On the 5th of November, 1865, some of this oil, contained in large bottles and packed in a box with sawdust, having been (it appears) shipped from Germany, passing under the name of "chemical oil," and which had been for some time stored in a room of the Wyoming Hotel, on Greenwich Street, New York, was found to be emitting a peculiar and offensive odor, and an appearance of red fumes or smoke; when, upon being carried hastily into the street, it almost immediately exploded, with such violence as to do considerable damage, and so that box and contents had alike completely disappeared. The cause of the explosion in this case, considered by some to have been a spontaneous combustion of the oil, was more probably a spontaneous decomposition of some portion of it, producing gases and hence pressure-a change favored by heating of the contents of the box.

A considerable quantity of nitro-glycerine (some 70 cases) which, as was afterward ascertained, had previously been transported from Germany by way of Hamburg to Hull, and thence by rail to Liverpool, and which was then shipped on the screw-steamer "European," to Aspinwall, exploded at the wharf at the latter place, April 3, 1866, blowing up the steamer, destroying many lives, and doing much damage to the shipping near, and to buildings in the adjacent part of the town. If in this case the oil exploded through partial decomposition, that condition was doubtless favored by the heating in a tropical latitude of the ship's hold and contents. On the 16th of the same month, another fearful explosion, and which could only be traced to two boxes just landed from a steamer and showing traces of containing some oil, occurred at San Francisco; several persons near at the time were either killed or badly injured, and the damage to property was estimated at $200,000. Many other serious accidents from this agent have occurred in Europe and this country. One, which took place at Rochester, N. Y., so lately as December 4, 1866, killing a workman and injuring several others, is instructive in view of the fact that it must have been caused by the mere concussion of the air within a tunnel, consequent on the discharge of a powder-blast, and that although the can of nitro-glycerine (25 lbs.) was at a distance of 50 feet from the blast, and in a cavity in the side of the tunnel.

Mr. Nobel, who has been in this country, and has experimented here with the blasting oil, names four principal reasons for the enormous explosive force it exerts: 1, its great specific gravity, so that the quantity of material in a given space is increased; 2, its richness in oxygen, securing complete combustion; 3, its perfect gasification, leaving no solid residue; and 4, the extraordinary suddenness of its explosion. He estimates that gunpowder, by combustion and expansion, gives practically a volume of gases 800 times that of the solid mass; but that nitro-glycerine, through the same

causes, should probably give a volume of gases 10,400 times that of the oil itself. In the same connection, it is stated that the now common mode of exploding the oil is by means of a safety-fuse, having a heavily-charged percussion cap at the end-a mode patented in France and some other countries.-Scientific American, Nov. 18, 1865.

In the journal just quoted, November 24, 1866, Col. Shaffner has a communication in reference to his experiments, made in August of the same year, in blasting in the Hoosic Tunnel, the rock being described as solid massed mica and quartz, with few seams, and the strata lying against the progress. He exploded the nitro-glycerine by aid of electricity, and succeeded in advancing much more rapidly with it than with gunpowder, both in the "bench," or bottom enlargement, and in the "heading;" and he concludes that "the Hoosic Tunnel can be finished in less than one-half the time, and for less than onehalf the expense, by using nitro-glycerine." Col. Shaffner has estimated the explosive force of nitro-glycerine at 212,000 lbs. per square inch.

Since the earlier of the disasters previously named, it has been urged that the transportation of nitroleum should be subjected to the same restrictions as is that of fulminating mercury and other like compounds. Meanwhile, facts of such nature appearing to necessitate the abandonment of the extensive use of nitroleum as an explosive agent, two modes of obviating such necessity have been proposed. One of these is that of preparing the compound where it is to be used, a plan to which the considerable excess of materials required-the acids alone being of about three times the volume of the product obtained-can only be an objection in cases such as those requiring overland transportation to great distance, and in unsettled regions; the other is that of covering for the time by certain sorts of intermixture, as is done with gunpowder, the explosive properties of the oil itself.

Of the two plans named, the first was during the spring or early summer of 1866 adopted by MM. Schmitt and Dietsch, in working the great quarries of sandstone in the valley of the Zorn, lower Rhine; and at the time of the account given (Comptes Rendus, July 23—Philosophical Magazine, Sept., 1866), it had been in successful practice for six weeks. The process of preparation, devised with the aid of M. Keller, and established in a wooden cabin in one of the quarries, is as follows: In a vessel of sandstone, placed in cold water, fuming nitric acid of 49°-50° B. (1.51-1.53) is mixed with twice its weight of the most concentrated sulphuric acid. Commercial glycerine, but free from lime or lead, is evaporated in an iron pot to 30°-31° B. (1.26-1.27), the liquid then properly being syrupy when quite cold. A workman places 3,300 grammes (about 7.3 lbs.) of the mixed acids, well cooled, in a glass flask, a sandstone pot or porcelain basin, set in a bath

