diture of the war, capital was annihilated and spent with a profusion unknown before, the industry of our people created new capital as rapidly as the old was wasted. If we spent two millions a day on the war, we made three or four millions a day by accessions to the activity of our production. To supply the place of a million of our hardworking citizens, we invented or constructed labor-saving machines, which, at less expense, would do the work of several millions of men. It was with reference to this state of things that Mr. Seward, on a memorable occasion, asserted publicly that "not only had the war not impoverished any body but it had largely augmented the national resources." Something of that enduring valor, resistless impetuosity and overwhelming force which immortalized our fighting armies in the field seemed to communicate its fire to our industrial armies in their peaceful arts at home. Consequently every body seemed to be growing rich, and as was natural, there never was such luxury and extravagance among any people in the world as prevailed in this country during the years 1863 and 1864.

Such were the results of the extraordinary investments for capital which were developed on all sides by the extraordinary stimulus which operated during the war. It would be absurd to say that all the growth and wealth which were then realized were healthful and permanent, but it would be equally wrong to suppose that the augmentation of wealth was radically unsound, shadowy and unsubstantial. We might as well say that the vegetable life of the tropics is less sound and perfect than that of Russian America because it is produced more rapidly and under the stimulus of a more exciting temperature. It was one of Mr. McCulloch's speculative errors when he was Comptroller of the Currency that he failed to recognise the vast torces which were at work to increase the wealth of the country. In a circular letter to the National Banks, containing practical hints of the greatest value, he ventured into more abstract disquisition, as follows:

Although the loyal States appear superficially to be in a prosperous condition, that such is not the fact that while the Government is engaged in the suppression of a rebellion of unexampled fierceness and magnitude, and is constantly draining the country of its laboring and producing population, and diverting its mechanical industry from works of permanent value to the construction of implements of warfare; while cities are crowded, and the country is to the same extent depleted, and waste and extravagance prevail as they never before prevailed in the United States, the nation, whatever may be the external indications, is not prospering. The war in which we are involved is a stern necessity, and must be prosecuted for the preservation of the Governmert, no matter what may be its cost; but the country will unquestionably be the poorer every day it is continued. This seeming prosperity of the loyal States is owing merely to the large expenditure of the Government and the redundant currency which these expenditures seem to render necessary."

In a Comptroller of Currency such a want of appreciation might pass without attracting special notice, but in a Secretary of the Treasury it could scarcely fail to lead to some errors in wielding the vast administrative powers which in the anomalous condition of our finances are at present concentrated in his hands.

Did space permit we might take the principle that " capital increases in any country in proportion as safe remunerative investments are offered o it," and show how it illustrates one of the compensations which our ational debt has brought with it. In no other country in the world are

there such lucrative investments for larger or smaller amounts of money as are offered among us. In no other country can the frugal laborer or domestic servant, when they have saved up 50 or 100 dollars, invest it so as to bring in an annual income of 7 to 8 per cent. In no other country can the millionaire place his money so as to secure with equal returns of interest an equal degree of security. The rapid increase of capital in England is partly attributed to the safe investments which consols afford for all moneys whatsoever, and if offering, as they do, absolute security with moderate interest, the British consols have done so much to stimulate the growth of wealth in England, what may not our American consols be expected to do in this particular, when they offer with absolute security a high rate of interest. We shall not only attract foreign capital, but we shall utilize our own capital and make it fructify. For now, as heretofore, it is a distinguishing characteristic of this country that partly because of our vast regions of rich, virgin soil, partly from of our mineral, manufacturing and agricultural industries, partly from of the ingenuity, energy and versatility of our people, but more because of the free air we breathe, and the free institutions under which we live there is an almost tropical impulse given to the growth of wealth among us; and in finance as well as in politics, Mr. Madison's words to Miss Edgeworth are verified, that Providence seems to have set the United States to do many things which before were thought impossible.

