tablished societies by the insatiable cravings of
avarice! I am aware that it is hazardous to discuss a subject which
probes to the quick the sensibility of pride; yet this is a social
problem which merits the consideration of all statesmen who are
anxious to promote the happiness of communities; and it ought not to
be lost sight of by any future Solon who may be called upon to
ameliorate the condition of his country.

At a few yards from the toll-gate of the bridge, on the Western side
of the road, stand the work-shops of that eminent, modest, and
persevering mechanic, Mr. #Brunel#; a gentleman of the rarest genius,
who has effected as much for the Mechanic Arts as any man of his time.
The wonderful apparatus in the dock-yard at Portsmouth, by which he
cuts blocks for the navy, with a precision and expedition that
astonish every beholder, secures him a monument of fame, and eclipses
all rivalry. In a small building on the left, I was attracted by the
solemn action of a steam-engine of a sixteen-horse or eighty-men
power, and was ushered into a room, where it turned, by means of
bands, four wheels fringed with fine saws, two of eighteen feet in
diameter, and two of them nine feet. These circular saws were used for
the purpose of separating veneers, and a more perfect operation was
never performed. I beheld planks of mahogany and rose-wood sawed into
veneers the sixteenth of an inch thick, with a precision and grandeur
of action which really was sublime! The same power at once turned
these tremendous saws, and drew their work upon them. A large sheet of
veneer, nine or ten feet long by two feet broad, was thus separated in
about ten minutes, so even, and so uniform, that it appeared more like
a perfect work of Nature than one of human art! The force of these
saws may be conceived when it is known that the large ones revolve
sixty-five times in a minute; hence, 18 x 3,14 = 56,5 x 65 gives 3672
feet, or two-thirds of a mile in a minute; whereas, if a sawyer's tool
give thirty strokes of three feet in a minute, it is but ninety feet,
or only the fortieth part of the steady force of Mr. Brunel's saws!

In another building, I was shewn his manufactory of shoes, which, like
the other, is full of ingenuity, and, in regard to subdivision of
labour, brings this fabric on a level with the oft-admired manufactory
of pins. Every step in it is effected by the most elegant and precise
machinery; while as each operation is performed b