10

PREFACE.

all have been yet sending forth a similar crude spirit. But though Mr- 9° gn -was for many years an officer of excise, and therefore did adapt his patent mtion to all the just requirements of the revenue laws, he has met with very v cfl9>tious obstructions in the erection of his stills and on the most frivolous P reteD aD dAs a general corollary from my long experience in the conduct ofmanufactures, I feel warranted to declare, that the excise system is totally to ( j ;patible with their healthy growth, and is in itself the fruitful parent of ' r g06tperjury, theft, and occasionally murder. The sooner this portion of the a „so oppressively, so expensively, and so offensively collected, is replaced J gVeequitable tax on property, the better for the welfare of this great country- /no quarrel with the gentlemen who administer the excise laws ; several ot ,jj_with whom I have been professionally conversant I esteem very highly aS 1 g |j-gent and upright men, who do what they deem their duty in a conscientious ^ner. But in concluding a very extensive survey of the great branches 0 pi-national industry, this vile obstacle to their progressive growth became so .^gfest, that it would have been pusillanimous to shrink from the task of P 01out the magnitude of the evil. tj 0 us®>

Ventilation describes the plan now organized in the Reform Club H ^ s()

which I inculcated in the Philosophy of Manufactures, published in 1835, — seV .in a paper read before the Royal Society in 1836, and which was copied i° p e jderal of the scientific journals of that period. About the same time, Df-psewas erecting a huge factory furnace and chimney for the ventilation of the ^glfof Commons, which would have been accomplished more effectually at °® j ofof the expense, and without any architectural disfigurement, by my met ^to-ventilating fans, which was, in fact, that long practised in our great textue .ju-ries. The doctor has, I understand, renounced his chimney draughts m joting the Court of Exchequer at Westminster, and adopted a similar s y S j B tb ethat of the Reform Club House. I hope he will pursue the same pl an , ^jth"new Houses of Parliament, as it may be mounted at a very small cost, anout occasioning the least unsightly appearance or any annoyance.

I have subjoined in an Appendix a brief treatise, entitled ChemistR^ S e rs l0fied, which, being duly studied, will prove a useful guide to practiti 5 ° of tbetesting alkalis, acids, and bleaching substances, in several departmentschemical arts. i e m e0t ’

A few of the articles marked in the Dictionary for reference to the SupP* ( 0 fwere, on reconsideration, not found susceptible of useful annotation. j.,testthese references were, indeed, statistical details, which are given from thand best sources in Mr. M'CulIoch’s excellent Dictionary of Commerce-London , 13 Charlotte Street, Bedford Square, *

. 28 th October, 1844.