442 PROGRESS OF THE SMALL ARMS MANUFACTURE. 
when the barrels are in a finished state, ready for setting up. The first 
proof may be regarded as the protection of the gunmaker, to secure him 
from the loss that would arise from bestowing his labour on an unsound 
barrel ; the second proof protects the user. 
Under this Act the gun trade is recognised as an associated body, to 
which all are entitled to belong who carry on the trade within ten miles 
of the borough of Birmingham, and who are rated to the poor at not 
less than 151. A fee of a guinea is paid annually on registration. The 
trade is required to meet on the 9th of March in each year, when they 
elect the managers of the proof house. 
I will now pass on to the amount of production in this country ; and 
fortunately for purposes of accuracy I am enabled to refer to reliable sta- 
tistics, giving the precise number of guns produced. I obtain this in- 
formation from the several proof house returns, which have been most 
kindly placed at my disposal by the Government Superintendent of 
Small Arms, and by the authorities of the proof houses of London and 
Birmingham. 
Before entering upon the recent statistics, I will refer to the infor- 
mation which we possess relating to the supplies produced at the com- 
mencement of the present century during the Peninsula war. 
From a return published shortly after that period of the number of 
barrels made for the Government in the years 1804 to 1815, I find the 
total to be 3,037,644, or an average number of 253,137 annually. In 
1804 the number produced was 80,000 ; it steadily increased up to 1813, 
when it reached 490,000 in that one year made for the Board of Ordnance 
alone. 
During this period Birmingham produced barrels and other materials 
for the India (Company, amounting to a million. This makes 
the total number of arms made in the twelve years somewhat over four 
millions, or 1,074 per working day. A large number of these materials, 
manufactured in Birmingham, were made up into guns by the London 
gunmakers. 
To verify the traditional u gun a minute," said to have been the 
production of Birmingham during this war, we require 1,440 guns per 
day, or 525,000 per year. For this we must confine ourselves to the 
two highest years, 1812 and 1813, which produced respectively, including 
the India Company's supply, 581,682 and 654, 450. 
It will be instructive to compare with the results now given the pro- 
duction of the French Government during the same period. The infor- 
mation is obtained from returns published in 1 822, by M. Dupin, a field 
officer in the French service. 
During the years 1802 to 1814, a period of thirteen years, the arms 
manufactured by France numbered 2,456,257, or about 200,000 annually. 
This number gives us for every working day 604 guns. The number 
made in England, it will be recollected, being 1,074 per working day. 
