During the recent meeting in Belgium of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers several interesting excursions were made, and by no means the least interesting was the visit to the glass works of Val St. Lambert. This is one of the largest glass works in existence, entirely devoted to the production of domestic articles, such as tumblers, wine glasses, lamp chimneys, and such like. A good deal of ornamental work is also turned out, a staff of highly competent artists being employed in painting glass vases, etc., such as are used for the decoration of rooms. The Val St. Lambert works stand on the right bank of the Meuse, in the commune of Seraing, and about seven and a half miles from Liege. As the head offices of Cockerill's vast establishment are located in the old palace of the Bishops of Liege, so the Cristalleries of Val St. Lambert occupy the site of the Abbey de Rosieres. Up to the year 1192 the site was almost a desert, but about that period the abbey was founded. In 1202 Hughes de Pierrepont, Bishop of Liege, gave to the monks a tract of land and woods situated in what was then called the Champ des Maures, whereon was built the abbey. It prospered and became powerful. At the end of the last century it was reconstructed, and at that time were raised the fine buildings now used as a manufactory. The rebuilding had hardly been finished when the Revolution came, and with it the expulsion of the monks. It was sold by the nation, and was used for various manufacturing purposes, until the year 1825, when it was purchased by MM. Kemlin and Lelievre. There had previously existed, at Vonêche, near Givet, a glass works carried on by M. D'Artigues, its owner, aided by M. Kemlin, his nephew, and M. Aug. Lelievre. This latter gentleman had left the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris with distinction, and was the son of Mr. Anselme de Lelievre, Inspector-General of Mines, and a distinguished savant of the last century. MM. Kemlin and Lelievre both became naturalized Frenchmen. However, the frontier traced by the Congress of Vienna for the new territory of Belgium cut Vonêche off from France. The glass works accordingly lost their only market, cut off from it by a heavy tariff. M. D'Artigues left the place and went to France, while MM. Kemlin and Lelievre found in the old Val St. Lambert Abbey what they wanted in Belgium, and this was the origin of the glass works. Nor would it be easy to hit on a better site. In the heart of a rich country, on the borders of a fine river, in the center of a coal basin, and close to the Marihaye Collieries, well provided with railway accommodation, the Val St. Lambert glass works possess every advantage, and they have been proportionately successful.