to the lear-man, or fireman, rather to run the risk of melting goods by excess of heat than subject them to fly by insufficient heat.

Cast-iron doors, making the openings toward the Glass-house larger or less at pleasure, are a great improvement; these openings should always be as small as possible, except when the larger goods are admitted. They are closed effectively but once a week. When the Excise upon Glass existed, the lear was secured by fastenings and locks,—supplied by the Government officer at the expense of the trader, and safely secured every Friday or Saturday, and not re-opened till the Monday following. During the whole of the week, the officer had the surveillance of the lear, but especially of the sorting-room (at the delivery end of the lear), which was only entered at the stipulated Act of Parliament periods. If a link forming part of the endless chain running under the lear, connected with the machinery, drawing down the pans, accidentally broke in the night, and the officer should happen to be absent, (which was rather the rule than the exception,) either the whole works must be stopped, or some mode adopted for the lear-man to repair the mischief not strictly in keeping with the Act; so that while the principal was quietly reposing in his bed in imaginary security, his servant, unknown to him, had almost necessarily incurred ruinous Excise penalties. The Excise officer gauged the liquid Glass in the pots, which he had the option of charging by weight, at a specific gravity of 3.200; and should the manufactured annealed goods ultimately not amount to two-fifths of that estimate, he had to pay the difference. The lear charge was always considered to be the chief security, as indeed it really was; still, with the utmost