in commerce, a little necessary instrument, made of brafs wire, chiefly used by women in adjusting their dress.

The perfection of pins consists in the stiffness of the wire and its smoothness, in the heads being well turned, and in the fineness of the points. The London pointing and whitening are in most repute; because the pin-makers in that city, in pointing, use two steel mills; one of which forms the point, and the other takes all irregularities, and renders it smooth and as it were polished. In whitening, they use block-tin granulated; whereas in other countries they are said to use a mixture of tin, lead, and quicksilver.

The consumption of pins is incredible, and there is no commodity sold cheaper. The number of hands employed in this manufacture is very great, each pin passing through the hands of six different workmen, between the drawing of the brafs wire and the sticking of the pin in the paper.

(Lewis Ellies do), a very learned French writer, was born at Paris in 1657. In 1685 he undertook to publish an universal bibliothèque of all the ecclesiastical writers, containing the history of their lives, &c.; which vast design he accordingly accomplished. The freedom our author used in his judgements on the style, character, and doctrine of the ecclesiastical writers, having displeased some persons, it was complained of to the archbishop of Paris, who published a decree or ordonnance against it. To this decree was annexed Mr du Pin's retraction; notwithstanding which, his work was suppressed by an arrêt of parliament. However, he continued it under another title. His many different books shew his prodigious readiness in composing. He was at the same time a divine, canonist, historian, critic, and philosopher. At last being exhausted by his labours, and by a regimen which contributed to shorten his days, he died in 1719.