with the loftiest eminences in Scotland or England. Although the country appears to have been, at some remote period, much covered with wood, scarcely the vestige of a forest now remains. The quantities of wood that are occasionally dug out of the bogs, prove that these occupy the place of the ancient forests; and they constitute a striking and uncomfortable peculiarity in the aspect of the country.

In general, the soil of Ireland is amazingly fertile, but the mode of farming is bad. The land is, in the first instance, rented from the proprietors by persons called Middlemen, who let it to inferior farmers, and these again parcel it out in small portions to a lower set of tenantry. Each of the higher classes oppresses and grinds its inferior; and the ground is occupied by men without capital to improve it, whose necessities compel them to force from it, whatever it will yield, for a miserable subsistence, and the payment of their rack

rents.

Since the year 1800, Ireland has been united with Great Britain, and made subject to the same laws. But the people, long oppressed, and restricted in their commerce and manufactures by severe and injudicious laws, are still inclined to turbulence and discontent. Religious prejudice is another principal cause of this unquiet disposition. The established form of religion is that of the Church of England; but the great majority of the people are Roman Catholics. In Ireland there are four archbishops, and eighteen bishops. The archbishop of Armagh is primate.

Linen is the staple manufacture of Ireland, and is carried on to a considerable extent, particularly in the province of Ulster. Of late years, the manufacture of cotton has been introduced, and is flourishing. The Irish are a sprightly, warm-hearted, and ingenious people. In the vivacity of their disposition, and the gaiety of their manners, they resemble the French nation more than either the English or Scotch. Ilardy, temperate, and heedless of danger, they may be ranked among the finest soldiers in the world. In science and literature many of them have attained great eminence. They excel particularly in eloquent declamation. Stewart's Geography.

Cal-cined', burned to a powder; ba'sis, foundation; perni'cious, hurtful; cu'lin-ar-y, cooking; cyl'in-ders, rollers; res'er-voirs, large basins; cem'ent, that which joins bodies; spher'i-cal, globular; an'ti-mon-y, a mineral.

LEAD is eleven times heavier than water. It is of a dull bluish white colour: is totally void of spring or elasticity, and on these accounts, it has acquired a sort of character of dullness and sluggishness, from which circumstance, we say of a stupid man, that he has a leaden disposition. Lead is the softest of all metals, and is very easily melted. It may be beaten into a pretty thin leaf, but will not admit of being drawn into a fine wire. It is not only very fusible, but also very readily calcined by heat, changing into a powdery or scaly matter, called calx, which, by means of fire, may be made to take all colours from yellow to a deep red. The calx of lead is therefore the basis of many colours, which are obtained from it by different degrees of heat. Red lead and white lead, so much used in paints, are the calces of lead. All lead paints, however, are unwholesome, so long as they continue to smell; and the fumes of melted lead are likewise pernicious. This is the cause why painters and plumbers are so subject to various diseases, especially violent colics and palsies. The white lead manufacture is so hurtful to the health that the workmen, in a very short time, are apt to lose the use of their limbs, and to be otherwise severely indisposed. Any acid will extract a poison from lead, and, although it is employed in glazing and pottery, the use of it should be carefully avoided in culinary operations.

Lead abounds in England and Wales, particularly in the counties of Derby, Northumberland, Somerset, Cornwall, and Devon. It is plentiful also in Scotland, Ireland, Germany,

France, and America; and it has lately been imported in such quantities from Spain, as greatly to lower its price in England. It is supposed that some of our lead mines, which are perhaps the most important in the world, were worked by the Romans. When the ore is brought out of the mines it is sorted and washed, to free it from dirt and rubbish; it is then spread, and the best pieces separated. After the ore, by picking and washing, has been sufficiently cleansed from extraneous matter, it is roasted in a kind of kiln, to free it from the sulphur usually combined with it. The next process is to mix it with a quantity of coke, and submit it to the smelting* furnace. In this there are tap-holes, which, when the lead is melted, are opened to allow it to run in a fluid state into an iron vessel. The dross which floats on its surface is skimmed off, and the metal is taken out by ladles, and poured into cast iron moulds with round ends. It is then called pig lead, and is fit for use.

