STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 459 



competition with American and German makers. The cutlers of Sheffield are a 

 singular class of workers, very tenacious of their old customs, and jealous even of 

 such alterations as would improve their sanitary condition. The grinders prefer 

 to die young from the disease engendered by inhaling the dust which flies off the 

 metal and the grindstones, and known as " grinder's rot," rather than use any 

 simple appliance which would remedy the mischief. 



Steel pens, screws, and buttons of every description are principally made at 

 Birmingham. Nuts and bolts are produced at Darlaston and Wolverhampton, in 

 Staflbrdshire, and near Newport, in Monmouthshire. Wire-making is carried on 

 at Wolverhampton, Manchester, Sheffield, Warrington, and Newport, 



Birmingham enjoys a reputation for its cheap jewellery, and no other place 

 in the world can compare with it for low price joined to excellent quality ; whilst 

 the district of Clerkenwell, in London, supplies a more expensive class of goods, and 

 is also noted for its watches. Another great seat of watchmaking is Prescot, in 

 Lancashire, where machinery is largely employed. Electro-plated and Britannia- 

 metal ware are principally produced in Birmingham and Sheffield, and several of 

 the establishments in these towns enjoy a world-wide reputation. 



Birmingham is famous, too, for its fire-arms, and holds a position in England 

 analogous to that of Liège in Belgium. But if there is one branch of manu- 

 facture more than another that England excels in, it is that of machinery 

 of every kind. The agricultural-implement works of Fowler at Leeds, Howard 

 at Bedford, and Bansome and Sims at Ipswich, rank amongst the first establish- 

 ments of the kind in the world. Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, 

 Crewe, and Glasgow are the chief seats of those vast engineering works which 

 have done so much to make England a name for locomotives, steam-engines, and 

 machinery of every description. Ship-yards are met with in nearly every seaport 

 town, but the Tyne, the Clyde, Barrow-in-Furness, and Birkenhead are more 

 especially noted for their iron and steel ships. 



Pottery -making in all its multitudinous branches, from the coarsest stone- 

 ware to the most expensive china, flourishes more especially in that district 

 of Northern Staffordshire which is known as the Potteries. Worcester has lonsr 

 been celebrated for its china, and there are large pottery w^orks at Lambeth in 

 London, and at a few other places, but two-thirds of all the pottery is made in 

 Staffordshire. Cornwall, Devonshire, and Dorsetshire supply much of the clay 

 used in these works. The glass trade is a good deal more scattered. Some of 

 its principal localities are Newcastle, Sunderland, and the banks of the rivers 

 Tyne and Wear generally ; St. Helen's and Bavenhead, in Lancashire ; Bir- 

 mingham ; Stourbridge, in Worcestershire; Glasgow and Alloa, in Scotland; and 

 London.* 



The textile industries alone give employment to about a million factory hands, 



independently of the large number of persons who indirectly depend upon them. 



The industrial population of the United Kingdom numbers about 5,000,000 



individuals, not counting their dependants. This multitude finds employment 



* Bevan, "Industrial Geography of Great Britain," ISiJO. 



