they passed near it; tribes of guides who lived by showing it; innkeepers in the neighbourhood, to whom it brought customers by hundreds; tourists of every degree, who were on their way to see it all joined in one general clamour of execration against the overthrower of the rock. A full report of the affair was forwarded to the Admiralty; and the Admiralty acted vigorously for the public advantage, and mercifully spared the public purse.

"The lieutenant was officially informed that his commission was in danger unless he set up the Loggan stone again in its proper place. The materials for compassing this achievement were offered to him gratis from the dockyards; but he was left to his own resources to defray the expense of employing workmen to help him. Being by this time awakened to a proper sense of the mischief he had done, and to a tolerably strong conviction of the disagreeable position in which he was placed with the Admiralty, he addressed himself vigorously to the task of repairing his fault. Strong beams were planted about the Loggan stone, chains were passed round it, pulleys were rigged, and capstans were manned. After a week's hard work and brave perseverance on the part of every one employed in the labour, the rock was pulled back into its former position, but not into its former perfection of balance; it has never moved since as freely as it moved before.

"It is only fair to the lieutenant, to add to the narrative of his mischievous frolic, the fact that he, though a poor man, defrayed all the heavy expenses of replacing the rock. Just before his death he paid the last remaining debt, and paid it with interest."

We must not omit to mention the rocks, very similar to the Loggans, which are called in Cornwall Tolmen--Tolmen meaning a mass of rock poised upon two separated summits. In the parish of Constantine, a large mass, computed to weigh upwards of 750 tons, is found thus resting upon two points of subjacent granite. In the same county are found the Kilmarth rocks, one of which, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, stands more than twelve feet out of the perpendicular, though, having its centre of gravity within the base, it is perfectly solid. Though art cannot certainly have caused many of these phenomena, it may have done something, by removing obstructions, to heighten their effect and to increase their wonderfulness.

Many natural phenomena of a similar kind are to be found in various parts of the British empire. The natural rocks in Derbyshire, especially those of Dovedale, and the singular castellated appearances which crown the hills overlooking the banks of the Wye in Worcestershire, will readily occur to the traveller. They present the appearance of art, though they are simply the effect of physical causes. It is only possible to account for some of them by reference to volcanic agencies upheaving at some distant period the solid contents of the globe beneath us.

It is, after all, a poor philosophy which seeks to resolve all apparently inexplicable phenomena into the artificial. Though the laws, as we call them, of nature, are few and simple, they are susceptible of endless varieties of application beyond all ordinary conception. By their wonders the human mind is at once humbled and stimulated.

Happy are they who can behold fingers pointing to the skies not only in those edifices especially dedicated to God's worship, but also, though not equally, in all the marvels which proclaim the Almighty's "eternal power and godhead."

BIRMINGHAM AND HER MANUFACTURES.

XI. CONCLUDING ARTICLE:-FIRE-ARMS AND

SWORDS.

WE must now turn our attention to the subject of fire-arms, for which Birmingham has been celebrated from the time of William 111, for whom a considerable number of muskets were manufactured here, at the recommendation of Sir R. Newdigate, the then member for Warwickshire. It was not, however, until the commencement of the present century that the gun trade in Birmingham assumed any great degree of importance: at the opening of the revolutionary war the British government were compelled to import fire-arms from Germany; but the resources of Birmingham were soon found to be equal to the demand of the times, and during the whole period of the war, from about 1804 to 1815, she manufactured between three and four millions of gun-barrels for government, supplying them, it is said, at the rate of 30,000 a month, or of a hundred an hour, allowing ten hours to the working day. At the peace of 1815, this enormous demand suddenly ceased, and the manufacturers had to direct their energies to a different direction: the weapons of war gave place in great measure to those used for sport and pastime-muskets to fowling-pieces, and carbines to pistols of every variety of form and size adapted for private shooting practice. The characteristic ingenuity of the Birmingham men is nowhere more apparent than in the numberless contrivances and inventions which they have brought to bear upon this deadly species of manufacture. We saw enough during our rambles through their workshops to convince us that nothing which has been done elsewhere, either in improving the form or accelerating the discharge of fire-arms, has not been done in Birmingham, and that even the muchtalked-of revolvers of Colt, the American, have been anticipated and surpassed by makers in this town. It was not, however, in our power to see the whole process of gun-making, as going on in one establishment under one roof. The principle of the division of labour has perhaps been found practically to answer better. Be this as it may, though guns, pistols, and rifles appear to be far more plentiful than books in Birmingham, we were forced to collect our information on the subject from various quarters, and were not indebted to any one firm in particular for the little knowledge we contrived to glean. In strolling through the town, the stranger meets guns and fractions of guns continually walking about the streets: here a boy is seen with a dozen roughly-filed barrels on his shoulders, marching them down to the proof-house; here comes another bringing as many back, and carrying the fragments of a burst barrel in his hand; here is a young fellow with a handsome veined walnut stock, which he has been carving and polishing up to the mark for his employer; and