of cold water, and, constantly stirring, pours in slowly 500 grammes (about 1.1 lbs.) of the glycerine. It is essential that any perceptible heating of the mixture, as leading to oxidation, and forming of oxalic acid, should be avoided; and to this end the cold water without may require to be frequently renewed. The mixture completely effected, the liquid mass is after five or ten minutes turned into cold water, to which a rotatory movement has first been imparted. The nitroleum is rapidly precipitated as a heavy oil. Decanting it into a tall vessel, it is washed with a little water, which is then poured off; and the oil is put into bottles in readiness for use. As it is to be employed forthwith, the little acid and water remaining in it proves no disadvantage.

To detach with this explosive a layer of rocks, at a distance of about three yards from the edge a hole is drilled to about the same depth, and of some two inches diameter; this is cleaned out, and 1,500 to 2,000 grammes (about 3.3 to 4.5 lbs.) of nitroleum is introduced by means of a funnel. A small hollow cylinder of wood, card-board or sheet-iron, fitting easily into the drill-hole, about 2 to 2 inches in length, containing gunpowder, and having a wick or mine-fuse inserted in it, and reaching into the powder, is by means of the fuse lowered until the feeling indicates that it has reached the surface of the oil. The fuse is then firmly held, while fine sand is run into the hole until the latter is filled to the top; it being unnecessary, however, to compress or tamp the sand. The fuse is cut a little way above the orifice, and fired; this in about 8 or 10 minutes inflames the powder, producing a shock which explodes the nitroleum: the explosion is so sudden that no time is allowed to project the sand; and, with a dull report only, the rock is fissured in various directions and detached. With the charges mentioned, 40 to 80 cubic metres of very resisting rock may be freed at one blast.

In respect to the other plan referred to, that, namely, of rendering the nitroleum temporarily non-explosive, Prof. C. A. Seely, of New York, has recently presented in the Scientific American a summary of the methods which have been proposed, including one suggested by himself. Nobel had proposed to mix the oil with wood-naphtha, the two liquids blending in any proportions required, and the oil being thus rendered non-explosive in respect both to percussion and heat. When required for use, the oil is thrown down by addition of water, and, being drawn off with a siphon, is found to have regained its explosibility. Among objections to this method are, the loss of some nitroleum, liability of the naphtha to volatilize, the possibility of chemical action between the two liquids, and the combustibility of naphtha and its vapor. Several persons have proposed to keep the nitroleum mixed with sand, which, besides dividing its mass, should conduct off heat; but this would greatly increase the bulk and weight of packages, and occasion much loss

of the oil. Dr. Henry Wurtz recommends to make a mechanical mixture or emulsion of the oil with some saline solution, as of nitrate of zinc, lime or magnesia, and of the same specific gravity, recovering for use by adding water; but it is not yet known how long such a mixture would be maintained. Mr. Seely proposes to prepare the nitroleum with greater care, so that it shall be entirely free from acids, and then, by keeping suspended within the oil a small quantity of some substance having of itself no action on the latter, but which should neutralize any acid that might be generated, to prevent all accumulation of such matters in the liquid. He believes this method to be an efficient preventive of [the effects of] spontaneous decomposition. He does not state what chemical agent would answer the required conditions; but he thinks that of such neutralizer 60 grains to the pound might be sufficient; that its addition would not interfere with the use of the oil, so that it need not be removed from it; and that the method is compatible with any of the others suggested, and should be adopted in connection with all of them. Indeed, he would not have nitroleum kept in store, unless first freed in some way from its most formidable property the liability to spontaneous change.

Besides accounts in the foreign periodicals already named in this article, and in the Chemical News, the writer is indebted also to notices originally appearing in the Scientific American, the Mining Journal, and the Artisan, for information here presented, and to some extent for the language in which it is couched.

NORTH CAROLINA was the only Southern State in which the ordinances declaring null and void the act of secession, and prohibiting slavery in the State, as adopted by the conventions assembled under the President's proclamation of 1865, were submitted to the people for approval or rejection. To ratify the ordinance declaring null and void the ordinance of secession, 19,977 votes were given and 1,940 against it. To ratify the ordinance prohibiting slavery in North Carolina, 18,529 votes were given, and 3,696 against it.

