all its various manufactured branches, to be of the value of 8,700,000/ greatest part of which may be reckoned labour; indeed it is aftonishing to fee this branch fo greatly extended in fo fhort a period; not fo much in the rough material as the hardware manufactures at Birmingham and other places, but particularly at Sheffield, fo famous for cutlery, where the first knives were made in England, by one Thomas Mathews, of London, in the year 1563, when we imported the greatest part of our manufactured requifites from Flanders and other

countries.

It is, however, only within the last ten years, that the iron founderics in thefe kingdoms have had fuch a rapid and almoft incredible rife; two circumftances have not a little contributed to give us a firm footing in this valuable branch: the firft was the error of the Ruffian government in making a loan bank to accommodate the Ruffian iron mafters, by advancing money on the fecurity of the iron, to compel the English to give them fuch price as they demanded; and the laft, the detention of the British fhips and property in the year 1800, which gave a wonderful animation to every capitalift in the iron trade to embark

in this lucrative branch.

But the grand increafe of iron is in Wales, where, forty years paft, no iron was produced, in whose extentive mountains are difcovered inexhaullible mints of iron ore, with an unequalled and happy advantage of fuel at the fame time. When the Irish propofitions were before parliament, in 1786, it was calculated that Great Britain made about 30,000 tons of bar iron; but fuch has been the increafe within the laft ten years, that Wales alone produces confiderably beyond that quantity, and where two companies who have eftablishments in London, at this period produce about 18,00o tons of bar iron annually. About feven years ago, the refult of an inquiry, inftituted by government, was then calculated to be 125 furnaces in Great Britain, fuppofed to produce 130,000 tons of pig iron; this quantity, by thofe who have the beft means of being informed in the trade, is fuppofed to be doubled, if not near 300,000. tons throughout the kingdom, in pig, caft, and bar iron; of the laft from 80 to 100,000 tons; the whole quantity is almost incredible, but our furprize may ceafe when we fee the uses to which pig or cast iron is now applied for all domestic and other purposes of almost every defcription. In the neighbourhood of Leeds, even buildings without wood, but iron in its place, to the very window frames, joifts, and rafters; upon which plan a very large building is at this time erecting near Bristol, on the Bath road. Railways, pipes, and aqueducts are now formed of caft iron, and indeed every purpofe, even to the building of bridges, the ftructures of two of which, one at Colebrook

dale, and the other at Sunderland, are monuments of national genius and enterprize, not to be equalled by any defcription in hiftory. The British made bar iron is manufactured at this time at fo low a rate as to be fold on the quay at Bristol at little above 14. per ton; before the prefent war with France, cargoes of iron in various ftates where fhipped from hence to that country; hoops made of English iron, from its improved manufacture, (which till lately were always made of foreign,) are now fent to Portugal, Madeira, the Mediterranean, as well as British bar iron to Africa, the East Indies, and Ireland, and no doubt it will foon become an article of traffic for America and the whole world, if no cafualty nor meafures of burden are laid upon it, as the duty on foreign iron and the high price extorted for it abroad, act as a bounty, which it is hoped will be continued till our manufacture is completely fecured. The export is rapidly on the rife, which will be demonftrated by the following official value, at the custom house, on the exportation of British bar iron:

Likewife of British iron, wrought, caft, and manufactured into

various articles, in the following years:

1,570,820

Notwithstanding the almoft incredible rapid increase in the production of our own iron, within the last feven years, it must appear rather astonishing that we import fo much foreign iron; but this will ceafe, when we confider our extended foreign commerce, and the prejudice of ufing foreign iron yet amongst our fhip-builders, anchor-fmiths, and throughout the navy, as well as for various other purposes. This has caufed the foreign iron trade to it and thus, during the last seven years, being the official value, from the custom houfe, of the imports and exports of foreign iron:

So that upon an average, we have for the above feven years confumed in Great Britain, about 43,000 tons of foreign iron annually, which, in its abfolute firft coft to the individuals, and of courfe, lofs to the nation, is upwards of 700,000 /. fterling per annum, which we could inflantly produce at home, with infinitely greater facility than any other branch of manufacture we have in the kingdom, and at a confiderably less price than we are paying for foreign iron; and, although it is faid, we must have fome of the very best forts of foreign iron for particular purposes in our manufactures, it is well known we can make as good iron in this country, with charcoal, for thofe particular purposes, as any we can import; to be fure, it will coft a little more; but, why not encourage our own manufacture? Why should not the navy and every other department ufe British made iron, when foreigners already begin, not only to take it, but prefer it?

The Swedish iron is indeed of a fuperior quality, the mate rials from which it is made being of the best fort; it is manu factured with skill and care, and formed, with an attention very much to be commended, into all the fizes that are molt generally wanted in a material applied to fuch a variety of purpofes, and which is not altered in its form, without confiderable labour and difficulty.

Of Ruffian iron there are now only one or two fabrics, which will be imported at all. into this country in a fhort time.

