the gold is subjected to a second and more delicate assay at the mint, and the importer receives the benefit of the difference, amounting to about th of a carat grain = 3 troy grains, or nearly 8d. per lb. weight. Silver, which was formerly, concurrently with gold, a legal tender to any amount, has, by 56 Geo. III. c. 68, ceased to be so. There is a seignorage on both silver and copper money, amounting in silver to 10 per cent., when the price of silver is 58. per ounce, which, however, from the tear and wear of the coin, brings small profit to the crown. On the copper coinage, the seignorage is no less than 100 per cent. on the average price of copper. The profits of the seignorage, formerly retained by the master of the mint, to defray the expense of coinage, have, since 1837, been paid into the Bank, to the credit of the Consolidated Fund.

A new mint was erected on Towerhill in 1810. In 1815, some alterations were made in its constitution; and in 1851 a complete change was introduced in the whole system of administration. The control of the mint is now vested, subject to the instructions of the Treasury, in a master and a deputy-master, and comptroller. The mastership, which had, in the early part of the present century, become a political appointment, held by an adherent of the government, has been restored to the position of a permanent office, the master being the ostensible executive head of the establishment. The operative department is intrusted to the assayer, the melter, and the refiner. The moneyers, who from early times till a very recent period were in the enjoyment of extensive corporate privileges and exemptions, were contractors with the crown for the execution of the coinage. Their office was abolished with the recent change of system; and the contracts with the crown are now entered into by the master of the mint, who also makes subordinate contracts for the actual manufacture of the coin. Other contracts are taken by the medallists of Birmingham, where one firm especially, that of Ralph Heaton & Co., whose machinery is said to excel that of the Royal Mint in efficiency, not only manufactures coin for our own, but also takes large contracts from foreign governments both in copper and silver. Another firm assisted in making the bronze coinage of this country lately issued. These firms have no special privileges, but tender for the government contracts when offered in the usual way, and give the necessary securities.

Processes of coining.-Down to the middle of the 16th c., little or no improvement seems to have been made in the art of coining from the time of its invention. The metal was simply hammered into slips, which were afterwards cut up into squares of one size, and then forged round. The required impression was given to these by placing them in turn between two dies, and striking them with a hammer. As it was not easy by this method to place the dies exactly above each other, or to apply proper force, coins so made were always faulty, and had the edges unfinished, which rendered them liable to be clipped. The first great step was the application of the screw, invented in 1553 by a French engraver of the name of Brucher. The plan was found expensive at first, and it was not till 1662 that it altogether superseded the hammer in the English mint. The chief steps in coining as now practised are as follows: The gold or silver to be coined is sent to the mint in the form of ingots (Ger. eingiessen, Du. ingieten, to pour in, to cast), or castings; those of gold weighing each about 180 oz., while the silver ingots are much larger. Before melting, each ingot is tested as to its purity by Assaying (q. v.), and then weighed, and the results carefully recorded. For melting the gold, pots or

291

crucibles of plumbago are used, made to contain each about 1200 oz. The pots being heated white, in furnaces, the charge of gold is introduced along with the proper amount of copper (depending upon the state of purity of the gold as ascertained by the assay), to bring it to the standard, which is 22 parts of pure gold to 2 of copper (see ALLOY). The metal when melted is poured into iron moulds, which form it into bars 21 inches long, 1 inch broad, and 1 inch thick, if for sovereigns; and somewhat narrower, if for half-sovereigns. For melting silver (the alloy of which is adjusted to the standard of 222 parts of silver to 18 of copper), malleable iron pots are used, and the metal is cast into bars similar to those of gold.

The new copper, or rather bronze coinage, issued in 1860, is an alloy consisting of 95 parts of copper, 4 of tin, and 1 of zinc. The coins are only about half the weight of their old copper representatives. The processes of casting and coining the bronze are essentially the same as in the case of gold and silver.

