English Extracts.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1228, 9 May 1857, Page 3

English Extracts.

New Metals.—We have been uf late directing much of our attention to the improvements which have been made in the manufacture of aluminium. The cost of producing this very importau' metal has been so reduced that it is employed for the eagles which surmount the regimental colours ol several regiments in the French army, and there are prospects which lead us to expect a yet greater reduction in the cost of producing this metal. S »diura is most necessary in the manufac ure of aluminium ; and we learn that in this courtry there is every probability of its being manufactured at the low cost of two or three shillings p*r lb.; if this is accomplished, aluminium will be at once rendered cheaper than silver. Lithium has been produced by M. Frowst, from lepidolhhe, a mineral which occurs in the granite, near Rozena, in Moravia. Wheiher this remarkable metal is destined to find a place in the arts or manufactures, remains a problem which time alone can solve. Its striking characteristic is its extreme levity—-lithium is a solid metal which floats upon rectified naptha, al. Freest and St. Clair Deville are both of them working on this metal. Calcium, the me-

tallic base of lime, bas been obtained as a beautiful gold-coloured metal by Professor Benson, of Marburg; but as yet not in any quantity. Since we now know that the clays and earths are ill of them reducible to the metallic state, what may we not expect in a few years in art-manufac-ture ? Solids as durable as silver and less liable to tarnish, will be placed in the bands of artizans, from which to produce articles of use or ornament, far lighter than cork. — Art Journal. Scotland gone Mad. —A large proportion of the English press have been expending their (sic) on the monument to the great Scottish hero about to be erected at Stirling ; nor is their maddened language the mere vacational result of having nothing else to write about. The name of Wallace is ha’eful to English ears. At the

distance of some 40 years Waterloo is not a pleasant draught for a Frenchman to swallow. At the disranoe of five centuries and a-hilf the name of Wallace is still a synonym with the southerns beyond the Tweed for terror. A centuiy atm, on the plains of Hindostan the descendants of those who had fought under Tamerlane flee in dismay iu thousands when Clive was known to be approaching with a handful of his veterans. Not greater was the English terror at the approach of the champion of Scotland, when, with his hardy band of faithful followers, he was known to be near. During the French revolutionary war it was said that one Englishman was equal to five Scotchmen. With the weapons of that semi-barbarous age it would not

require five Wallaces to make 100 Englishmen flr*e still. It is not, therefore, surprising that John Bull should turn up bis nose at such a man. The wonder would be if he did not. England can produce no equal to him in patriotism or in prowess. The rolls of irodern history show no rival but William Tell. England suffered much at his hands, Her veteran soldiery, who had marched triumphant over every field in France and deluged the vineyards of Gaul with the blood of her bravest children, sank to striplings before the Scottish chief. The multitudes she could array against him were defeated at fearful odds. She has not forgotten it, and if the Scottish nobility had stood united to their great leader and crowned him king, Edinburgh, and not London, would have been now the British seat of royalty. But the sneers and the pshaws of the English prest, from the paltriest broadsheet to the great Thunderer—the Lady of the

Strand —fall lightly on Scottish ears. Scotland remembers what Wallace did for her independence, and she will give him a monument worthy of herself and of him. Let every true Scotchman throw in his mite to the treasury of patriotism, and show to England what she can and will do for those who devoted thrir lifetimes and their lives to he« best interests and her cause.—lnverness Refortner. The Turin papers mention the following rather singular incident : —The King of Sardinia, while out on a sporting excursion recently, having become separated from his suite, was stopped by a party of robbers, who demanded his purse, “But I am the king,” was the royal reply, to which the robbers answered, “We know that very well, and it is precisely for you that we are waiting here.” The wood being solitary and the suite at i distance, his majesty was obliged to yield compliance, and he held out to the robbers a purse containing 20 gold Napoleons, which was received with marks of the greatest respect.