here is an elderly woman staggering along and hugging a huge faggot of musket stocks just sawn to a rough shape, which her good man at home has to rasp into symmetry for the grasp, perhaps, of the new militia. Such outward and visible demonstrations as these give token of the existence of a lively trade in guns; the manufacture of which we will now briefly describe as intelligibly as may be, as we happened to witness it at various places.

The most important part of a gun, we need hardly say, is the barrel, since upon the proper construction of that depends both its efficiency as a weapon and its safety to the user. The great object in the formation of the barrel is to produce the utmost strength with the smallest amount of metal, the triumph of the gun-maker being the production of a light gun which it shall be perfectly safe to fire. To accomplish this, no end of expedients have been resorted to and experiments tried. The Spanish makers at one period were accustomed to reduce, by force of hammering upon an anvil, a mass of iron weighing forty or fifty pounds, to the weight of a common fowling-piece, and barrels thus made realized as much as fifty pounds each. Experience has shown, however, that such an expenditure of labour and material is not necessary, and British barrels made by the process we witnessed have been proved to be no whit inferior to the best ever brought from Spain. The barrel is made somewhat in the following manner. A number of small scraps of best iron, consisting of old nails (horse-shoe nails are most preferred), cuttings and shreds of old iron, are piled together and placed in the fire, where, by the action of fierce heat, they are brought almost to the melting point, and adhere loosely to each other; a portion of this metal is then withdrawn and forged into the form of a thin bar of considerable length, and diminishing in thickness towards the end. This bar is to form the barrel, the thin end of it to be the muzzle, and the thick end the breech. A mandril or rod of hard metal is now chosen, proportioned to the bore of the barrel to be made; round this the metal, being first heated until it is sufficiently pliable, is wound spirally, the edges overlaying each other so as to cover the mandril from view. The edges are now welded together until the twisted bar becomes a solid barrel. In this way are made guns and fowling-pieces of a comparatively low price. For barrels of a superior description, and in which an elegant surface has to be considered, stub-nails form the chief or the entire material, and the bars forged from them are very narrow, perhaps less than half an inch in width; sometimes barrels are even formed with strands of metal so small as to merit the denomination of wire-twist: they all undergo a similar process of welding.

The barrels for the common soldier's musket, and cheap fire-arms of various descriptions, although made from the best scrap-iron, are not twisted. The iron is beaten into sheets under the steam-hammer, and then cut into strips called skelps," each of which is sufficient to make a barrel. The skelp is bent, a part at a time, round the mandril, and the overlaying edges welded together until they are firmly united.

The next step is the boring of the barrel: this is accomplished by means of a bit, which may be worked either by steam or by hand. In guns of

the best construction this is a business of much labour, as by the use of successive bits the interior of the barrel has to be polished like the surface of a mirror. Then come the breeching and percussioning of the barrel, operations which have to be done by hand, after which the barrel is reduced to shape by grinding its surface either on a grindstone or by means of files in the hand of the workman. We must now follow the barrels to the proof-house, where they are subjected to a test which is supposed to guarantee their soundness and certify their fitness for use.

