are constructed, requiring to be joined
together with lead (since tin or solder would
be acted on by the acid), this process was,
until lately, as expensive as the plates
themselves; but now, by means of the oxy-
hydrogen blowpipe, the plates are cemented
together at their edges by mere fusion, without
the intervention of any kind of solder, and
so easily, that a child might perform the
operation."

Up to this point, then, we find that Le
Blanc's little discovery, the promised reward
for which never was paid to him, has created
sulphuric acid into an important article of
commerce, and opened a new field for capital
and industry.

"Again," Liebig goes on, " saltpetre being
indispensable in making sulphuric acid, the
commercial value of that salt had formerly
an important influence upon the price of the
acid. It is true that one hnudred pounds of
saltpetre only are required to one thousand
pounds of sulphur; but its cost was four
times greater than an equal weight of the
latter." All this has likewise been changed.
Thanks to some other of those men with
ready eyes and active brain from whom the
world receives so much, to whom it hitherto
has given back so little.

"Travellers had observed, near the small
seaport of Yquique, in the district of Atacama,
in Peru, an efflorescence covering the
ground over extensive districts. This was
found to consist principally of nitrate of soda.
Commerce, which with its polypus arms
embraces the whole earth, and everywhere
discovers new sources of profit for industry,
took advantage of this discovery. The quantity
of this valuable salt proved to be inexhaustible,
as it exists in beds extending over more than
two hundred square miles. It was brought
to England at less than half the freight of
the East India saltpetre (nitrate of potassa);
and, as in the chemical manufacture, neither
the potash nor the soda were required, but
only the nitric acid, in combination with the
alkali, the soda-saltpetre of South America
supplanted the potash-saltpetre of the East
in an incredibly short time. The
manufacture of sulphuric acid received a new
impulse; its price was much diminished,
without injury to the manufacturer; and,
with the exception of fluctuations, caused
by the impediments thrown in the way of
the export of sulphur from Sicily, it soon
became reduced to a minimum, and remained
stationary."

Thus, therefore, the little discovery of M.
Le Blanc, assisted by the quiet observation of
a traveller, has caused the blessing of an active
commerce to descend upon Peru. Furthermore,
heroes of battles, if any of you be economists,
give ear to this:—"Potash-saltpetre is
now only employed in the manufacture of
gunpowder; it is no longer in demand for
other purposes; and thus, if Government effect
a saving of many hundred thousand pounds
annually in gunpowder, this economy must be
attributed to the increased manufacture of
sulphuric acid," originated by that discovery
for which, by a soldier-loving Government, Le
Blanc was bilked of his reward.

"We may form some idea of the amount of
sulphuric acid consumed, when we find that
five thousand hundred-weights are made by a
small manufactory, and from twenty thousand
hundred-weights to sixty thousand hundred-
weights by a large one, annually. This
manufacture causes immense sums to flow yearly
into Sicily. It has introduced industry and
wealth into the arid and desolate districts of
Atacama. It has enabled Russia to extract
platinum from its ores, at a moderate and yet
remunerating price."Note here another
article of more extended commerce, to which
the little discovery of the manufacture of soda
out of common salt is in a direct line
grandfather. Platinum was demanded because the
vats employed for the concentration of
sulphuric acid are constructed of that metal;
they cost one or two thousand pounds apiece.
What more do we owe to M. Le Blanc's little
fact? "It leads to frequent improvements in
the manufacture of glass, which continually
becomes cheaper and more beautiful, being
now made chiefly from soda, and not from
potashes. It enables us to return to our
fields all their potash—a most valuable and
important manure, in the form of ashes, by
substituting soda in the manufacture of glass
and soap"

We have not yet done with the summary
of consequences flowing from the single fact
disclosed by M. Le Blanc. We would observe,
however, that this is no isolated instance.
There is no fact in the whole range of all the
sciences, a correct knowledge of which has
not been turned, or cannot be turned, to the
advantage of the human race. Science points
the way to commerce, and the path of
commerce is the path to peace—to the perfecting,
so far as perfection can be looked for, of the
human family. Commerce must awaken our
sleepers, before Christianity can pour its voice
into their ears. Missionaries before merchants
are in most parts of the world—the seed
before the plough. The men who direct
that plough—who point the path of
commerce, and discover new tracks for our human
industry to travel in—humble explorers—
patient men, who spend their lives in bringing
up out of the mines of ignorance into the
upper light a few small grains of truth, so
precious, yet apparently so trivial: these do
their large share of the real work of the
world, howsoever rarely we may read of
them in the Calendar of the world's
distinctions and titles.

We are wandering, however, from M.
Le Blanc's discovery, and must not do that yet,
because there still remains a consequence
resulting from it, which it would not do for
an Englishman to omit. Liebig says,—" I
have already told you, that in the manufacture