of carrying the letters would, on the average, amount to much the same; whereas the number of letters sent would be infinitely greater.

With regard to the rates to and from India, Ceylon, &c., by the overland route, it must be borne in mind that both France and Egypt receive a portion of the postage charged-one for letters through France via Marseilles, the other for the transit through Egypt, so that before we could attempt a reduction on such letters, it would be necessary to secure the co-operation of those countries.

The transmission of pamphlets, catalogues, &c., through the postoffice, as pointed out in the number of the Athenæum above referred to, is a subject of the greatest importance. We can testify from experience to the eagerness with which every scrap of printed intelligence, in a periodical or other shape, is devoured in India, to the anxiety with which each arrival of the kind is looked forward to, and the almost complete adoration paid to it when it comes. The sons and daughters of England in a far off land, though surrounded with luxury and affluence, have their yearnings after home, and weary hours of langour and probably sickness to drag on, without any of the amusements or various attractions we have to resort to here. It is our duty therefore, as far as we have it in our power, not only to provide them with such entertainment, but to impart to them the daily increasing opportunities we ourselves possess of acquiring knowledge, and improving the intellectual part.

It must be admitted, at the same time, that, through the arrangements of such enterprising Companies as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, great facilities have been afforded of late in the transmission of periodicals, &c., to the East, which can now be despatched to any port at which their vessels call for 1s. each. The arrangements of the East India Company at Bombay are equally favourable, taking into consideration the two distinct services working upon that line of steam-boat communication.

The regulations of the Post-office at Bombay with regard to newspapers, pamphlets, and other printed papers packed in short covers, open at each end," arriving by sailing ships, are not exceeding 6 tolas in weight, 1 anna, an anna being added for every six additional tolas. As regards Calcutta, Madras, Singapore, Ceylon, and Hong Kong, the carrying of such pamphlets and periodicals is in the hands of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and is conducted on the terms stated above.

We are not aware whether the arrangements of the General Post

office here are such as to admit of pamphlets, &c., of a certain size and weight being transmitted to India and adjacent Colonies on terms similar to those now in existence at home for inland despatches of the kind; but it is to be hoped this point will receive the consideration of the Post-office authorities. The mail to India would doubtless be considerably increased in size, under such an arrangement, to which increase the present mode of transit through Egypt must always form an objection. We see no reason, however, why the steamers of the General Screw Company should not carry mails of this kind to Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta. They would not arrive quite so early as by the overland route, still the arrangement would be a great improvement upon the present system of charging letter postage via Southampton. It behoves all parties connected with the publishing and book trades, independently of the association referred to, to bestir themselves in this good cause, a field of incalculable extent and productiveness being open to them.

In conclusion, we can only express a hope that the exertions of the Association will be crowned with success, and that they will receive from the public generally that support and encouragement the important nature of the case demands. As regards the rates of postage on letters despatched to, or received from, foreign countries, it may be a work of time and difficulty to obtain the co-operation of those nations in effecting a reduction on their side; but, as regards India and our own Colonial possessions, no difficulty should exist, as soon as the existing mail contracts will render such a measure practicable.

NEW MODE OF MAKING SUGAR.

THIS new and improved system of manufacturing sugar has been put in operation by Mr. H. Bessemer, a civil engineer, at his premises, Baxter House, Old St. Pancras-road, and we have reason to believe that gentlemen practically acquainted with all the processes connected with sugar making have expressed their gratification at the results obtained by the working of the novel machinery and appliances brought under their notice by Mr. Bessemer.

more

In the present condition of our West India Colonies, although it is not to be expected that any improvements in the manufacture of sugar, which are as open to their more favoured rivals favoured, we mean, in respect to the employment of cheap and continuous labour, can improve the relative position (for that is the question) of the free-labour planters, yet so long as our own colonies are not entirely abandoned; and, until it is deliberately settled by Parliament and the country that the cry for justice from the West India Colonies shall be heard in vain, we say that so long as the colonies are cultivated and hope still survives, any improvements in the manufacture of sugar cannot fail to excite interest, and a brief description of Mr. Bessemer's new process may not therefore be unacceptable to the reader. From Mr. Bessemer's candid and interesting statement we gather that his generous wish is to confine the advantage of his process to the use of the British Colonies, but we are well satisfied that no such object is practicable; and for ourselves we are the decided advocates of measures of legislative justice to the sugar colonies as the foundation and corner-stone of all improvement. A brief description of Mr. Bessemer's process we shall therefore attempt to give, in language as free from technicalities as the nature of the subject will admit of. In the manufacture of sugar from the cane the saccharine juice is by the usual system expressed by a rollermill, which, on an average, obtains from 50 to 55 per cent. of juice; whereas the cane, according to the most eminent writers, contains 90 per cent., the remaining 35 or 40 per cent. being left in the 66 cane trash." Mr. Bessemer, by a great improvement on his original invention of the cane-press, is now enabled to obtain, by a principle of continuous pressure, from 75 to 80 per cent. without any additional cost. In order to produce granulated sugar from the juice of the cane it is necessary to separate a large portion of the water in

