ination, unskilfully conducted, proved | weigh the levity of a high-spirited girl nothing. It is certain that the gravest on her first introduction into a gay and suspicion attached to Monsieur, and dazzling society. The unjustifiable illthat Lorraine's character was bad treatment of her by her husband in the enough for anything. On the other latter years of her life more than rehand, Monsieur's conduct at the time paid the provocation she may have was not that of a guilty man, and the given him at an earlier period. We evidence is hardly reconcilable with the prefer to end with the testimony of an theory of poison. It is clear that Ma- observer who did not ordinarily err on dame was ailing before she took the the side of charity, the brilliant Bussydraught of chicory water which was Rabutin: "She had more greatness supposed to have contained the poison; and delicacy of taste, in things of the and it is hardly possible that poison mind, than all the ladies of the court should have operated so instantaneously put together," and a higher praise as must, on this theory, have been the "she had a natural disposition to do case. On the whole, Mrs. Ady is prob-good to every one." Can as much as ably justified in inclining to the more this be said of any other member of lenient opinion, that Madame's death the house of Stuart ? was due to acute peritonitis, acting on a constitution always weak and recently much tried and strained.

So died Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans. Possibly her best title to fame in these later days lies in the fact that her praise was spoken by Bossuet in one of the most famous of his splendid funeral sermons. But it is satisfactory to know that in this case his eulogy was not the rhetorical artifice of an official panegyric. He had known Madame and admired her; he had seen her in the terrible hour of her death; and he could speak her praise out of the fulness of his heart. The frivolities of her early years may be forgiven when we remember how easily her extreme youth and high spirits might be entangled in the network of corruption which surrounded her; and her own constant assertion, repeated to her husband in the hour of her death, that she had never wronged him, may be accepted without reserve. The testimony of many good men and women agrees in praising the kindness of her nature, the natural gaiety of her disposition, the unaffected charm of her manner. Her portraits (of which Mrs. Ady gives two excellent reproductions) bear out the description of her character. The patronage of all that was best in French literature at that time, and the gift which she possessed of brightening the lives of all with whom she came in contact, may surely out

From Chambers' Journal.

A NEW MATERIAL FOR BARRELS.

THE disadvantages inherent to the construction of barrels from wood have long been admitted, for the evaporation and absorption of such material, as well as its liability to leak, are well known; it is not, therefore, surprising that many efforts as the records of the Patent Office abundantly testify — have been made from time to time to find some suitable substitute for the manufacture of an article so universally in demand. Hitherto, such attempts have been confined to the production of iron drums—namely, of vessels perfectly cylindrical in shape and lacking the customary bilge. These drums proved too heavy for practical purposes, and the absence of the bilge proved a serious drawback, for it rendered them difficult to handle and roll, and generally militated in no small degree against their introduction. An effort was subsequently made to mitigate the disadvantages due to loss of bilge by the introduction of external hoops specially adapted to facilitate the rolling and transport of the casks; these, however, only added to the weight without increasing the internal capacity, and generally failed to improve matters.

At length, however, the introduction

quire to be heated ere being rolled and stamped to the shape of the body of a cask, and consequently, any risk of one portion of the sheet becoming thinner and weaker than another is entirely obviated. On completion, the barrels are tested by hydraulic pressure to forty pounds on the square inch, so as to ensure an absolutely sound job ere they are permitted to leave the factory. Both bungs and bung rings are similarly stamped out of steel, the ring for the central bung being welded on the inside of the barrel, to avoid any outside projection.

of mild steel placed at the disposal of the barrel manufacturers a material which combined all the valuable qualities of iron with greater strength; or which, in other words, would yield equal strength for considerably less weight of metal. The difficulty, however, was not yet solved, for although steel would bend in such a manner as to form the much-desired bilge, as opposed to iron, which could not stand such curvature without serious risk of failure, machinery had to be invented which would turn out steel barrels not only of the highest workmanship, but at such a cost and in such numbers that they would hold their own in the market. This has at length been ac-rels; thus, the gauging and taring, complished, and the steel-barrel manufacture now ranks as one of the industries of the country.

Many incidental advantages accrue in the adoption of the new steel bar

when once properly done, remain correct, and do not require readjustment. Wood barrels, on the other hand, gradually acquire weight through absorption and impregnation, and their capacity, moreover, changes with every repetition of the process of rehooping.

for at present, ship-owners regard many light volatile oils, spirits, acids, chemicals, etc., as sources of risk when stored in wood casks, and charge correspondingly for their carriage, whilst many lines of steamers absolutely refuse to carry them.