In view of these facts we see how it was that our people were able to lend, without foreign help, so vast an amount of capital as 2,500 millions of dollars to the Government to carry on the late war. In that war we wasted much of our capital, but what was left fructified with such rapidity that it left us at the close richer than we were at the beginning. We also see that there is really no danger of repudiation of our public debt. It is too widely distributed among ourselves, it is held by too many of our people, it forms too fundamental a part of the great fabric of our national life to admit of its being disturbed. To repudiate our national debt would be to shake the security of all property throughout the country. A revolution of such magnitude would end in the disruption of the nation, and would deservedly make of us a monument for the contempt and wonder of the nations of all succeding times. So monstrous and absurd is the anticipation of repudiation, that the very word has long ceased to be whispered by our most confirmed croakers. Occasionally it is urged, we observe by certain unappreciative English journals, which thus deter some of their countrymen from investing in our bonds, doing us the service thereby of checking the too great foreign demands for the most remunerative, safe investments which can be had at present by British capitalists.

We have said the foreign demand is too great. For ourselves, we do not look with so much favor on the exportation of Five-twenties as do some persons for whose judgment we have the highest possible respect. If, while the national debt was increasing, the growth of our wealth was so great that we could absorb the bonds as they were issued, surely, now that the debt has ceased to increase, we can take care of these honds, by means of the constant augmentation ever going on, of our rapidly growing wealth. Besides our bonds are too cheap as yet. We cannot look with complacency on their passing into the hands of foreign creditors at eighty cents on the dollar for six per cent. gold-bearing Five-twenties.

Moreover, there is another fact which may be variously interpreted, but is not without interest. Our daily papers have recently given considerable attention to the increasing disposition of capital to invest itself in railroad property. During the period in which the national debt was growing, the new federal securities which were being issued absorbed our new capital, but two years have passed since the debt ceased to grow. As our wealth has been growing during that time, the argument is that that the national securities are not now sufficient to afford the means of investment. Hence, it is said, the attention of capitalists is diverted to other securities, and to those of the most promising railroads among the rest. We do not endorse this opinion. It is, however, worthy of examination in connection with the general movements of capital to which we have referred.

ECONOMY IN FUEL.

Some very interesting and important experiments have recently been made in England with what is called Lancaster's patent for inducing the more perfect combustion of fuel in furnaces. The enormous amount of coal wasted in the furnaces, as at present constructed, has long engaged the most serious attention, adding as it does materially to the cost of steam power. In the furnaces as at present constructed, a very large per centage of the heating power escapes through the funnel, and the smoke which should be consumed passes off into the air. On shore the atmosphere is polluted and vitiated, and at sea those on board ship are annoyed by the "smoke fog," which frequently interferes with the "lookout." In Lancaster's patent the smoke is consumed, and not only is the heating power greater because more sustained at a regular temperature with less variations, but the saving of coal is something extraordinary. For the benefit of the steamship-owning community, who are so largely interested in the matter, we subjoin the results of some of the experiments on board the steamer Demetrius, Captain Baron. The Demetrius is a steamer of 418 tons register, fitted with engines of 70 horse power nominal, her furnaces being constructed on the Lancaster principle. The ship is a fair specimen of the merchant steamers engaged in the Mediterranean and other trades. In order to test the advantages of the Lancaster principle, a trial trip was made from Liverpool to Llandudno Bay, and the very great value of the invention was most satisfactorily demonstrated. It was found that a saving approaching one-half was effected, and that the funnels were comparatively smokeless. The engines were worked at 65 revolutions, and there was a remarkable regularity in firing, indeed, the fireman had a light time of it. The measured mile was run in 6 minutes leaving Liverpool, and in 5 minutes 40 seconds on the return trip. It was found that almost any amount of pressure could be obtained, the combustion being most complete, and the heat intense and well diffused over the whole of the furnaces. After the run the tubes were found to contain less deposit than under the old system. The engineers on board expressed their very high approval of the Lancaster system. We may state that the invention has already been applied to locomotive and stationary engines, and that it has been found to work exceedingly well. The principle is also applicable to puddling furnaces.

TYPOGRAPHY AND TYPE-SETTING MACHINES AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION.

For four hundred years past type-setting, this important part of typography, has been performed in the same manner. While in all other branches of industry machines came to aid or supplant the hand of man, compositors alone have remained at their posts, perfecting their art, it is true, and making unparalleled efforts to acquire a skill which in many instances is truly marvelous and would not fail to astonish the first old printers if they could see what the "craft" is able to do now-a-days.