The operation of rolling follows that of casting. It consists in repeatedly passing the bars between pairs of rollers with hardened steel surfaces, driven by steam-power; the rollers being brought closer and closer as the thickness becomes reduced. At a certain stage, as the bars become longer, they are cut into several lengths; and to remove the hardness induced by the pressure, they are annealed. The finishing rollers are so exquisitely adjusted that the fillets (as the thinned bars are called) do not vary in thickness in any part more than the tenthousandth part of an inch. The slips are still further reduced in the British mint at what is called the 'draw-bench,' where they are drawn between steel dies, as in wire-drawing, and are then exactly of the necessary thickness for the coin intended.

The fillets thus prepared are passed to the tryer, who, with a hand-punch, cuts a trial-blank from each, and weighs it in a balance; and if it vary more than th of a grain, the whole fillet is rejected.

For cutting out the blanks of which the coins are to be made, there are in the British mint twelve presses arranged in a circle, so that one wheel with driving cams, placed in the centre, works the whole. The punches descend by pneumatic pressure, and the fillets are fed into the presses by boys, each punch cutting out about 60 blanks a minute. The scrap left after the blanks are cut out, called scissel, is sent back to be remelted.

Each blank is afterwards weighed by the automaton balance-a beautiful and most accurate instrument, which was added to the mint about ten years ago. It weighs 23 blanks per minute, and each to the 001 of a grain. The standard weight of a sovereign is 123-274 grains, but the mint can issue them above or below this to the extent of 0-2568 of a grain, which is called the remedy. Blanks which come within this limit are dropped by the machine into a 'medium' box, and pass on to be coined. Those below the required weight are pushed into another box to be remelted, but those above it into another, and are reduced by filing. The correct blanks are afterwards rung on a sounding iron, and those which do not give a clear sound are rejected as dumb.

To insure their being properly milled on the edge, the blanks are pressed edgeways in a machine between two circular steel-plates, which raises the edges, and at the same time secures their being perfectly round. After this they are annealed to soften them, before they can be struck with dies; they are also put into a boiling pot of dilute sulphuric acid, to remove any oxide of copper from the

481

there are eight of them in all, ranged in a row upon a strong foundation of masonry. CCB is the massive iron frame into which the screw D works, the upper part B being perforated to receive it. On the bottom of this screw the upper steel die is fixed by a box, the lower die being fixed in another box attached to the base of the press. The dies have, of course, the obverse and reverse of the coin upon them. See DIE-SINKING. The blank coin is placed on the lower die, and receives the impression when the screw is turned round so as to press the two dies forcibly towards each other. A steel ring or collar contains the coin while it is being stamped, which preserves its circular form, and also effects the milling on the edge. In cases where letters are put on the edge of a coin, a collar divided into segments working on centre-pins, is used. On the proper

pressure being applied, the segments close round, and impress the letters on the edge of the coin.

The screw of the press is put in motion by means of the piece A, which is worked by machinery driven by steam-power, and situated in an apartment above the coining-room. The steam-engine exhausts an air-chamber, and from the vacuum produced, an air-engine works a series of air-pumps, which communicate a more exact and regular motion to the machinery of the stamping-presses than by the ordinary condensing engine. The loaded arms RR strike against blocks of wood, whereby they are prevented from moving too far, and run the risk of breaking the hard steel dies by bringing them in contact. The press brings down the die on the coin with a twisting motion, but if it were to rise up in the same way, it would abrade the coin; there is, in consequence, an arrangement which, by means of a wide notch in the ring 3, allows the die to be raised up a certain distance before it begins to turn round with the screw.

On the left side of the figure, the arrangement for feeding the blanks and removing the coins as they are stamped, is shewn. A lever HIK, moving on a fulcrum I, is supported by a bar Q, fixed to the side of the press. The top of this lever is guided by a sector 7 fixed upon the screw D. In this sector there is a spiral groove, which, as the screw turns round, moves the end H of the lever to or from the screw, the other end K being moved at the same time either towards or away from the centre of the press. The lower end of the lever moves a slider L, which is directed exactly to the centre of the press, and on a level with the upper surface of the die. The slider is a thin steel-plate in two pieces united by a joint, and having a circular cavity at the end, which, when its limbs are shut, grasps a piece of coin by the edge. This piece drops out on the limbs separating. There is a tube at K which an attendant keeps filled with blank pieces; it is open at the bottom, so that the pieces rest on the slider. When the press is screwed down, the slider is drawn back to its furthest extent, and its circular end comes exactly beneath the tube. A blank piece of coin now drops in, and is carried, when the screw rises, to the collar which fits over the lower die. The slider then returns for another blank, while the upper die descends to give the impression to the coin. Each time the slider brings a new blank to the die, it at the same time pushes off the piece last struck. An arrangement of springs lifts the milled collar to enclose the coin while it is being struck.

