"The man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before" is, in proverbial phraseology, declared a benefactor of his species.

In the rank of such benefactors I place William Menelaus. His life is the history, of the iron trade of the last half century,its gradual development from old-fashioned methods to the scientific processes which

mark its present condition. As such it forms an interesting study. Let us briefly review it.

The story of William Menelaus' early career is a simple one. Son of Scottish parents, he was apprenticed in youth to an engineering firm, and in the old days when water was the chief motive power, graduated, so to state, through the curriculum of the shop until he attained the position of an engineer. In this capacity he was sent by the London firm with which he was connected to Hensol Castle, the seat of Rowland Fothergill, who had ironworks at Taff Vale and at Abernant.

His first duty was to put up a water wheel at Hensol, and this he did so ably that he was engaged by Fothergill permanently, and as engineer or millwright, as the position was then called, was constantly occupied at both ironworks. He resided at Aberdare, and is remembered as having taken considerable interest in starting a library, and aiding young men like himself in studious pursuits.

With the shrewdness that appears to come intuitively to a Scotsman, he divined that native sagacity, unassisted by knowledge, would be insufficient for the battle of life. He was a thoughtful plodder, and it bore double fruit. It kept him away from the insidious temptations which wreck so many a youth, and it linked intelligence to the persevering traits of his nature. A man blessed only with perseverance may remain in a turnip field or in a coal mine all his life, but the illumined mind lights his path ahead. Far onward shone its rays on the track of William Menelaus, pointing the way to a wider industrial scope and more arduous duties.

Through the influence of Mr. Rhys, of Llwydcoed, he was offered a position at Dowlais, previously held by Mr. Wood, the mill manager. The labours of this post he performed well, and when Mr. John Evans retired, stepped as if by natural selection into his place.

That period was an important one in the annals of ironmaking. The advantages derived by the use of bituminous coal were just dawning on the mind of our ironmasters. Mr. Thomas Joseph had brought it into notice in the Bargoed Rhymney Valley; Mr. John Evans, to his credit be it said, had paid attention to the subject, and Francis Crawshay at Treforest had done the But it was Menelaus who entered fully into the practical adaptation of the coal, and by it made his first distinctive mark.

same.

When the reins of Dowlais were firmly in his hand, he exhibited the capacity of a successful ruler. There was a large capital at his back; he was ambitious to make his ironworks famous, the stimulus was given to him to make them also remunerative, and this was accomplished.

He was early impressed with the belief that the make of iron

had a life and progression of its own in accordance with the life and progress of the age. It would not do to rub along under old conditions. He saw that the action of simple unaided labour was coming to an end, that all which muscle and endurance could accomplish had been done, and with his mechanical instincts rightly divined that a change was at hand.

There was also another operating cause at work. Education was coming into play, and with the greater education of the people there would be less liking for the rough pursuits of old. This he pointed out most forcibly in his inaugural address as President of the South Wales Institute of Engineers, and that address illustrates the man. Put tools into the hands of ten men, and they will accomplish more than thirty men unaided did in the past. "It was the fashion," he observed, “to sneer at the chemist; but," he added, "let us take him into our counsel, put within his reach the best practical experience in the work, give him a fair opportunity for making experiments, for it is only by patient investigation, and after repeated failure, that most valuable improvements have been made." "The ironmaking of the future," he maintained, “would exhibit a larger use of mechanical and scientific appliances," and this, Time, the solver of our hardest problems, has shewn.

But the address to which we refer also exhibits in some respects a narrowness of perception. He welcomed science and mechanism as necessary to make up for our fast failing mineral resources, and for improvement in the old-fashioned puddling methods. He did not imagine, then, that twenty years would see the complete abandonment of Welsh ore, and the relegation of the puddler to obscurity. He saw ahead, but not far enough; he knew that important revolutions were coming, but he had not the keen-sightedness of David Mushet or the inventive power of Henry Bessemer. His forte lay more in the skilful management of existing conditions, and in carrying out the successful discoveries of greater men to a profitable issue. In this he showed himself more the lieutenant than the captain. He was unequal to the genius of conception; but with the plans before him, and men of capacity to aid, achieved success. When the genius of Bessemer bore promising fruit he was one of the first to recognise it, but as it remained impracticable until the triumphs of Sheffield perfected the discovery, Dowlais, though endowed with the patent, was allowed to remain unblessed with its advantages until too late, and the cost of the patent had to be again incurred.

It is the fashion of biography to eulogise too much, to pass over weakness, and enlarge only on the strength and virtues of men. This destroys much of the practical value given forth by the lesson of a man's life, and William Menelaus would have been one of the first to condemn it. He never claimed to be