It is to the great ufe of machinery that we owe in this country, a fuperiority; for here, art has completely got the better of natural advantages. The procefs of making iron, in its first ftages, is chiefly chemical: it is by the action of fire on the materials, and fo far the Swedes have ftill the advantage; but to convert iron from this rude and nearly useless state into malleable bars, is an operation performed by mechanical means, and where great force alone can produce any great effect; nor is it fufficient to have rude machinery badly contrived and ill executed, there the friction is great, and the effect produced fmall. It is in this we excel fo much, at leaft in the proportion of feven to one for making iron is a more profitable business in England than in Sweden, notwithstanding the natural advan tages enjoyed in that country in refpect to the business of making iron.

We do not furpafs the Swedes in skill in the nature and properties of iron, but in capital and mechanical means.

That fome of our iron ore is equal to any in the world, there is no doubt; but it varies in every district here as in other, countries, yet the experienced and the well informed in this country fay that English iron is, by nature, fofter than any

foreign

foreign we have imported, except Spanifh; when worked with wood, no iron is fo tough as Ruffia, and the English iron can be made equally as tough; it is certainly not efteemed fo much, when made by cakes of pit coal, but there is a much greater waste of metal in the procefs; ftil very great quantities, of excellent quality, are made with pit coal only, and the iron made with wood charcoal is for particular purposes.

Caft iron wares bear, for exportation, no comparison to bar iron and articles made from it; but the internal confumption for rail roads, railings, bridges, rafters for houses, and, in fhort, every other purpofe, in objects every moment prefenting themfelves to our fight, is fuch, that the quantity may be increased ftill more; furely, this is the moft flattering profpect for the resources of the kingdom, and may be deemed amongst the first, for it is an article added to the capital of the country, produced by the labour of the people only, from that which costs nothing, and is inexhaustible in the bowels of our native foil.

In the iron trade, the fpirit and energy of thofe who carry it on, is fuch, that government has not any occafion to interfere with bounties or premiums. The unwife policy of the northern nations in raifing the prices, anfwers every purpofe, so that though they have in reality, according to the wages of labour, and value of money, a price equal to three times what we have, they never think of increafing their induftry and underfelling us, but take always the highest price they can get. When nations act upon the principle of high prices, the confequence is, that others, when the article is fuch as they can produce, take as little from them as poffible, and endeavour to fupply themselves; and, as foon as they are able to do fo, they import no more from thofe avaricious unwife people; when, on the contrary, nations, where the value of money is great, can underfel and do fo, then others take from them all they can get, and only manufacture for themselves enough to fupply the deficiency. Thus it is, that if Sweden and Ruffia had kept the prices as low as they were twenty years ago, we fhould take from them all we could, and only make enough at home to fupply the deficiency; but, as it is, we make all we can, and our works are daily increafing, while we take from them only enough to fatisfy the demand which we are not yet able to do Qurfelves.

Our iron masters may, however, expect that when those countries find we will not purchase any more from them, they will reduce the price, which it is in their power very easily to do; it will then become the butinefs of the legiflature to protect our home manufactures of iron, by a duty that will compenfate

for

for the reduction of price that they will make, fo foon as they find that they must either do that or lofe the market.

So firmly is the iron manufacture eftabithed in this country, and fo greatly extending, that we fhall fhortly be general exporters; indeed, British bar iron might now be exported to Sweden and Ruffia at lefs prices, including freight and infurance, than they infifted upon having a few years back, in the first cost, from us. In 1804, the importation of iron into Britain, from Ruffia, was not a fifth of the preceding year, fo that the iron proprietors of Ruffia will have to lament extorting fuch high prices from the English, and ftruggling fo hard to have a loan bank to enforce. It would be a pity to quit this fubject without obferving how much the profperity of nations depends on wife policy, which is always connected with moderation, and paying due attention to circumftances; by due attention, we mean neither negligence on the one hand, nor being too eager to grafp on the other. In the time of Louis XIV. when Colbert was minifter, we have feen how France, by being too tenacious, loft the fuperiority in the manufacture of watches, glafs, paper, and cutlery, and many other articles. Sweden, ufing fimilar power about pitch and tar, loft that trade; and the northern powers follow ftill the fame measures, excluding English manufactures, and keeping up the price of their own. England feized wifely, and with fuccefs, the moment to rival France and Sweden; let her do fo now with iron, fisheries, and every thing elfe that the circumftances will admit, and fhe will place her profperity on a bafis much more certain and permanent than that on which it now ftands.

TIN. Tin was in very ancient times a known and celebrated production of Britain, and according to fome, the origin of the name by which the country was diftinguished, Barat Anac, its fuppofed first name, fignifying, Ager Stanni, or a land of Tin. Mincs of tin firft rendered the Scilly Isles, then Devonfhire and Cornwall, famous; to which laft county they are now chiefly confined. Tin, though in itfelf the lighteit in its ore, is the heaviest of metals. It is very feldom, if ever, found pure, and the appearances of its ore are very different. The fineft and richeft are ftyled tin grains, or corns of tin, being crystals of a black colour of different fizes. It is alfo found in a heavy black ftone, fometimes in a more porous yellow coloured ftone, and is commonly intermixed with fpar, arfenic, lead, and other bodies. As a metal it is white, ibining, melts with a gentle heat; ductile, fo as to fpread under the hammer into leaf, which iron and copper will not do; yet cannot be drawn into wire as thofe metals may. It is not fonorous in itself, and