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them to the rolling-room, an apartment 70 feet long and about 50 wide, in which there are six pairs of laminating rollers acting in frames that are firmly bolted to the granite pavement, and propelled by steam power. Each bar is passed singly between a pair of rollers, adjusted so as to be kept a certain distance apart. The result of this operation is to compress the bar and make it thinner. The operation is again and again repeated with the rollers nearer together, until the requisite thinness has been obtained. This repeated compression having had the effect of hardening the metal, this is counteracted by subjecting it for a short time to a moderate temperature, in what is called an annealing oven. The slips of gold go next to the adjusting room, which has machinery driven by steam, and where they are finally brought to the precise thickness required. In the cuttingout presses round pieces of gold are punched out of the slips at the rate of 60 a minute. The disks thus made are weighed in automatic machines costing £200 each. The action of each of these delicate machines is such, that if a disk is too light by a quarter of a grain, or too heavy by half a grain, it is separated from those of just weight, which alone are passed on to the next operation. This, technically called "marking," consists of raising a rim round the edge of the disk, and is effected by special machines in a separate room. The gold pieces, or "blanks," then go into the annealing furnace in order to be softened previous to their being stamped. Before they are taken to the coining press they are immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, made boiling hot with a view to render them bright. In the coining room, 70 feet long by 35 broad, there is a series of presses worked by atmospheric pressure, each provided with a pair of dies, one for each face of the coin. A rouleau of blanks being placed in a feeding tube, one of them is mechanically placed upon the lower die; upon it descends the upper die, whilst a steel collar milled on its inner side surrounds the piece of gold. The blow is struck, and the gold, now a perfect coin, is ejected to make room for another blank about to be similarly treated. Sixty coins a minute are struck by a single press, and are turned out by it in all respects ready for circulation; made up into collections of 701 pieces, they are then returned to the bank for issue to the public.

Applications to view the mint should be made in writing to the master, giving the writer's name and full address, and stating

K

the number of the proposed party. If there be no objection, an order will be sent to the applicant, which is not transferable, and is only available for the day specified.

SOMERSET HOUSE, Strand, occupies the site of and derives its name from a palace commenced about 1547 by the Protector Somerset, who, however, did not live to see its completion, for he was beheaded in 1552. After having been the residence of several royal personages, it was ordered to be demolished, in order that public offices might be erected on the spot. The present building was begun in 1776 from the designs of Sir William Chambers. It is one of the few really handsome edifices that London has to boast of, and it ought to be handsome, for it cost half a million of money. The Strand front is 155 feet long; its centre is pierced by three arcades, leading into a quadrangle 319 feet by 224. The river front * about 800 feet in length, is very noble. Since Chambers' time the east wing, forming King's College, has been erected by Sir R. Smirke, and the west wing, facing Wellington Street, only recently built by Pennethorne at a cost of £81,000. The river terrace is 50 feet wide and elevated 50 feet above the bed of the stream. The central watergate is surmounted by a colossal mask emblematic of the Thames. It is said that there are 3600 windows in Somerset House. There are about 900 persons employed here, who derive £275,000 a year from the country. On the right hand, in the entrance arcade, are the offices of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages for England, the door of which is surmounted by a bust of Michael Angelo; and on the left hand is the entrance, surmounted by a bust of Sir Isaac Newton, to the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries. Entering the quadrangle, and turning eastward towards the gateway leading to King's College, we pass the apartments of the Astronomical and Geological Societies. Conspicuous in the quadrangle is a bronze group of George III. with a rudder, lion, and a figure of the Thames. This was the work of John Bacon and cost £2000. A large portion of Somerset House is taken up by offices connected with the affairs of the royal navy for which there is no accommodation at the Admiralty. In this department is a Naval Museum or model room, which may be seen on application to the surveyor general. Besides models and sections of large British ships, there are models of various foreign craft-Chinese junk, Burmese war-boat, etc. "My other fair and more majestic face."-COWLEY.

The Audit Office (where the public accounts of the realm and its colonies are audited) is here; also the Inland Revenue Office, occupying the new west wing, where the sums arising from the public taxes, and the stamp, legacy, and excise duties, are dealt with. The chairman of the commissioners of this department receives £2500 a year, the largest salary in Somerset House. In the basement stamps are impressed on deeds, etc., by machinery, postage stamps and newspaper stamps printed, etc. Several other public offices are contained in this huge building besides those we have mentioned.

