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REFINERS.

CHAP XXV I.

to all the circumstances connected with the sub-ject, the degree of confidence given to the resultarrived at is greater than can safely be bestowedon the future stages of the examination.

The mode in which these hundred and forty-six thousand ounces of pure gold are disposed ofamong the several manufacturers becomes now'atopic for consideration. The several modes havebeen attentively inquired into among the chiefpersons employed in the several seats of the ma-nufactures in this kingdom, and on a great part ofthem the information obtained has been tolerablydefinite.

The various branches of gilding cause a greatannual consumption of the finest gold, or of goldwith such minute proportions of alloy as do notlessen its value more than one per cent., it beingnot more than two or three grains in the ounce.

The gold-beater’s trade is chiefly carried on inLondon; to an inferior extent in Birmingham ,Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh , Liverpool, andsome other places. The numbers of this branchare about eighty in London , and twelve or four-teen in the other places. One of the largestmakers of leaf gold stated his weekly use of thatmetal to be twenty ounces; another, w r ho maybe considered a medium manufacturer, showed bya reference to his accounts, which were kept withapparent regularity, that he had used sixteen