The proof-house nearest at hand stands in Banbury-street. Here, no obstruction being offered to the visitor, we enter a suite of rather dingy chambers, in which numberless barrels of all lengths are stacked against the walls, waiting their turn. Passing through a room in which men are cleaning the barrels recently fired, we enter the provingvault, where a man is arranging a long row of barrels upon the ground, preparatory to firing them. Beyond that we pass into the loading-room, where a couple of men are charging with powder and balls the tubes to be tested. We notice that muskets are charged with an ounce of gunpowder each, which is about five times the quantity generally used by the soldier; large pistols have a charge nearly as great; and into the muzzles of both a bullet a size too large for the bore is driven with a mallet, and rammed down, till it rests on the powder, with a heavy copper ramrod. Smaller pistols, such as revolvers and pocket-arms, are filled to the muzzle with as much gunpowder as they will hold, and a bullet twice as big as they will carry is forced into them by blows from the mallet. While we are watching these operations, we are suddenly lifted off the ground by the crashing report of a hundred barrels fired off in the proof-room, the identical weapons which the man was arranging as we passed through. We go to ascertain the result, and find that a couple of them have burst; and in answer to a question, are informed that the owners are entitled to the pieces, and will receive them back. The barrels being proved, are thoroughly cleansed on the premises, and then stamped with the proof-mark, and upon payment of the regular fee are returned to the owner. This severe test one would think quite sufficient to warrant the safety of any gun bearing the proof-mark; and so, in all probability, it would, were the gun transferred to the customer without any loss of metal after it left the proof-house; but the fact is, there is no security to the purchaser that this is ever done, because we saw gun-makers deliberately grinding away at the grindstone, and filing off in the vice very considerable thicknesses from barrels bearing the proof-mark. Thus the ceremony of proving is transformed, by the cupidity of the manufacturer, into a mere farce, and the government is made to guarantee the soundness of a weapon which it may be death to use. Of course we have no intention of implicating respectable manufacturers in such practices as these; we record only what we have seen. We are perfectly aware that the best makers, on the other hand, are not satisfied with the government test, but submit their guns to hydraulic pressure and other severe trials on their own premises before sending them into the market.

made a considerable proportion, and by his exertions a comparative trial was appointed. Every sword sent in was submitted to a machine contrived by Mr. Boulton, which tried the temper of the blade by forcing it into a considerable curve. The result was, that for every one of the Birming ham blades rejected, there were thirteen rejected from German makers; but the test was by no means favourable to the general character of English sword-blades, more than one-third of the swords sent in from other towns proving unfit for service. Besides the test above mentioned, Mr. Gill would try his swords edge-ways upon a piece of gun-barrel, which they often cut through. In a short time, the reputation of his weapons became so general, that they were in great request among continental officers.

In the manufacture of sword-blades, the first thing to be thought of is the preparation of the metal, which should be cast-steel of the very best quality, and of which some idea may be formed from the fact, that it is often valued as high as from sixty to eighty pounds a ton. Much of the steel used for this purpose is prepared in Sheffield, and comes to Birmingham in the shape of bars of sufficient length when cut in two to make a couple of sword-blades. These bars are called swordmoulds. They are wrought into the required shape at the anvil, by two workmen striking alternately; the anvil is furnished with concave ridges of steel, both straight and curved, for forming the concavities in the blade. When the blade is forged to a symmetrical shape, it is hardened by heating it in the fire until it is nearly red-hot, and then immersing it in cold water. Afterwards, it has to be tempered by passing it through the fire until it exhibits a blueish tint, and then its toughness is tested by striking its flat side forcibly on a table, and its edge upon a wooden block: if it stands this test, it is ready for grinding.