Steel can now be produced of such excellent quality that the barrels made from sheets of it only one-sixteenth to one-quarter of an inch in thickness stand every strain and rough usage In regard to the rates charged for possible. The remarkable lightness freight and insurance, steel barrels arising from the employment of such should effect considerable alterations; thin yet strong material needs no further comment. The body of each cask being rolled from a sheet of steel, has one longitudinal seam, which is welded together by a special electrical process, which closes the joint in a manner at once absolutely sound and tight. The ends are stamped out of sheet steel in the required circular form, each having a circular flange or turned-up edge to form connection with the body of the barrel already described. The flanged ends are then fitted into the barrel body, and are securely jammed between an inside and an outside steel hoop, thus making four thicknesses of metal to form the "chimb" or endedge. These being all fused together electrically, form one solid steel "chimb," which cannot possibly move or become loose.

In cases, moreover, where influences of climate and the ravages of rats, mice, and insects have to be specially guarded against, steel barrels undoubtedly will command a large business.

It is indeed difficult to overrate the many useful purposes to which a barrel at once cheap, strong, and durable can be applied, when constructed of impervious and practically indestructible steel. But enough has been said to demonstrate that the new invention now occupying our attention has all the elements in it of great success, and of A special feature in this process is undoubtedly conferring considerable the formation of the bilge from cold benefit on all classes of the commusteel - namely, the metal does not re-nity.

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From The Edinburgh Review.
THREE NOBLE ENGLISH WOMEN.1

No taste is more popular or more enduring than the taste for memoirs. The English, as a nation, are not supposed to excel in them, and, perhaps because we are not a very sociable people, it has come to be said that they manage these things better in France. In that country the supply does seem to be inexhaustible, but we have latterly had no cause to complain of lack of such provender at home. Even where ladies are concerned we

is certain that Lady Stuart de Rothesay's two daughters both showed a tendency, through atavism, to revert to the Lindsay stock, drawing from it stores of literary, musical, and artistic

taste.

Perhaps such women will never come again, and for us at the century's close their lives and letters may well have a double fascination. The first half of the century still affects the imagination of the world, whether we think of the revolutions of '30 and '48, or go back to the Empire and its fall, to the literary do not feel disposed at this moment to giants, to the drifting philosophies, or yield the palm to France. We have to the political and social aspirations of had Lady de Ros' souvenirs; the bril- the whole European family. These liant letters of the ambassadress Lady four noble women mark the close of a Granville have just been published; social dynasty, of the great lady who and here we have two books, differing had in her natural sphere the airs greatly in many respects, yet identical and some of the dignity of history. in this that the women were English Foreign to her needs, as well as to in blood and culture, in the way in which they developed their talents, even in their opposite qualities, and in their unforgotten charms. They were, as we have assumed, types of English culture during the most cultured days,

when local examinations were

not,

66

her

tastes, would have been the vexatious fermentation, made up of egotism, restlessness, and ambition, which poisons so much of modern womanhood. The rush and struggle of all the nonentities to arrive, and to be heard of, if it be but in the pages of a society paper,” when grace and kindness were thought had not then begun in the day of these excellent, when smartness did not really great persons. If it had, it could cover, and lead to, a multitude of sins, but have brought a smile to their fair when voluble voices did not shriek in and well-bred, faces. Born in the purall the keys of self-advertisement, and ple, they had little to wish for and nothwhen the routine of duty was still held ing to fear. Welded into the mass of to be sufficient both for the guidance their equally fortunate or even illustriand for the emotions of life. It may ous connections, they were by this very further be asserted that these beauti- circumstance hedged in from the world ful women were types of race. Lady while yet all its doors stood open to Burghersh was a Wellesley, and them. Society, which to women of no such she bore the unmistakable stamp importance, as to the poor, is apt to of her line. The Stuart sisters inher-prove a stepmother, was ready, and ited not only from their father's side an hereditary gift of wit, but as, on the mother's side, they descended through the Yorkes, from the great house of the Lindsays, Earls of Balcarres, so it

as

11. The Letters of Lady Burghersh (afterwards Countess of Westmoreland) from Germany and France during the Campaign of 1813-14. Edited by

her daughter, Lady Rose Weigall. 1 vol. London: 1893.

2. The Story of Two Noble Lives: being Memorials of Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa,

Marchioness of Waterford. By Augustus J. C.
Hare. 3 vols. London: 1893.

willing to add gifts to those which these fortunate beauties already possessed by inheritance: If in some respects their views were limited, they proved themselves ready to learn, and apt on an emergency to turn courier or cook, secretary or sick nurse, They had learnt in their childhood a courteous consideration for others; they were spared the ennui, the petty worries, and the solitude which eat into provincial life; and, flattered as they were, it is greatly to their credit that they preserved to