try
{
    //
    // declare the facility to load
    //

    Artifact artifact = 
      Artifact.createArtifact( 
        "merlin", "merlin-impl", "3.2-dev" );

    // 
    // create an inital context
    //

    InitialContext context = 
       new DefaultInitialContext();

    //
    // create the factory using the default builder
    //

    Builder builder = new DefaultBuilder( context, artifact );
    Factory factory = builder.getFactory();

    //
    // get the default factory parameters and apply these
    // as the factory argument to construct the new facility
    //

    Map criteria = factory.createDefaultCriteria();
    applyLocalProperties( criteria );
    Object facility = factory.create( criteria );
}
catch( Throwable e )
{
    final String error = ExceptionHelper.packException( e, true );
    throw new Exception( error );
}