The grinding is performed on enormous grindstones, revolving at a fearful rate under the impetus of steam. The rapid motion of these massive bodies sometimes causes them to fly asunder, when away goes a huge fragment of the stone sheer through the roof, on a visit to some neighbour, who is far from expecting such a morning call; or perhaps, instead of ascending it dashes horizontally forward, killing on the spot the unfortunate grinder: nor is this the only danger he has to contend with; from inhaling the particles of steel his lungs are sometimes affected with a mortal disease which cuts him off in the middle of his days. The fluted hollows in the blades are ground upon wheels with concave edges. As the grinding in some degree impairs the temper of the steel, the blades after grinding are again slightly heated in the fire. They are then "glazed" by the action of small wheels of wood, called "bobs," moistened with emery and size, and subsequently polished with fine emery and oil, or, if extra finish is required, with crocus martis, which gives them the surface of a new razor blade. Many of the firstclass sword-blades undergo various expensive and elaborate processes of ornamentation; some are figured by a kind of mezzotinto process, an art producing a very showy effect at a small cost, and which was twenty years ago, and may be to the present day for aught we know, much practised

by the Parisian makers of "swords to sell," at a price to suit either the shallow pocket of the French military fop, or, when an opportunity offered, the weighty purse of the gullible Englishman. Others are etched in elaborate designs, by the same means employed to etch a copper-plate for engraving and printing; and others again are damascened, as it is called, or inlaid with various designs wrought in silver or gold: this is done by engraving every line and every dot of the design in a dovetailed form, or with the bottom of the line wider than the top: a wire of gold or silver is then forced into these dove-tailed incisions, and from its malleability fills up the entire space. These designs are often purely fanciful, and contrived rather to show the skill of the workman than the talent of the designer. We had, however, the pleasure of seeing at the works of Messrs. Reeves, Greaves and Co. in Charlotte-street, some exquisite specimens of swords thus inlaid, upon the blades of which some of the classical designs of celebrated masters were admirably reproduced, the figures being characterised by a correctness in drawing which the severest artist would be slow to impeach. Here also we saw and handled various weapons finished in the highest practicable style of the art; some etched on the surface in beautiful and chaste designs; others gorgeous and brilliant in patterns of gold; and one which, lying for six months together coiled up in its sheath in the form of a serpent, leaped forth straight and quivering like an arrow in its flight when we drew it out.

In treating on the subject of swords, however briefly, we can hardly omit a reference to the famous Damascus blades, concerning which so many fabulous things have been said and sung. Partly owing to these old-world stories and lying legends, and partly owing to the constitutional fondness of Englishmen for every thing foreign, there exists a foolish prestige in favour of Damascus swords, for which men are willing to pay most anomalous prices; although it is a fact which has been proved again and again, that they will not stand the test to which good English blades are exposed, and that they may be cut into shreds by a nervous arm wielding an English weapon of the same weight. The main charm perhaps of the Damascus blades is their appearance; they are all distinguished by the granular texture of the steel, the mode of producing which appears to be unknown to the manufacturers of other nations. Numberless experiments have been made, as well in England as in different parts of the Continent, in the hope of discovering the mode of producing this peculiar granulation of the metal. Bars of steel have been twisted and welded, and slit and welded and twisted over again; they have been compounded of metals produced by different manufacturing processes; they have been channelled in hollows and inlaid with steel from other countries; they have been cut into scraps, formed into faggots, and then welded again into solid bars; they have been swaddled in iron wire which has been forged into their substance; in fact, they have been subjected to every ceremony that the imagination could devise, and though the experiments made have often resulted in the production of weapons as good or better than those of Damascus, yet we are not aware that the peculiar texture of the

Damascus sword-blade can be successfully imitated by any European maker.

Next to the blade, the hilt is the most important part of the sword. The best hilts are forged from steel, and the completion of these, when, as in the case of some of the best basket-hilted swords, much ornamentation is added, is a work of much time and labour. There is no end to the variety of patterns and expensive moulds brought into requisition in the hilting of swords of a first-rate description, or of the manual labour expended in getting them up in an artistic style. The sheath or scabbard, again, demands the services of the designer and the modeller, the chape in the sheath of a dress sword being generally highly ornamented. The best steel sheaths are made by bending thin strips of the metal round a mandril, welding or soldering them together, and then grinding and polishing the surface.

In addition to the swords made at Birmingham, there are produced, by the same makers, a vast number of matchetts, a species of tool or weapon very little known, we imagine, to our readers. They are huge bare blades, some twenty inches or more in length and two in width, and of very various weight and substance, fitted to rude handles of horn or wood. They are exported in great numbers, and serve among semi-civilized races either as a tool, a weapon, or a medium of barter; they are said, too, to be a necessary implement in the sugar plantations.

