SOCIETY OF ARTS.
This week's Exhibition lecture was " On the Stearie Candle Manufac- ture," by Mr. George Wilson, of Vauxhall. All the present improve- ments in candles date from the present century : the French being the prime movers in the principles of stearic manufacture ; but the English— as in so many other instances—the first to realize these principles on a large scale, and to make the invention pay commercially. Two chief to- pics in Mr. Wilson's paper were the palm-oil trade (in which the stearic manufacture is largely exercised) and its present and future influence in the civilization of Africa,—and the award of the Council of Juries at the Great Exhibition ; the Council medal for candles having been bestowed, in disregard of the award of the Special Jury, on a foreign house for speci- mens which Mr. Wilson states to have contained no novelty of principle or invention. He alluded also to the deadening effect of Excise super- vision, n0 improvements in his branch of manufacture having.taken place until that was removed: and he was supported in the same strain by Mr. Hawes in reference to soap.
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