Cornish China Clay , 
509 
pointing out a certain individual for some other man to 
obstruct, another was sentenced to five weeks’ hard labour 
for breaking the collar-bone of a non-unionist, and the 
president of the union got ten weeks’ hard labour for going 
about encouraging the crowd in their adds of intimidation. 
The masters stated their determination to employ whom 
they pleased, and they preferred to employ only non-union 
workers; and this they did. Many of the malcontents 
returned to work at the old rate of wages, but a large 
proportion emigrated to Australia and other places. 
During the last three or four years the Cornish clay trade 
has experienced a state of almost unprecedented depression, 
and, owing to the many new sources of clay supply which 
have of late years sprung up in various parts of Europe and 
elsewhere, grave doubts are entertained by some as to the 
future prospers of the Cornish trade.* Extensive works 
have been opened in Allier, Finisterre, and other depart = 
ments in the north of France, and these now supply many 
of the French potteries where formerly Cornish clay was 
used. The clay districts of the eastern parts of the United 
States have also been more largely worked of late, the 
demand for the Cornish material in that country being 
thereby greatly diminished. The kaolin deposits, too, 
in the island of Bornholm now supply largely many of 
the paper-mills in Sweden, Denmark, and North Germany, 
and lessen by many hundreds of tons the annual exports 
from the Cornish districts. These misgivings as to the 
state of trade, however, do not appear to be shared by the 
majority of Cornish clay merchants, and an impartial con- 
sideration of the faCts of the case must, in our opinion, lead to 
the conclusion that there is— at least as yet— very little ground 
for apprehending any permanent depression. We think the 
present unsatisfactory condition of affairs is owing chiefly 
to the unusual but now long-standing dulness of trade gene- 
rally, and especially of the pottery trade and other depart- 
ments of commercial enterprise in which the clay is 
employed ; and when these branches of industry shall have 
revived, as they already are beginning to do, the Cornish 
clay trade will doubtless gradually recover itself. Another 
special cause of the present depression of the Cornish 
trade was over-speculating, in the years 1872-3. In those 
years many new clay-works were opened up by persons or 
* See letter in the “ Plymouth Mercury ” of January 17th, 1877* 
