thus be further exposed to the ravages of a virulent epidemic. To repeat the printed words of Dr. Duncan, when speaking in 1843 of the state of things which had existed in Liverpool for half-a-century, and throughout that time had rendered it, as it is to-day, the most unhealthy town in the whole country, "inferior considerations triumphed over the public good."

Is it necessary that we should recapitulate the conditions which, it is agreed on all sides, are absolutely requisite for the safety of the three kingdoms, in order to show that none of those conditions are complied with in a most vital portion of the realm?

readers satisfied that epidemics rage in an unnecessary degree in the great aorta of our commerce and emigration-that every condition exists there for fostering those diseases, and that the local governing body should not be permitted any longer to administer this portion of its duties without higher direction and control?

We cannot think this requires any further showing. What, then, should be done? Shall Government interfere? We should say not. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, being member for that division of the County of Lancaster in which Liverpool is situated, and having a near relative in the Town Council, might be subjected to the same influences which are brought to bear upon the local members, and which impede the progress of sanitary reform. We do not for a moment mean to insinuate that the Right Honourable gentleman would be guided by such influences any more than we should suppose the members of any honourable body would knowingly allow themselves to be thus led or coerced. But occult

influences are so easily brought to bear in all these matters, that it is better for local reforms to be enforced by strangers than by friends. A special Committee of the House of Commons on the whole question of the health of our large towns would of course be the alternative (and the only one, as far as we can see), and such a commission would no doubt first direct its attention to the most sickly towns-Liverpool being notoriously the worst. In its labours it would no doubt have the cordial co-operation of the honourable members for the borough and county, two of whom, by the way, Mr. Graves and Mr. Charles Turner, are members of the Liverpool Town Council.

Having thus explicitly, and we trust charitably, made public the sanitary state of Liverpool, its dangers to the country, and the remedy which appears to us to be the most feasible, we must defer the consideration of the health of other large towns for the present, and leave the matter in the hands of those whose duty and interest it is to watch over the public safety, and to prevent amongst our people an outbreak of pestilence similar to that which has ravaged our herds and flocks.*

II. THE NEW IRON-FIELDS OF ENGLAND. By EDWARD HULL, B.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.

It is now becoming daily more apparent that there is scarcely a geological formation-at least in England-which cannot be turned to some economic use, or is incapable of yelding some mineral substance of value to man. Whether the formation be granite, porphyry, slate, grit, sandstone, limestone, chalk, clay, or shale, all are included under the above category. The requirements of art and the progress of civilization put the earth under tribute, and however often the levy is made, the supply is certain to be ready: on the other hand, the very variety of the mineral products constantly challenge

Since the above article was written, the Corporation of Liverpool have applied to Parliament for powers to obtain an increased water-supply. The following is the evidence of Dr. William Stewart Trench, examined by Mr. Milward : "I am Superintendent of the Board of Health at Liverpool. The death-rate last year was 36.4. The average throughout the kingdom is 22. The average death-rate in towns is 24.1. If Liverpool had been as healthy as the average of towns, we should have saved 6,000 lives. Last year, I brought the subject before the Health Committee, and they submitted it to the Water Committee. There is a painful want of water in Liverpool. The state of health in Liverpool in May and June was very bad, and when diarrhoea appeared the death-rate was considerably increased-very much owing to the inadequacy of the rainfall and the supply of water. There was a direct connection between the death-rate and the insufficient water-supply. I look with great anxiety to the threatened approach of cholera, and particularly to what may occur during the months of July, August, September, and October."

man's inventive powers to find out their uses, and in this way, more perhaps than in any other, nature is the instructor of art.

