The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

and other matters in its interior. The silicon becomes
converted into silica, which dissolves more oxide, and tli
carbon into carbonic oxide, which bubbles, and burns se
described. During the puddling and hammering, or
shingling, and piling of the iron, the slag is first tho-
roughly incorporated with, an'3, having effected its worki
squeezed from the mass of the iron.

Can these imPuritlesCOQji;a—without this labour,
time, and fuel ? The production of wrought-iron direct
from the ore can unquestionably be effected, and where
wool charcoal can be employed in place of mineral fuel,
perhaps economically. It is commonly done in the
bloomery forges of America, and the Catalan forges of
the Pyrenees ; and these processes are but ameliorations
of the earliest and rudest methods of making iron. Mr.
Bessemer proposes to effect the same object by the use
of air alone. Ile forces air into the fused cast-iron in
large quantity ; the temperature rises very high, and the
iron is said to be converted into wrought iron. The
heat produced is thought to arise from the combustion
of the carbon, the whole of which, together with the
other impurities, is removed. It is surprising that the
carbon, the maximum quantity of which is five per cent.,
should burn so rapidly as to produce the great heat
described ; and we wait anxiously for such accurate
experiments as shall prove that the iron itself is not
largely oxidised. It will also be most interesting both
to the manufacturer and the chemist to learn that the
slag can be perfec.ly removed from the mass of the iron
without resorting to the mechanical treatment we have
described. We can readily imagine tbat Mr. Bessemer
may reduce the percentage of carbon so low by his pro-
cess as to make the iron approximate in composition to
steel. This has been done three-quarters of a century
ago ; and the patent lists show that from 1771 to the
present day scores, probably, of patents have been taken
out for making steel direct front the ore. To effect this,
however, is to do but little ; what is wanted is not steel
of an indifferent quality, but iron, from which the car-
bon has been so far removed as to leave the metal malle-
able. We can readily believe that Mr. Bessemer's pro-
cess will expedite the manufacture of wrought iron ; but
extended experiments are required to show that he can
dispense with the mechanical methods at present in use.
Especially important, too, is it that accurate chemical
analysis should be resorted to, to show the composition
of this iron, and to prove that the new process will
truly purge it of sulphur and phosphorus, as we under.
stand Mr. Bessemer to say it will—elements, the pre-
sence of 1 per cent. of which is fatal to the quality of the
iron. It would be scarcely possible by written descrip-
tion merely to make the mechanical contrivances iotal.
ligible which Mr. Bessemer describes in the specification
of bis patent. It will suffice to say that they consist of
contrivances for effecting a rapid and complete action of
air on the iron—to do, in short, more effectually that
which is already done in the refinery furnace.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, FRIDAY MORNING.
THE MAYNOOTH DIFFICULTY.

A Dublin Derbyite journal (the Express) has hit
upon a plan for settling the Maynooth difficulty,
and, as a consequence, healing the sores which
have sprung up in the body politic of the once
healthy Conservative party. It is so simple that
the writer only wonders that it has never occurred
to any one before. Here is the solution of the
riddle which has so long perplexed the brains of
Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Spooner, and their followers and
admirers :

" We would apply to Maynooth the principle con•
tended for by the Church Education Society—the prin-
ciple, namely, that the State should supply the means of
a sound secular education, leaving each church or deno-
mination perfectly free to impart religious instruction in
its own way, both to its clergy and its laity, the secu-
lar education being subject to strict -Government in-
spection, to see that the Parliamentry grant is honestly
applied to its proper object, and no other. It is un-
questionably for the benefit of the country that the
Irish priests should receive a liberal education. This
they cannot obtain without a State endowment. Then
let Maynooth have a staff of professors like those of
the Queen's Colleges to give the scientific and literary
part of the education, and let there be also a staff of
theological professors, paid by the Roman Catholics
themselves out of their own funds, or out of the fees of
the students. In this way the Protestants of the United
Kingdom would get rid of the painful responsibility
under which they now labour in regard to the religious
teaching of Maynooth. If the same principle were car-
ried out in the National schools, and in all intermediate
endowment schools', and if, on this just principle of per-
fect freedom and equality, the Church E location So-
ciety's Schools got their fair share of the public grant,
the❑ we believe the vexed question of education in this
country would be satisfactorily and finally settled,
We therefore earnestly submit this solution of the
difficulty to the candid consideration of our contempt)•
raries, and of the statesmen on both sides who have
taken part in the discussion of the Maynooth question in
Parliament."