opened, luxuriated more in the sense of sight than in all the other senses put together. On removing the tax, not only all the houses in the kingdom seemed to open their old eyes wider than before, but also to show new ones in their faces. Window panes expanded from six inches by eight to six feet by eight, and grew on from that size to the dimensions of the front wall of a small cottage. Glass was put to uses never dreamt of before; even to purposes which it had been thought nothing but the toughness of iron could accomplish. First, small glass houses for flowers; then conservatories like that of Chatsworth; then the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Pillars, beams, and even globular boilers for boiling coffee have found their place among the new uses to which the brittlest of all materials has been turned. Any American, or other foreign-born visiter in Birmingham, will find the establishment of Messrs. Chance one of the great lions of English manufacturing enterprise.
The highest arts, or those which command the most enthusiastic and reverential admiration, are painting, sculpture, and music. And the triad had, beyond all other arts, the inspiration of religious sentiment and enthusiasm. The adoration of the Virgin and all the Roman Catholic saints, gave infinite scope and impetus to the genius of the great masters. Madonnas on canvas, glass, and in marble employed the pencils and chisels of the
