he aggregate exceeds
L.500,000 a year.

The last thing we did was to visit the Hafod Schools. These excellent
schools--one for boys, one for girls, and one for infants--were
erected about six years ago, and are still maintained at the expense
of the Messrs Vivian. At the time of our visit, there were 600 of the
rising population of the place doing their utmost to unlearn the Welsh
idiom, and to acquire the art of speaking and writing the English
language with propriety. We regret that we cannot dwell on this the
most gratifying circumstance of our visit. Messrs Vivian & Sons are
unquestionably great copper-smelters, but, in our humble opinion, the
greatest action they ever did, and what must ever commend them to all
good minds, was the establishment of these schools.

To us it was a change, a relief inexpressibly delightful, to emerge
from the Stygian regions of the copper-works, where for the last five
or six days we had wandered like an 'unshriven spirit,' and to find
ourselves in contemplation of the happy faces of the scholars, and to
hear the hopeful, encouraging tones of their intelligent teachers. The
popular song of _Children go, to and fro_, was being sung in the
infant school at the moment we took our leave, and we shall never
forget the impression. It struck upon our senses, to use an
appropriate metaphor, like the crystal stream of the desert--like the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] See for some interesting information on the system of Cornish
Mining, an article in No. 42 of the present series.

[4] On this point, we refer all who are desirous of pursuing the
subject, to a valuable memoir in the _Annals of Philosophy_, by John
Henry Vivian, Esq., F.R.S., the proprietor of the Hafod Works. This
paper, we may add, is the standard authority on the subject; and is,
with some modification, copied by Drs Ure and Lardner, and by most
popular works upon metallurgy.

[5] The production of this curious substance is explained in an
article on the 'Value of Rubbish,' No. 385.

[6] Notwithstanding this, we were assured by a gentleman connected
with the copper-works, that there is no specific disease arising from
copper-smelting, as in the case of lead. Asthma, rheumatism, and
colds, are the prevailing affections among the men; and even these are
in a great measure due to their own carelessness.

THE KING OF YVETOT.

There are few of our countrymen who have travelled in Fran