TREASURY BUILDINGS, Whitehall. Here are the offices of the Privy Council, the Treasury, the Home Office, the Board of Trade, and the official residence of the first Lord of the Treasury. The façade has a length of 296 feet. The shell is old. The present handsome front was designed by Sir Charles Barry (1846-7), to replace Soane's insipid exterior, and with a view to extensive changes and improvements in the neighbourhood, which were afterwards abandoned. The front towards the Parade Ground, St. James' Park, was built by Kent in 1733. There has been no Lord High Treasurer for many years. The office is put in commission, and the first lord is usually chief of the cabinet or prime minister. The other commissioners are styled lords, though commoners without titles. Since the accession of George III. the Sovereign has never sat at the Treasury table, but the throne still remains at its head. At the Privy Council Office the Judicial Committee sits to hear appeals, and other cases in which Acts of Parliament have given it jurisdiction. Here are preserved the minutes of the proceedings of the privy council since 1540. A privy councillor is styled "Right Honourable" although a commoner. The official designation of the Board of Trade is, the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade, and it has a distinct president, who has a seat in the cabinet. The Home Office is the place where the Secretary of State for the Home Department transacts business.

The Colonial Office and the Foreign Office are in the mean cul-de-sac called Downing Street. Each is presided over by a principal secretary of state and cabinet minister. At the first, the business connected with our numerous colonies is transacted; at the second, the business arising out of our relations to foreign powers. Here foreign office passports are issued to British subjects, on the recommendation of a banker, at a charge of 2s.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's Office is also in Downing Street. He is a cabinet minister and frequently the leader of the House of Commons. This is the office into which the vast income of Great Britain passes, whilst all payments are made through the medium of the Treasury and other offices. The Chancellor's duties are now purely ministerial, he no longer having judicial functions in the Court of Exchequer. The Office of the Secretary of State for War (a post first established during the Crimean war), is in the old Ordnance Office, 86 Pall Mall, with the addition of Buckingham House. The Office of the Secretary of State for India in Council (a newly created post) is at present in the Westminster Hotel, Victoria Street.

It has been for some time past in contemplation to erect a large pile of buildings, to contain the offices of several departments of the government, and premiums were awarded, on competition, for designs sent in. Great differences of opinion exist as to the style of architecture, and nothing further has been done.

THE HORSE GUARDS, Whitehall, in front of which two mounted cavalry soldiers stand on guard during the day. The building was erected in 1753, from whose design is not certainly known, though Kent has usually the credit of it. The central turret bears a clock, facing two ways, which has a high character for accuracy, and is consequently the standard public time-keeper for the west end of London. The offices of the Commander-inChief, the Adjutant-General, and the Quarter-Master-General are at the Horse Guards. In the audience-room, where the Commander-in-Chief and his military secretary hold their levees, are portraits by Gainsborough of George III. and his Queen, and a marble bust of their son, the late Duke of York. Through the centre of the building is a carriage-way into St. James' Park, which only the royal family and certain privileged persons are allowed to use. Foot passengers are permitted to pass through the side arch-ways. At the rear is the parade-ground, where inspections of the troops are made.

THE ADMIRALTY, Whitehall, a building which cannot be praised for its architectural beauty, is the place where the business connected with the management of the Royal Navy is transacted. The present front was put up about 1726 by Ripley, satirized by Pope in the Dunciad. The screen, with its characteristic ornaments, was designed by the brothers Adam in 1776.

The remains of Lord Nelson lay in state here in 1806, and hence the procession moved with the body to the place of its interment, St. Paul's. The office of Lord High Admiral has been put in commission for nearly 200 years, with the exception of a few short periods, and many of our naval worthies have been first lords. It is now usual to make a civilian first lord, and the others are chiefly naval men. Adjoining the Admiralty is a house for the first lord, and some of the junior lords have residences in the northern wing. There is here a portrait of Lord Nelson, painted at Palermo in 1799 by Guzzardi, wearing the Sultan's diamond plume, and in the secretary's house are portraits of the persons who have filled that office, from Pepys down to the present. The Admiralty has direct telegraphic communication with Portsmouth.

BURLINGTON HOUSE, 49 Piccadilly, is divided from the street by a high wall. It was built by Boyle, Earl of Burlington, the amateur architect, the friend of the poets. "Who builds like Boyle?" asked Pope; and Gay declared that "Burlington 's beloved by every muse." Inside the wall there is a colonnade, which has been the subject of much exaggerated praise. Kent, the architect, and Handel were patronized by the Earl, and lived in this mansion. The Duke of Portland, George III.'s minister, resided and died here. The Burlington Arcade, which is said to produce a rental of £4000 a year, was built in 1819 on a slip of the ground. A few years ago Government purchased the house and garden, about 8 acres altogether, for £140,000. The Royal Society, Linnæan Society, and Chemical Society are now established here, and the examinations of the University of London are conducted in the mansion. The whole of the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, being required for the National collection of pictures, it has been proposed that the Royal Academy should build a series of saloons in the gardens of Burlington House, where their profitable annual exhibitions may take place.

TRINITY HOUSE, north side of Tower Hill, built from the designs of Samuel Wyatt, 1793. This is the seat of an ancient guild, founded by Sir Thomas Spert, Captain of the Henri Grace de Dieu, and Comptroller of the navy in the time of Henry VIII. It was incorporated 1529, and now consists of a master, a deputymaster, about thirty elder brethren, who are for the most part either naval men, or persons connected with the civil administration of the navy, and a large number of younger brethren.

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