which the saccharine matter is held in solution. This has hitherto been effected by boiling, the water passing off in the form of steam. It has, however, been discovered that the heat necessary to produce ebullition effects a rapid chemical decomposition of a large portion of the sugar under operation, which assumes a dark brown or blackish colour, and is perfectly uncrystallizable, in which condition sugar is commonly known under the name of molasses or treacle, and amounts to 40 per cent. of the entire quantity of saccharine matter present in the juice. In the new process just patented by Mr. Bessemer this separation of the aqueous portion of the fluid is no longer effected by boiling, but is dependent on that beautiful law of nature by which evaporation is carried on spontaneously, and every shower of rain again vaporized, and caused to ascend in the atmosphere. To carry this into practice a small pan only is required, in which is placed a screw of a peculiar construction, presenting about 6,000 superficial feet of surface, which is kept wetted by slowly revolving in the fluid to be evaporated; and in contact with this wet surface some 10,000 cubic feet of warm atmospheric air is forced per minute by a common blowing fan. The aqueous portions of the solution are thus rapidly absorbed by the air, and pass off as a perfectly invisible vapour, while the temperature of the fluid is only 110 degrees Fahrenheit. The most remarkable fact is that the evaporation at this low temperature is equal to that of firepans of the same dimensions with a powerful fire beneath them. A vast amount of fuel is thus saved, and a still more important result obtained from evaporating at this low temperature is, that none of the saccharine matter is converted into molasses, nor is there the least perceptible increase of colour. Hence, not only is the quantity increased in this single process 40 per cent., but the superior quality of it would command, as we were informed, 7s. or 8s. per cwt. in the market over the ordinary Colonial produce. In the usual mode of manufacturing sugar, after the crystallization has taken place, the "mother liquor," in which the crystals are formed, is separated by a very slow process of drainage through holes made in the bottom of the hogsheads; but, as the whole of the dark viscid syrup will not drain out by the mere action of gravity, a coating is left upon the crystals, which renders them brown and of less value. By another most important invention of Mr. Bessemer this drainage is effected with extraordinary rapidity and perfection, by continuously passing a very thin stratum of sugar over a fine wire gauze surface, beneath which a partial vacuum is formed, and on which a number of fine jets of water (like a syringe) are allowed to flow; the passage of the water through

the interstices between the crystals of sugar entirely removes the syrup from their surface, and renders them at once sufficiently dry for shipment. The time during which the sugar is exposed to the action of the water is one-seventh of a second only, during which minute interval the water is drawn into the vacuum chamber, without being allowed sufficient time to dissolve any portion of the crystals. This instantaneous conversion of brown sugar into white must, however, be witnessed to be appreciated. These are the most striking as they are the most useful inventions applied by Mr. Bessemer to the manufacture of sugar, though there are a variety of other important details, a description of which seems less called for. We understand the improvements have received the approbation of numerous scientific and practical men, and we are inclined to hope that if justice be done to the Colonies at the hands of Parliament, by such means as we have in former articles described, important improvements of various kinds will go on in the sugar colonies, and that that prosperity which has been so long withheld may be yet restored to them.

INDIA AND THE GOLD QUESTION.

THE use of silver as a circulating medium, and, in all civilized countries, the standard of value, with the exception, we believe, of England and Portugal, is doubtless destined in this remarkable age of gold discoveries to give place, in some degree, to the more precious metal. The countries which at present base their monetary relations upon a silver standard and currency must, of necessity, yield to the pressure upon them of gold, or be excluded from participation in what will doubtless become a large portion of the commerce of the world, viz., the buying and selling of that metal, and the carrying on of exchange and other monetary transactions through the medium thereof, as well as its increased circulation in countries hitherto using it on a limited scale.

It does not require any great stretch of capacity to comprehend that all commodities of general use are more or less affected by periods of