The fact is, it is by no means easy to replace by a machine the constant at. tention indispensable to the compositor, who incessantly tries to familiarize himself with the thoughts of the writer whose manuscript he is studying. Just try to make a machine read handwritings such as are seen only too often, and the illegibility of which frequently puzzles even the writer when the compositor in despair places before him the words which he was unable to read or to guess. To be a good compositor it is not sufficient for a man to have good eyes and nimble fingers, he must also have some literary knowledge, and especially be familiar with punctuation, that his "proofs" may not look too bad. He must in some sort, as it were, identify himself with the author, penetrate his peculiarities and fully understand what he means. A compositor destitute of these qualifi cations can not claim a distinguished and lucrative position in his honorable trade; he must devote a great deal of time to the correction of his "proofs," makes, of course, less money than his more skillful colleagues, and will lose his place a great deal sooner than these.

It is owing to this careful and pains-taking attention which the compositor must give to what he sets up that machines hitherto have not been able to fill his place in the printing offices. But inventors, these tenacious benefactors of mankind, do not allow themselves to be disheartened, and being unable to supplant the compositor entirely, they have sought the means of assisting him and facilitating, by a more rapid process, the setting of the letters destined to form words, always leaving him the responsibility for the work executed by his will. Starting from this idea, M. Delcambre, more than twenty-five years ago, invented the pianotype. This machine, which combines a great many peculiarities of the piano with those of the sewing machine, created some sensation toward the year 1845. Several proprietors of printing-offices bought these machines, and for a short time it was really believed that a revolution would take place in the great realm of typography. A great number of these machines had been manufactured, and a single printer purchased ten of them. The trial proved deceptive, and the printers soon cast aside as worthless the instrument which had cost its inventor a great deal of money and labor.

One of the principal causes of this failure was the distribution, that is to say

*Translated for the Cincinnati Commercial, from the Revue de Paris.

The

the return of the type used in composition to their places in the cases. compositor was obliged to distribute them with his hands, as is being done now, then to put the equal letters together in order to place them in the openings of the type setting machine. It is easily seen that this preparatory composition made the compositor lose already in advance all the advantages which he derived afterward from the performance of the composition by the machine. The machine was obviously incomplete. It was all-important, therefore, to perfect it, or rather invent a distributing machine which would place the types in the order in which they must be to serve again for the formation of words; it was impossible to derive any benefit from the former machine without adding the latter to it. The inventor, therefore, had to go to work again, and to-day we see at the Exposition both the perfected machine and the distribu'er, all manufactured by Messrs. Fridore Delcambre, Cruys & Co. The first time that I saw this type-setting machine, I could not repress my admiration, and I should have willingly awarded a grand prize to its inventor. I did not see and could not see whether there were imperfections about it. I scarcely ventured to make it work or ask explanations about it, so much I was afraid of having my fond hopes dispelled.

In effect, there is a fascination in the spectacle presented by the types falling so nimbly and noiselessly under the pressure of the fingers which touch the keys of the finger-board, one believes that perfection in this attractive trade has been attained. The types are detached one after another, glide through small chan. pels on an inclined plane and form a number of words from which the compositor takes enough to fill his galley, which is attached to the end of one of the abovementioned channels. But I had to restrain my admiratiou. I had to examine carefully and conscientiously what future this new machine might have. To describe all its details would be tedious and would not give my readers an adequate idea of its value. Therefore, it seems to me preferable to speak at once of the results of my investigation.

The machine itself works certainly very well, and if the all-important thing was to drop the types regularly, I should hasten to state that a most valuable increase in the rapidity of type-setting had been accomplished. But it is com. plicated, and three persons are required to work it, one to distribute, the second to compose, the third to arrange the words in the galley. I do not care whether women or children may be employed to fill one or more of these places. The advantage or loss are to be calculated according to the time used by the compositors and not by the number of the hands employed. Now I do not hesitate to say that the fact that three persons are required to work the machine neutralizes the advantages to be derived from it.

In the present system of type-setting, when a compositor loses time by repeatedly reading the copy which he has before him and correcting what he has set up, it is he alone that loses, and this loss of time, which is renewed very often during the day, and frequently caused by trifling things, is sustained only by himself and does not injure two other persons. Here, on the contrary, whenever he stops, his two assistants at the galley and the distributor must do so too. This is more serious than it seems at first, and would almost suffice to make us question the value of the whole invention.