On January 3, 1866, Governor Worth issued his proclamation requesting the General Assembly of the State to meet on the 18th. The urgent motive for this call was the opinion held by the Governor, that the term of all officers appointed by the provisional governor expired with his removal. The debt of the State at this time is shown in the following statement:

The assets above mentioned consist of stocks and bonds of railroads, which promise to become productive under a revival of trade and transportation. Taxation to meet the interest and expenditures was urged by the Governor upon the Legislature, more especially for the latter purpose. The value of the real and personal property of the people was estimated by the treasurer at $250,000,000. To meet the portion of the debt due and becoming due in 1866, the Legislature at this session authorized the treasurer to prepare and sell at par 6 per cent. bonds, to the amount of three and a half millions of dollars, payable after thirty-four years. An act was also passed relative to negroes and persons of color. It defines the latter in these words: "Negroes and their issue, even where one ancestor in each succeeding generation to the fourth inclusive is white, shall be deemed persons of color." The act confers upon those persons the same privileges as are enjoyed by whites in all courts of law and equity. It removes all distinction of color in the application of the word apprentice; it ratifies the cohabitation of all former slaves into a state of marriage, and requires them to acknowledge the cohabitation before a justice of the peace or county clerk; makes all contracts, in which one of the parties is a person of color, and the consideration ten dollars or more, void, unless put in writing and witnessed by a white who can read; makes all marriages between whites and persons of color void; persons of color not otherwise incompetent, are made capable of bearing evidence in all controversies at law and in equity, where the rights of persons of color are at issue, and also in pleas of the State where the violence, fraud, or injury alleged shall be charged to have been done by or to persons of color. In all other cases the consent of parties is necessary to make the testimony admissible. A proviso suspends the operation of the section until jurisdiction in matters relating to freedmen is restored to the courts of the State. The criminal laws of the State affecting whites are extended to persons of color, except in cases otherwise provided. All acts relating to slaves and slave labor are repealed.

The reports of the banks of the State previous to the beginning of 1865, showed $800,000 in specie in their possession, and that they owed to holders of their notes and depositors $8,550,000, and that there was due to them for discounts, before the war, about $3,000,000, and, since the close of the war, about $3,000,000. The University and the Board of Literature had large amounts in the two principal banks. By an assignment, or pro rata distribution, the noteholders and depositors would receive about ten cents on the dollar in specie. A joint committee on banks, in the Legislature, reported that their coin was the basis of their contracts, and to interfere with it would be a violation of contract. They further said that, after investigating the subject, they were of opinion that all, or nearly all, of the corporations of the

State had ceased as corporations to exist, as a legal consequence of the revolution and the complete conquest of the State. They further sustained this opinion by the following argument:

It is a well-settled principle of international law (so well settled it is unnecessary to refer to authorities), that in a conquered country all laws and all rights of persons and property cease to exist, except such laws and such rights as the conqueror chooses to decree. No one will deny that the South was conquered, and surrendered without terms. No one can doubt that, in the opinion of President Johnson, we were a conquered people, and that he, as commander-in-chief of the armies of the conquering power, had a right to decree such laws as to him seemed best. He refused to accept the terms offered by General Sherman to recognize North Carolina as a de facto government. He proceeded, in a manner unknown to our laws, to appoint a provisional governor. Without the forms of law he deprives the peo ple of the State of two-thirds of their property without "just compensation." He declares in his proclamation, not that a part of the civil laws were at an end, but that "all civil government" was at an end in North Carolina. He provided for a call of a convention, not in accordance with our constitution, prescribing qualifications for delegates and voters in a manner unknown to our laws. In obedience to the will of the President, the provisional governor declares all civil offices in the State vacant, and proceeds to fill the same, prescribing officers for corporations, and qualifications for stockholders in said courts, when and where to be held, and what subcorporations as voters, or proxies; regulates our jects shall be cognizable before them. In obedience to the proclamation of the Governor, a convention assembled, which convention, by its acts, accepts of and recognizes the fact that it was called by the authority of the President as a conqueror, and proceeded to act according to the said terms, receiving messages and dispatches from the President control ling the action of the convention in matters of vital importance to the people of the State, abolishing ordinance, that Whereas, doubts may arise from slavery, removing all civil officers, and declaring by the late attempt of North Carolina to secede from the United States, whether any and what laws have been and now are in force," etc., and ordaining by said ordinance all laws not inconsistent with the constigives legality to the principle that it was decreed by tution of the United States, etc. The Convention the President as conqueror; otherwise, we have had no convention. There is now no civil government, no legislature, as all owe their existence to the permission of the President, and not to constitutional ident has been acquiesced in by the people, by the forms. This idea of the supreme power of the Presconvention, and is now recognized by the Legislature enacting such laws as are decreed by the President, he not only recommending, but demanding such and such measures as a condition precedent to civil gov ernment. Measures at variance with what we deem to be our best interest, and repugnant to all of our feelings, have been, and are continually being enacted, simply because it was so decreed by the President. It is our interest to continue to conform to the decrees of the President..