We have well-nigh filled the space allotted to us upon the subject of Birmingham, and must cut short our survey, brief and partial as it has been. We should have liked to have taken the reader with us to have witnessed in various factories the construction of the thousand and one useful articles which constitute the "toy trade" of Birmingham, an expression which embraces almost every portable article of domestic utility formed from iron or the mixed metals. We should have enjoyed a visit to Soho together, a place ever memorable as associated with the names of Boulton and Watts, and where steam-engines are still constructed, though the place has passed into new hands. We could have passed a pleasant hour in the galleries of Messrs. Collis in Church-street, among the dies and medals of the late Sir Edward Thomason, and in contemplating the massive proportions of the Warwick vase, and the beautiful bronze statues and statuettes with which the show-rooms are adorned. Were space at our command, moreover, we would stroll with him through the rooms of Messrs. Messengers and Sons, whose various artistic performances in bronze and iron have earned them a reputation as durable as the material in which they work. We would dive with him, too, into the depths of dirty Water-street, and introduce him to the rolling-milla of Messrs. Muntz, whose gigantic machinery kneads out iron and copper as readily as the cook kneads her pie-crust, and where, by way of illustrating the operation of the cylinders, a piece of metal, not eight inches in length, was rolled in three minutes into a hatful of shining ribbon, measuring nearly three hundred inches. But, as it is, all these things, and a hundred others besides, must be left to another opportunity, if it should ever occur, or to the enterpris

ing research of the reader, whom, perhaps, our report may stimulate to visit the metropolis of central England. But there is yet one manufactory which claims especial mention at our hands, and which all who visit Birmingham with the design of inspecting her manufactures will do well to see. We allude to the Cambridge-street works, the largest within the town of Birmingham. They are the property of Mr. Winfield, under whom they have grown rapidly until they have reached the dimensions of a small town. They are situated, we believe, on the very spot that was laid waste by fire at the time of the Priestley riots, and which for a long time remained waste. On this spot, too, Baskerville had his office and printed his celebrated editions of English works, and here, by his own desire, he was buried, though he was not allowed to rest in the grave he had chosen, his body being exhumed not many years ago in digging a new canal.

Mr. Winfield is the original patentee of the invention of bedsteads and couches of metal, and at these works immense numbers of these indispens able articles are fabricated at all prices, from the lowest to the highest, and of every variety of design from the plainest to the most elegant and ornamental. But he who would expect to find nothing but bedsteads at these works would be very agreeably deceived: the fact is, that every. thing which the most luxuriously fastidious man can want to adorn his residence with, or to conduce to his comfort, whether he be fast asleep or wide awake, supposing only that it can be manufactured in metal, is here to be found, and that in such wholesale quantities as to perplex the choice of the purchaser. The number of persons continually employed in the works is little short of eight hundred, and we were given to understand that they are engaged upon a system by the working of which a trustworthy artisan is rarely discharged, while the idle and careless discharge themselves and cease to encumber the establishment. Here every process of manufacture necessary for the completion of the articles produced is carried on upon the premises. Here is a reduplication, to all appearance, of the rolling-mills of Messrs. Muntz, with all their ponderous machinery, as well as smelting-furnaces, where the metals are mixed and refined and cast for rolling either for consumption on the spot or for other manufacturers. Here are powerful machines for drawing metal piping, and others for coating rods of iron in suits of shining brass. Here may be seen innumerable castings of exquisite designs, combining elegance with usefulness. Here are forges and foundries, carvers, turners, polishers, and fitters, and an army of men variously employed in processes which but to specify would be to go again over ground we have already trod. The interior of this vast manufactory is a little world of industrial and artistic activity; abundance of room, of light, and of air, and the prevalence of order, decorum, cheerfulness, and cleanliness being the chief characteristics of the scene.

The results of these manifold and well-ordered labours are to be seen to the greatest perfection in the extensive show-rooms, where many designs of singular beauty may be found accessory to purposes of utility and personal comfort. Bedsteads of