The following table will show the progress of the department in some of its most important features:

More astonishing is the exhibition of progress as shown in the tabular statement of the weekly number of letters and the average number per annum for the same six years :——

The postage revenue for the year was £114,422 9s. 54d.; but this was subject to a reduction, first, of £3,021 3s. 51d., represented by letters and balances in the hands of the Postmaster-General, and by a further sum of £17,827 8s. 44d., being the share of British postage collected in Canada. This makes the total amount to be deducted £20,848 11s. 10d., leaving the net available revenue £93,573 17s. 74d. The disbursements for mail service amounted to £66,779 58. 2d.; for salaries, &c., with miscellaneous expenses, £65,703 2s. 101d., making a total expenditure of £132,482 8s. 1d. The revenue derived from the ordinary correspondence of the country has increased within the year to an extent of not less than £12,000. The only increase of expenditure, apart from the necessary cost of opening up new routes of mail travel, appears to have been in the salaries of the officers of the department. The power was left in the hands of the Postmaster-General, by an act passed in 1855, to increase the salaries to the extent of 25 per cent. By the following table a very clear idea will be got of the advance of revenue and expenditure since 1852:

ESTIMATED PROPORTIONS OF REVENUE COLLECTED.

The increase in salaries and commissions is seen by the following tabular state

Last session an appropriation was made to the department by the Legislature of £50,000. Of this amount, the sum of £17,090 18s. 9d. went to pay arrears of the previous year, leaving for the postal year described in this report the sum of £34,909 1s. 3d., or £3,999 9s. 2 d. less than is required to meet the deficit. The estimate for the current year by the Postmaster-General is £36,000, or £14,000 less than the estimate of last year. So that, in spite of the large increase of salaries, and of the rapid extension of postal accommodation, the department bids fair, at no distant day, to be self-sustaining.

JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

ROXBURY VERD ANTIQUE MARBLE.

We have received some fine specimens of this marble, and examined a variety of the articles produced, (at the warehouse of the company,) from one or more of the several quarries. If all the marble at the mines, or any considerable portion of it, is equal to the specimens we have seen, it must prove a most valuable addition to the building materials of the country. It is susceptible of a very high polish, and combines, according to the analysis which has been made, strength and durability. It certainly combines beauty in variety, and for useful as well as ornamental purposes, such as tables, the bases of monuments, mantles, &c., is superior to anything of the kind that has fallen under our observation.

W. SHIPPEN, Assistant Commissoner on Building Material at Smithsonian Institute, Washington, has made several experiments on samples of this Verd Antique Marble, with the following result :-The crushing force upon a square inch, according to the Commissioner, was, on the first sample, 24,444 pounds; on the second, 24,888; on the third, 29,955, showing an average of 26,429, which compares very favorably with the experiments made on a dozen other American marbles.

M. C. MEIGGS, Captain of Engineers, in charge of the United States Capitol Extension and of the Washington Aqueduct, gives the following table as the result of some experiments upon the green and white veined marble of the Roxbury Verd Antique. The specimens, according to Mr. Meiggs, were crushed in one of Wade's Proving Machines by Mr. Wm. Shippen, Assistant to the Commission for Testing Marbles for the Capitol Extension, in 1854 :-

The average weight per square inch, according to Capt. Meiggs, necessary to crush the following marbles, as determined by a commission in 1851, when examining different specimens offered for the Capitol Extension, was

East Chester, New York....lbs. 23,917 | Egremont, Massachusetts ...lbs.

9,544

7,153

West Stockbridge, Massachusetts 10,382

Baltimore, Medium Crystal..... 9,625 Lenox, Massachusetts .....

The average of three specimens of the Roxbury Verd Antique, as above stated, is 26,429.

In December, 1854, Dr. CHARLES T. JACKSON, Assayer to the State of Massachusetts and to the city of Boston, made a chemical analysis, and a series of experiments upon a slab of the Verd Antique Marble from the Roxbury, Vermont, quarries, and presents the following as the results :

The specific gravity of this marble is 2,743 (water being 1 ;) hence a cubic foot of it will weigh 171 43-100 pounds. On chemical analysis of a sample drawn from fragments taken from different parts of the slab, I obtained the following results :

I then, as requested, exposed the polished surface of a portion of the slab to the action of strong sulphuric acid, and to concentrated muriatic acid, for twentyfour hours; and on washing off the acid not the slightest corrosion or change of color could be discovered in the marble.