What, they ask, is the legal effect of the ordinance declaring what laws are in force on corporations, it being admitted by the whole theory of the government, and impliedly in said ordinance, that during the revolution charters of corporations with all other laws ceased to exist. With the consent of the President, the convention could ordain charters for corporations, bu

being in the nature of a contract between the State and its citizens, the corporations could accept the charters or not, but until accepted the ordinance is of no effect. No stockholders accepted the ordinance of the convention, nor are they expected to. The committee therefore concluded that the charters of the banks had expired and could not be renewed.

At this session, the Legislature appropriated $20,000 for the Institution of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind, yearly, for 1866 and 1867; it also appropriated $7,000 for the use of the University; an act was passed incorporating the trustees of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States; also, to accept the donation of Congress to provide colleges for the benefit of agricultural and mechanic arts; also, to punish vagrants; also, to secure to laborers in agriculture their wages in kind when the contract is for the same; also, to prevent enticing servants from fulfilling their contracts; also to establish workhouses and houses of correction in the several counties; also, to incorporate a college for the education of black teachers and ministers of the Gospel. Resolutions were passed to furnish artificial limbs to the officers and soldiers of the State; to adopt the amendment to the Federal Constitution, Art. 13, in the sense that it does not enlarge the powers of Congress to legislate on the subject of freedmen within the State; also, of thanks to President Johnson, "for the manly, patriotic, and statesmanlike position which he had taken in vetoing the unconstitutional act of Congress extending the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau." On the 12th of March the Legislature adjourned.

On May 24th the State Convention reassembled in an adjourned session. A resolution was offered that it adjourn sine die, for the reasons that it was called at the instance of the President as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, that the State, by altering its constitution in conformity with the necessities of the war, might be restored to the Union; that this purpose had been satisfactorily accomplished; that this was moved in anticipation that further occasion for its services might arise, and that all measures to regulate further the internal policy of the State by a convention called in this manner, would be subversive of the Constitution and revolutionary. This resolution was laid on the table by a large majority. The Governor sent a message to the convention relating the history of affairs since their adjournment, and stating that no event anticipated, and which might require their presence, had taken place. He further stated, that the General (John C. Robinson), in supervision of the freedmen's bureau, was desirous to give to the civil courts full jurisdiction of all matters relating to the freedmen, but was prevented by certain provisions of the act of the Legislature relating to negroes, etc., above mentioned. These provisions limited the extent to which negro testimony might be admissible, and made

the punishment for rape of a white woman by a black, to be death, thus discriminating be tween whites and blacks. The convention at this session removed the objections, and the jurisdiction of freedmen was subsequently transferred to the civil courts, except in relation to contracts for wages. The convention at its previous session passed an ordinance exempting from civil prosecution all officers and soldiers of the Confederate army for acts done by them under orders of superiors. An ordinance was now introduced, extending universal amnesty to all crimes less than capital felonies committed before May, 1865. The constitution of the State having been previously several times amended, a committee was appointed to revise and consolidate it. In the bill of rights reported from the committee, one section declared that "no freedman shall be convicted of any crime but by the unanimous verdict of a jury of good and lawful men in open court, as heretofore used." As this provision would make every offence, however trivial, triable by a jury, it was moved that the Legislature should have power to provide for other modes of trial in misdemeanors with the right of appeal. A debate during two days ensued, when the amendment was adopted, yeas, 58; nays, 48. The convention proceeded to make a radical revision of the constitution of the State, and closed by requiring their work to be submitted to the people for approval or rejection on the 2nd day of August ensuing. On July 1st, the Governor issued his proclamation ordering the proper officers to hold the election. A very able discussion ensued in the newspapers on the power and authority of the convention to alter or revise the constitution. Those who objected to the action of the convention did so on the ground that the convention was constituted by President Johnson in his military capacity, and that the constitution was legally in force in the State, and binding on the people, and they urged, 1st, That it was not a legitimate convention, and had no power to make a new constitution, or alter or amend that which existed. 2d, As the convention had no legitimate existence, its acts cannot be rendered valid by popular sanction. 3d, Admitting that the President of the United States had the power legitimately to call a convention of the people of the State, still, as the convention so called by him was limited to the consideration of certain subjects, it had authority to consider such subjects only: it was a limited and not an unlimited convention, and every attempt thereof to exercise powers not conferred upon it is null and void. The reply of those who sustained the action of the convention was, that, "if it was a valid convention for any purpose, then it was valid to all intents and purposes." On the day of the election the revised constitution was rejected by a majority of 1,982 in a total vote of 41,122.

The annual election of State officers is on the 2d Thursday of Aug. Those who were op