89 



may not be very neatly fabricated ; but as it reaches 

 the markets of Russia without any impost, and enters 

 into competition there with goods manufactured in 

 England, the Netherlands, and Germany, which are 

 subject to high duties and the expenses of convey- 

 ance, it can be sold at correspondent low prices. 

 These manufacturing establishments are, for the most 

 part, on a small scale ; but some of them of a higher 

 class, for making finer cloths, have imported machinery 

 of various kinds from England, or have copied it 

 from what has been imported. In the application 

 of that machinery they have not been very suc- 

 cessful ; but as long as it continues to be the maxim, 

 that it is better to wear dear cloth and bad cloth 

 made at home, than to buy good cloth and cheap 

 cloth from foreign countries ; and whilst the maxim 

 is practically applied by imposing heavy duties on 

 the cloth of all other countries, there will be a consi- 

 derable demand for what is made. 



I did not hear of any other goods than woollen 

 cloths made for distant markets ; but of late, estab- 

 lishments have been formed for making linens, cottons, 

 iron wares, and paper, solely for domestic consump- 

 tion, and chiefly by the aid of capitals to which the 

 Government has contributed. 



The project which was the chief favourite when I 

 was in Poland, was the working of Mines. It had 

 been brought under the immediate attention of the 

 Government, by an offer from a Joint Stock Company, 

 formed in England, to take the mines on lease for a 

 term of years. Though the proposal was not accepted, 

 it produced an excitement both on the ministers and 

 on private individuals, and became the general topic 

 of discussion. The mines have hitherto been worked 

 but to a small extent, barely sufficient iron being 

 extracted to supply the scanty domestic demand. 

 The iron is said to be of an excellent quality, the ore 

 capable of being raised with but little labour, and the 