It is an old remark, that the most useful of all our metals is the most abundantly diffused through the rocks and strata of our earth. In some parts of the world nearly pure ores of iron occur in masses of sufficient magnitude to constitute hills, or parts of mountains. This is the case in Scandinavia, parts of Central Europe, and Southern India, where magnetite assumes the proportions rather of a rock than of an ore.* In our own country, however, we have no such examples of the massive accumulation of pure iron-ore, but the difficiency is amply compensated for by the frequency of its occurrence in combination with other substances. Before entering more fully on this subject, I wish to make one or two remarks on a point of nomenclature, which it would be of advantage to adopt when speaking of the different forms in which iron-ores occur. The classification of these ores into two groups, to be called "iron-ores" (proper) and "iron-stones" respectively, will be easily apprehended by all persons familiar with the manufacture of iron; and the various modes of its occurrence. The distinction holds good for the most part, both mineralogically and stratigraphically, and is indeed often unconsciously used in commerce. Under the head of "iron-ores " (proper) might be classed those which occur either in the form of veins or lodes, and pockets, such as the red hæmatites of North Lancashire, Cumberland, and the Mendip Hills, the brown hamatites of the Forest of Dean, South Wales, and Cornwall, and the magnetite of Cornwall, Devonshire, and Sweden. Now all these ores are amongst the richest in iron, are but slightly debased by any foreign substances, and they occur in the form of the ores of other metals, such as copper and lead, or approximately so. The "ironstones," on the other hand, are of a more earthy character, are consequently not so rich, and partake more or less of the laminated or bedded structure of the strata with which they are associated. Under this head may be classed the black bands and clay-ironstones of the coal-measures, the iron-bearing beds of the Lias, Oolite, Greensand, and Wealden formations. There are, doubtless, some rare cases in which the ores partake of an intermediate character, but in the great majority of cases they may be arranged under one or other of these heads.

The ores which we are about to consider are of the latter description. They are essentially iron-stones, and occur, to a greater or less degree, in a stratified form, partaking of the aqueous origin of their associated rocks. So similar indeed are they to ordinary strata, and so little calculated to arrest attention, that for hundreds of years they had been quarried for building purposes, or even for *See the description of the Magnetic Iron-ore of the districts of Trichinopoly, Salem, and South Arcot, in this Journal, No. VI., p. 342.

the less honourable use of mending roads, without their metalliferous qualities having been discovered.

I may here be allowed to capitulate very briefly the progress of the iron-smelting of this country to the present time. The sources from which our chief supply of iron had been procured from very early periods down to the middle of the last century were the hæmatites of Gloucestershire, South Wales, the Mendip Hills, and the iron-stones of Kent and the Weald of Sussex; the coal-measures of Salop, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Scotland. Some of these ores are believed on good grounds to have been worked by the Romans, the fuel generally, but perhaps not exclusively, used in the process of smelting being charcoal. This material, however, became gradually scarce, and some of the writers of the last century lament the rapid destruction of the forests both of the South of England and the Midland counties, owing to the using up of the trees.* Necessity is the mother of invention, and as the requirements of iron became more extended, and the supply of charcoal diminished, it became necessary to try some other fuel. There is, as is common in such cases, some uncertainty to whom the honour belongs of having first successfully employed coal for this purpose, but it is generally admitted that Ďud Dudley, after several failures, was the first to succeed in the attempt. The wasteful consumption of this valuable mineral in the process of smelting was at first enormous, but as the process began to be more generally adopted, as improvements took place in the formation of the furnaces, the use of the hot blast and other appliances were introduced, the proportion of coal employed became gradually less, down to the present day, when it may be said to have nearly reached its minimum.

The black-band and clay-band iron-stones of the coal-measures have hitherto been our chief sources of supply. These ores occur in thin layers associated with coal-seams, shales, clays, and sandstones. A few years since, however, the rich hæmatites of North Lancashire and West Cumberland were opened up, and are now very largely used, both for mixing with the former and for the manufacture of the finest pig-iron directly from the ores themselves. From this iron only Bessemer steel is at present made. The ore occurs in enormous "pockets," or irregular masses, filling chambers in the carboniferous limestone, and often only covered by a few feet of drift clay or millstone grit, while in one or two places it is quarried in open-work. Meanwhile, the process of exhaustion of the coalmeasure iron-stones in some of the principal centres of manufacture was going on apace, and it must be confessed that now the local resources of Staffordshire, Shropshire (Coalbrook Dale), and the

*I am informed by Mr. W. Brockbank that there are still two or three places in Great Britain where charcoal is used in smelting under peculiar circumstances, and for the production of a very high class of pig-iron.