I then took one-quarter of the slab and threw it directly into a furnace fire, and covered it with ignited anthracite, and let it get red hot. I then withdrew it, and plunged while red hot into cold water. It did not crack to picces nor fly in the least, but remained quite solid. No rock except soapstone would stand the above named tests, both by acids and fire.

This marble is one of the most imperishable rocks known to geologists, and at the quarry its power of resisting the action of air, water, and frost, from the foundation of the world, is sufficiently manifest to insure a favorable opinion as to its durability. When polished it is a very beautiful marble, adapted to many ornamental applications.

Believing this marble a most desirable article, we purpose to visit the quarries at an early day, when we hope to speak more intelligently of its commercial value. We may add that we have seen letters from marble dealers and others in Europe, who have ordered quantities of it, chiefly for ornamental purposes, and they generally speak of it in terms of high commendation.

GERMAN IRON MANUFACTURES.

The Evening Post translates from the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung the substance of an article showing the remarkable increase in the production of iron in Germany within the last few years. According to that authority, in Prussian Westphalia alone no less than sixteen mining and smelting companies have been formed since 1848-twelve of them since 1854. In 1853 this province produced but 603,525 cwt. pig-iron and 118,064 cwt. cast-iron ware, while in 1854 the product was 709,110 cwt. pig iron and 332,061 cwt. cast-iron ware, showing an increase of 73 per cent in one year. In 1855 the same province produced 1,513,039 cwt. pig iron and 1,126,025 cwt. bar iron.

The propuct of iron ore in all Prussia in 1853 was 1,496,516 tons, and in 1854, 2,144,149 tons; increase, 647,633 tons. The product of all the furnaces in the kingdom of Saxony in 1852 was 168,176 cwt.; in 1853, 170,637 cwt. Bavaria produced, in 1850, 668,167 cwt.; in 1853, 1,074,317 cwt. Austria, in 1850, produced 1,437,836 cwt. pig iron and 151,637 cwt. cast-iron ware; in 1854, 4,151,505 cwt. pig iron and 582,446 cwt. cast-iron ware. The product of all the furnaces in the States of the Zollverein was :

Showing an increase from 1851 to 1854 of 64 per cent. At this rate of increase the production of iron will soon exceed its consumption in Germany. But little railroad iron is now imported into Germany. The rolling-mills on the Lower Rhine, in Berlin, and in Silesia, supply Prussia; the rolling-mill of Zwickow meets the demand of Saxony, and that of Burglengenfeld supplies Bavaria.

Austria, too, is supplied by domestic mills. German rails are more expensive than English, but are also said to be more durable.

In regard to machinery, Germany is making also rapid progress, and already outstrips England in the building of locomotives. Not a single locomotive is now sent from England to Germany on German account, whilst numbers of them are sent from Germany to France and Switzerland. Extensive iron foundries and machine-shops are to be found in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Augsburg, Esslingen, Carlsruhe, Aix-la-Chapelle, Ruhrort, Hanover, &c. Up to January 1, 1854, one establishment in Berlin had alone turned out five hundred locomotives, and one thousand three hundred have been built in all Germany since 1841. The establishment of Kramer & Klett, in Nuremberg, manufactures an almost incredible number of railway cars, whilst that of Koenig & Bauer, in Oberzell, near Wurzburg, had, previous to 1855, completed four hundred and twenty steam-presses, among which were quite a number of four-cylinder revolving presses, and one with six cylinders, for the Industrial Exhibition at Munich.

The extensive cast-steel works of Krupp & Co., in Essen, sent to the Paris exhibition a solid block of cast-steel, weighing 10,000 pounds. This establishment has such confidence in its work, that it offers to pay 15.000 thalers damages if any of its railroad car axles shall break within ten years. The same house also manufacture cast-steel cannons and bells. The cannons have, after repeated experiments, been declared to be superior to those made of brass or bronze.

German cutlery is likwise beginning to compete with the English, especially in the West Indian and South American markets. The sugar plantations of the West Indies, which formerly obtained their harvesting implements from England, now import them direct from Germany.