It is found on examining the coins that about 1 in 200 is imperfectly finished; these being rejected, the rest are finally weighed into bags, and subjected to the process of pixing. This consists in taking from each bag a certain number of sovereigns or other coins, and subjecting them to a final examination by weight and assay, before they are delivered to the public.

originally from Poitou, in France. It is performed MI'NUET, the air of a most graceful dance, in a slow tempo. The first minuet is said to have been composed by Lully the Elder, and was danced by Louis XIV. in 1653 at Versailles with his mistress. The music of the minuet is in time, and is still well known in England by the celebrated Minuet de la Cour, which is frequently introduced in stage performances.

MINUTE, a rough draft of any proceeding or instrument; so called from being taken down shortly and in minute or small writing, to be afterwards ingrossed. See INGROSS.-MINUTE, in Law, is a memorandum or record of some act of a court or of parties; in the latter sense, it is used chiefly in

died 2d April 1791. He was interred with great pomp in the church of Saint Genevieve, the Pantheon;' but his body was afterwards removed, to make room for that of Marat. A complete edition of his works was published at Paris in 9 vols. in 1825-1827. His natural son, Lucas Montigny, published Mémoires Biographiques, Littéraires et Politiques de Mirabeau (2à edit. 8 vols. Par. 1841), the most complete account which we have of his life. See also Carlyle's sketch of Mirabeau in his Miscellaneous Essays, and his French Revolution. MIRACLE, a term commonly applied to certain marvellous works (healing the sick, raising the dead, changing of water into wine, &c.) ascribed in the Bible to some of the ancient prophets, and to Jesus Christ, and one or two of his followers. It signifies simply that which is wonderful-a thing or a deed to be wondered at, being derived directly from the Latin miraculum, a thing unusual-an object of wonder or surprise. The same meaning is the governing idea in the term applied in the New Testament to the Christian miracles, teras, a marvel, a portent; besides which, we also find them designated dunameis, powers, with a reference to the power residing in the miracle-worker; and semeia, signs, with a reference to the character or pretensions of which they were assumed to be the witnesses or guarantees. Under these different names, the one fact recognised is a deed done by a man, and acknowledged by the common judgment of men to exceed man's ordinary powers; in other words, a deed supernatural, above or beyond the common powers of nature, as these are understood by men.

In the older speculations on the subject, a miracle was generally defined to be a violation or suspension of the order of nature. While, on the one hand, it was argued (as by Hume), that such a violation or suspension was absolutely impossible and incredible; it was maintained, on the other, that the Almighty, either by his own immediate agency, or by the agency of others, could interfere with the operation of the laws of nature, in order to secure certain ends, which, without that interference, could not have been secured, and that there was nothing incredible in the idea of a law being suspended by the Person by whom it had been made. The laws of nature and the will or providence of God were, in this view, thus placed in a certain aspect of opposition to each other, at points here and there clashing, and the stronger arbitrarily asserting its superiority. Such a view has, with the advance of philosophical opinion, appeared to many to be inadequate as a theory, and to give an unworthy conception of the Divine character. The great principle of Law, as the highest conception not only of nature, but of Divine Providence, in all its manifestations, has asserted itself more dominantly in the realm of thought, and led to the rejection of the apparently conflicting idea of interference,' implied in the old notion of miracle. Order in nature, and a just and uncapricious will in God, were felt to be first and absolutely necessary principles. The idea of miracle, accordingly, which seems to be now most readily accepted by the advocates of the Christian religion, has its root in this recognised necessity.

