20 AUGUST 1870, Page 23

Our Domestic Fire-Places. By F. Edwards, Jun. (Hard wicke.)—Mr- Edwards

agrees with Nathaniel Hawthorne, who says in his "Mosses- from an Old Manse " that the old appeal to the nation " to fight for their hearths " would fall dead in a land of close stoves. He both hopes and. believes that the " open fire-place" will hold its place in England ; and so do we, only it is to be feared that our groat grandchildren will have to practice an economy in coals which the close stove materially assists. It is to this point of economy that Mr. Edwards addresses himself,—as he does. also more forcibly in another treatise which we have before us, On the Extravagant Use of Fuel in Cooking-Operations. Both books are valuable ;. paterfamilias should road them, and, if possible, for here is the tug, act upon them. We understand Mr. Edwards to complain that the public approves but is slow to adopt economical inventions. One is unwilling to spend ten pounds on a new range in order to save even a pound a year in coals;. but that is hecauee we live, for the most part, in hired houses. Let us have the chance of getting freeholds of our own, and the inventors should see what magnificent patronage they would get. But as long as landlords. will not spend money to save their tenants' expenditure, and tenants- will not invest in improvements that will benefit their landlords, things. must remain as they are. But could we not have an "English House Bill "?