PROGRESS OF THE SMALL ARMS MANUFACTURE. 435 
The following have been the imports of down into the United King- 
dom in the last ten years, but the official returns do not show how much 
.of it is eider down. 
"Value. ■ 
lbs. £ 
1855 6,203 — 
1856 2,147 — 
1857 ... 5,208 ... 640 
1858 2,995 ... 337 
1859 3,124 365 
1860 3,464 393 
1861 1,905 ... 230 
1862 18,610 2,514 
1863 10,532 1,446 
1864 10,204 1,403 
ON THE PROGRESS OF THE SMALL ARMS MANUFACTURE. 
BY J. D. GOODMAN* 
From the earliest times there is little doubt but that the smiths of 
Birmingham were renowned for the production of swords and pikes and 
other similar weapons, but it was not till the close of the seventeenth 
century, as we hear from the often quoted Mr. Hutton, that William III, 
at the suggestion of Sir Richard Newdegate, at that time one of the 
members for Warwickshire, employed certain manufacturers of the 
town to supply a quantity of arms for the Government service. Macau- 
lay states that in 1685 the population of Birmingham was only four thou- 
sand, and at that day, he says, nobody had heard of Birmingham guns. 
Previous to this time England had obtained her supplies from the con- 
tinent, doubtless chiefly from Liege. The gunmakers of Liege claim for 
their city the honour of being the most ancient seat of this manufacture. 
It is stated that in the principality of Liege it dates from the middle of 
the seventeenth century, when cannon were first introduced. Hand 
guns were invented about 1430. We hear of their being brought to 
England by Edward IV., when he landed at Ravenspur, in 1471, bring- 
ing with him 300 Flemings armed with hand guns. The match-lock 
was an improvement shortly afterwards adopted. This was followed by 
the wheel-lock, which was invented about the time of Henry VIII., and 
remained without change till the reign of Charles II., when it was 
superseded by the flint-lock. It was a demand for this gun, a few years 
later, by William III., that first introduced the manufacture into Bir- 
mingham. As the following letter may be regarded as the foundation 
* Read at the British Association, at Birmingham, September, 1865. 