All law is regarded as the expression, not of a lifeless force, but of a perfectly wise and just will. All law must develop itself through natural phenomena; but it is not identified with or bound down to any necessary series of these. If we admit the mainspring of the universe to be a living will, then we may admit that the phenomena through which that will, acting in the form of law, expresses itself, may vary without the will varying or the law being broken. We know absolutely nothing of the mode

of operation in any recorded miracle; we only see certain results. To affirm that these results are either impossible in themselves, or necessarily violations of natural law, is to pronounce a judgment on imperfect data. We can only say that, under an impulse which we must believe proceeds from the Divine will, in which all law exists, the phenomena which we have been accustomed to expect have not followed on their ordinary conditions. But from our point of view we cannot affirm that the question as to how this happens is one of interference or violation; it is rather, probably, one of higher and lower action. The miracle may be but the expres sion of one Divine order and beneficent will in a new shape-the law of a greater freedom, to use the words of Trench, swallowing up the law of a lesser. Nature being but the plastic medium through which God's will is ever manifested to us, and the design of that will being, as it necessarily must be, the good of his creatures, that theory of miracle is certainly most rational which does not represent the ideas of laws and of the will of God as separate and opposing forces, but which represents the Divine will as working out its highest moral ends, not against, but through law and order, and evolving from these a new issue, when it has a special beneficent purpose to serve. And thus, too, we are enabled to see in miracle not only a wonder and a power, but a sign-a revelation of Divine character, never arbitrary, always generous and loving, the character of one who seeks through all the ordinary courses of nature and operation of law to further His creatures' good, and whose will, when that end is to be served, is not restricted to any one necessary mode or order of expression. Rightly interpreted, miracle is not the mere assertion of power, or a mere device to impress an impressible mind; it is the revelation of a will which, while leaving nature as a whole to its established course, can yet witness to itself as above nature, when, by doing so, it can help man's moral and spiritual being to grow into a higher perfection.

The evidence for the Christian miracles is of a twofold kind-external and internal. As alleged facts, they are supposed to rest upon competent testimony, the testimony of eye-witnesses, who were neither deceived themselves, nor had any motive to deceive others. They occurred not in privacy, like the alleged supernatural visions of Mohammed, but for the most part in the open light of day, amidst the professed enemies of Christ. They were not isolated facts, nor wrought tentatively, or with difficulty; but the repeated, the overflowing expression, as it were, of an apparently supernatural life. It seems impossible to conceive, therefore, that the apostles could have been deceived as to their character. They had all the means of scrutinising and forming a judgment regarding them that they could well have possessed; and if not deceived themselves, they were certainly not deceivers. There is no historical criticism that

would now maintain such a theory; even the most positive unbelief has rejected it. The career of the apostles forms throughout an irrefragable proof of the deep-hearted and incorruptible sincerity that animated them. The gospel miracles, moreover, are supposed in themselves to be of an obviously Divine character. They are, in the main, miracles of healing, of beneficence, in which the light equally of the Divine majesty and of the Divine love shines-witnessing to the eternal life which underlies all the manifestations of decay, and all the traces of sorrow in the lower world, and lifting the mind directly to the contemplation of his life.

MIRACLE PLAYS. See MYSTERIES.

MIRA GE, a phenomenon extremely common in certain localities, and as simple in its origin as astonishing in its effects. Under it are classed the appearance of distant objects as double, or as if suspended in the air, erect or inverted, &c. One cause of mirage is a diminution of the density of the air near the surface of the earth, produced by the transmission of heat from the earth, or in some other way; the denser stratum being thus placed above, instead of, as is usually the case, below the rarer. Now, rays of light from a distant object, situated in the denser medium (i. e., a little above the earth's level), coming in a direction nearly parallel to the earth's surface, meet the rarer medium at a very obtuse angle, and (see REFRACTION) instead of passing into it, are reflected back to the dense medium; the common surface of the two media acting as a mirror. Suppose, then, a spectator to be situ

Fig. 1.