MANUFACTURES IN THE SOUTH.

We have ever advocated diversity of labor in the Southern States, and have had occasion from time to time to notice with pleasure, in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine, the progress of manufactures in the southern portion of the Republic. The Huntsville (Ala.) Advocate states that manufactures in Lauderdale county are rapidly growing in importance, value, and variety. Water power there is great, and excellent sites for mills, factories, etc., abound. Manufacturing there is more profitable than any other pursuit. Seven thousand bales of cotton are expected to be required this year. Most of the operatives, too, are whites--men, boys, girls, and women, who now get paid for their labor, where before there was no demand at all for it. Villages are growing up where these manufactories are established as they do in the North, and have the same thriving appearance, with churches, schools, etc. The Advocate says:-

We hope to see the manufacturing spirit in Lauderdale multiply and grow until it becomes the Lowell of the South. She has water power free from disease, fuel, labor, capital, and practical knowledge. And there is no limit to the demand for all that she can manufacture. There is wealth, power, population, and independence to all in the business.

The Natchez Courier states that a letter from one of the upper counties of Georgia, gives the most flattering account of cotton manufacturing in that State. According to the Courier "many of these factories were established some years since, and even at the present high prices of the staple, are paying the stock

holders handsome dividends, seldom, if ever, falling below 20 per cent. The yarns and osnaburgs are of the first quality, and a better description of cotton being used in their manufacture, they find a more ready sale in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, than similar products of Eastern mills. With cheap fuel, right in the midst of the cotton growing region, illimitable water power, and the most agreeable and healthful climate in the world, there is no reason why all the Southern Sates should not be filled with the most flourishing manufactories of this kind."

NATURAL MARBLE PAINT.

The following account of the recent discovery of marble paint, is from a late number of the London Building News:

M. Claudot, architect at Verdun, has recently made a discovery, which promises to prove of the greatest utility to architecture, and which consists in the formation of a coating of a natural marble on surfaces of buildings. M. Claudot was led to his discovery by remarking, that up to the present the powerful affinity of hydrate of lime for carbon acid has not been directly turned to useful account. After having observed the great affinity of carbonate of lime for carbonic acid, when pure, and in large quantities, finely divided, and remarked the effect of saturation, which augments its density by 0.436, the inventor was induced to believe, that this powerful affinity might be made of direct use in the production of mortar or facing. In order that this affinity may act to the fullest extent possible, not only must the hydrate of lime be perfectly pure and free from the presence of foreign bodies, such as sand, &c., but it must be employed in such a manner as that each molecule of hydrate may be exposed to the action of the acid, that is to say, that actual contact may take place; and M. Claudot was thus naturally led to the invention of a natural marble paint. The modus operandi is as follows:— a wash, having the consistency of milk, by means of a brush. When a compact and smooth coating has been obtained by successive washes, it soon acquires in the course of a few days a degree of hardness so as not to be removed by the nail. Within two or three months, according to the condition of the atmosphere, the hardness of the coating becomes equal to that of marble, and acquires the same impermeability. That this hardness and impermeability are the natural results of the saturation of the lime by the carbonic acid absorbed from the atmosphere, may be easily proved by secluding a portion of hydrate of lime from the atmosphere, when it will be found permeable and soft. In the natural marble paint the surface acquires the brilliancy and polish of marble almost immediately, and the hardness of marble, as before explained, in from two to three months. The cost

of material for a square yard of surface is a half-penny; and a workman can easily lay on and finish a square yard in an hour. The natural marble paint may be applied to any holding surface, with which it intimately unites, and, by means of colors, may be made to assume the appearance of any marble. From its impermeability and resistance to frost, it offers a means of preserving existing buildings, and, in a sanitary point of view, for interiors, will prove of the greatest utility, as it may be washed down like Minton's tiles.

PREPARATION OF PULP FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER.

A great deal of paper is now made from straw, but it is coarse and hard-too brittle and unfit for the purpose of printing upon. Improvements, no doubt, have been made in the manufacture of straw paper within a few years; it has been bleached perfectly white, and made of a tolerably smooth surface, still the best of it is harsh and hard, in comparison with rag-made paper.