S77? WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 2OQ 



that time, that so far from selling prices having reached their 

 -t point, they were only upon the middle of a descending 

 incline. Among the. causes which I then enumerated for the 

 depression of prices, I assigned the first place to foreign compe- 

 tition, an opinion the merit of which you will have ample 

 opportunity of testing at the present meeting, when we hope to 

 discuss matters of great interest to both the British and foreign 

 ironmaster. 



The challenge given by France to the industrial world through 

 her Universal Exhibition, and the special invitation which our 

 Institute has received from the French engineers and metallurgists 

 to meet them in friendly discussion of the methods adopted in 

 both countries for the attainment of ever-improving results, shows 

 a confidence on their part that they have matters of interest to 

 place before us ; and if any one of our members should still have 

 any doubt in his mind regarding the recent advance in French 

 practice, I am satisfied that the opportunities he will have of 

 visiting some of the leading works in this country will satisfy him 

 regarding their advanced condition. 



We shall go home, I doubt not, with the conviction that we 

 have returned from a visit to formidable rivals in the markets of 

 the world, but we shall return home with the further conviction 

 that those formidable rivals have behaved to us most generously 

 in giving us access to their secrets of success, and that, in reality, 

 we may look upon them as friends, whose rivalry is productive of 

 that stimulus to further exertion, without which we should not 

 probably have made those remarkable advances in the means of 

 cheapening production, which are the characteristic features of 

 our more recent achievements. 



In the address already referred to, I ventured to express the 

 opinion, that in the contest for cheapness upon which civilised 

 nations were at that time engaged, England would be able to 

 hold her own, owing to her abundant supply of fuel and of ores, 

 coupled with her ample means of intercommunication and with 

 her facilities for reaching the markets of the world ; advantages 

 which more than compensate for the somewhat higher rate of 

 wages payable in England ; and considering the natural aptitude 

 of the British people to be stimulated to exertion under difficulty, 

 as also the results revealed by recent statistics, I see no reason to 



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