ated on an eminence, and looking at an object situated like himself in the denser stratum of air, he will see the object by means of directly transmitted rays; but besides this (see fig. 2), rays from the object will be reflected from the upper surface of the rarer stratum of air beneath to his eye. The image produced by the reflected rays will appear inverted, and below the real object, just as an image reflected in water appears when observed from a distance. If the object is a cloud or portion of sky, it will appear by the reflected rays as lying on the surface of the earth, and bearing a strong resemblance to a sheet of water; also, as the reflecting surface is irregular, and constantly varies its position, owing to the constant communication of heat to the upper stratum, the reflected image will be constantly varying, and will present the appearance of a water surface ruffled by the wind. This form of mirage, which even experienced travellers have found to be completely deceptive, is of common occurrence in the arid deserts of Lower Egypt, Persia, Tartary, &c. In particular states of the atmosphere, reflection of a portion only of the rays takes place at the surface of the dense medium, and thus double images are formed, one by reflection, and the other by refraction-the first inverted, and the second erect. The phenomena of mirage are frequently much

more strange and complicated, the images being often much distorted and magnified, and in some instances occurring at a considerable distance from the object, as in the case of a tower or church seen over the sea, or a vessel over dry land, &c. The particular form of mirage known as looming, is very frequently observed at sea, and consists in an excessive apparent elevation of the object. A most remarkable case of this sort occurred on the 26th of July 1798, at Hastings. From this place the French coast is fifty miles distant; yet, from the sea-side the whole coast of France from Calais to near Dieppe was distinctly visible, and continued so for three hours. In the Arctic regions it is no uncommon occurrence for whale-fishers to discover the proximity of other ships by means of their images seen elevated in the air, though the ships themselves may be below the horizon. Generally, when the ship is above the horizon, only one image, and that inverted, is found; but when it is wholly or in great part below the horizon, double images (see fig. 1), one erect and the other inverted, are frequently seen. The faithfulness and distinctness

Fig. 2.

of his father's ship from its inverted image in the sky. Another remarkable instance of M. occurred in May 1854, when, from the deck of H. M. screwsteamer, Archer, then cruising off Oesel, in the Baltic, the whole English fleet of nineteen sail, then nearly thirty miles distant, was seen as if suspended in the air upside down. Beside such phenomena as these, the celebrated Fata Morgana (q. v.) of the Straits of Messina sinks into insignificance. The Spectre of the Brocken, in Hanover, is another celebrated instance of mirage. Its varieties are indeed numberless, and we refer those who wish for further information to Brewster's Optics, Biot's Traité de Physique, and for the mathematical theory of the mirage to the works of Biot, Monge, and Wollaston. See also REFLEXION and REFRACTION.

MIRA'NDOLA, a town of Northern Italy, in the province of Modena, and 20 miles north-northeast of the city of that name. It stands in the midst of a low-lying and somewhat unhealthy flat, and contains numerous churches, a cathedral, and a citadel. Rice is much cultivated in the vicinity, and the breeding of silk-worms is an important branch of industry. Pop. variously stated at from 6000 to 10,000.

ment of Vosges, in a picturesque district, 20 miles MIRECOURT, a town of France in the departsouth of Nancy. It is famous for its manufactures of lace, and of church-organs and stringed musical instruments. Pop. 5368.

Riding of Yorkshire, England, three miles east of Dewsbury. The manufactures are fancy and other woollen fabrics, and cotton goods. chief railway centres in the country. Pop. (1861)

MIRFIELD, a manufacturing village of the West

9263.

It is one of the

MIRPU'R, a flourishing town of India, in Sinde, on the left bank of the Piniari, 45 miles south of Hyderabad. It contains a fort capable of accommodating 200 men, and which commands the route from Hyderabad to Cutch. The surrounding district is fertile and well cultivated. Pop. 10,000.

MIRROR, a reflecting surface, usually made of glass, lined at the back with a brilliant metal, so as strongly to reflect the image of any object placed before it. When mirrors were invented, is not known, but the use of a reflecting surface would become apparent to the first person who saw his own image reflected from water; and probably for ages after the civilisation of man commenced, the still waters of ponds and lakes were the only mirrors; but we read in the Pentateuch of mirrors of brass being used by the Hebrews. Mirrors of