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We are told, in the book of Numbers, that when the Israelites had overcome the Midianites, they were commanded to purify the spoils which they had taken; and the mode of purifying "the gold, and the silver, the brass, the tin, and the lead, was by making them "go through the fire.' In Ezekiel it is said that the house of Israel had, by reason of their sins, become as dross unto God, and he threatens that, as they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. Job says, O that my words were written! O that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." Moses also, in the song of praise, which he and the Israelites sang to God, for the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, has this simile,— "they sank as lead in the mighty waters." Various.

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Smelting is that process by which the pure metal is separated from the earthy particles combined with it in the ore. This is done by throwing the whole into a furnace, and mixing with it substances that will combine with the earthy parts; the metal being the heaviest, fall to the bottom, and runs out by the proper openings in its pure metallic state.

Res'cued, delivered; man-i-fest'ed, made known; pen'alty. punishment; ex'pi-a-ted, answered for; pol-lu'ted, defiled; e-man-ci-pa'tion, freedom; do-min'ion, power; dis'. ci-pline, correction; van'quished, overcome; con-sum'mated, completed.

SALVATION means deliverance from something that is feared or suffered, and it is therefore a term of very general application; but in reference to our spiritual condition, it means deliverance from those evils with which we are afflicted in consequence of our departure from God.

It implies deliverance from ignorance-not from ignorance of human science, but from ignorance of God, the first and the last, the greatest and the wisest, the holiest and the best of beings, the maker of all things, the centre of all perfection, the fountain of all happiness. Ignorant of God, we cannot give him acceptable worship, we cannot rightly, obey his will, we cannot hold communion with him here, we cannot be prepared for the enjoyment of his presence hereafter. But from this ignorance we are rescued by the salvation of the gospel, which reveals God to us, which makes us acquainted with his nature, his attributes, his character, his government, and which especially unfolds to us that scheme of mercy in which he has most clearly manifested his glory. Salvation implies deliverance from guilt. The law denounces a penalty against those who break it. That penalty is exclusion from heaven, and deprivation of God's favour, and consignment to the place of misery. But from this penalty there is deliverance provided. Christ has expiated guilt. He has made reconciliation for iniquity." He has purchased eternal life. And "to those who are in him there is now no condemnation." Their sins are forgiven. They

are "at peace with God." And there is nothing to prevent him from pouring out upon them all the riches of his mercy, and making them happy for ever.

This salvation implies deliverance from the power of sin. We are naturally the slaves of this power. Sin reigns in us as the descendants of sinful Adam.

We cannot throw off
And so long

its yoke by any virtue or efforts of our own. as it maintains its ascendancy, we are degraded, and polluted, and miserable. But provision is made in the gospel for our emancipation. Christ " gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all our iniquities," and that sin might have no more "dominion over us. And all who believe in him are made free to serve that God whose service is the sweetest liberty and the highest honour.

The salvation of the gospel implies deliverance from the ills and calamities of life. It does not imply this literally; for under the dispensation of the gospel there is, strictly speaking, no exemption from bodily disease, from outward misfortune, or from the thousand distresses that flesh is heir to. But Christ has given such views of the providence of God-he has brought life and immortality so clearly to light, and has so modified and subdued the operations of sin, which is the cause of all our sufferings, that these are no longer real evils to them that believe. When we are brought into a filial relation to God, the afflictions that he sends form a part of that discipline which he employs to improve our graces, and to prepare us for his presence. He supports us under them, he overrules and sanctifies them for our spiritual advantage, and he thus divests them of all that is frightful, and converts them into blessings.

This salvation implies deliverance from the power and fear of death. It is indeed an awful thing to die. Nature recoils from the agonies of dissolution, and from the corruption of the grave. But Christ has "vanquished death, and him that had the power of it." He has plucked out its sting, he has secured our final triumph over it, and has thus taught us to dismiss all our alarms. Our bodies must return to their kindred earth; but they shall be raised again, spiritual, incorruptible, and glorious. They shall be re-united to their