MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
222 
arsenal of Woolwich—which furnishes employment to a number ol 
workmen varying from 5,500 to 12,000 or 14,000, according to its 
requirements—sends out every year, on an average, 5,000 tons of iron 
shaped into cannon of all calibres, millions of cartridges, torpedoes, and 
the number of carriages, tents, and equipments required by the English 
army for its annual maintenance, as well as all the harness and 
saddlery for the cavalry and the artillery. The complementary estab¬ 
lishments of Enfield, of Waltham Abbey, and of Pimlico, supply it with 
small-arms, with gunpowder, and with clothing and accoutrements ; 
lastly, Sheffield furnishes its swords. But one would form but an im¬ 
perfect idea of the resources in f materiel 9 possessed by the United 
Kingdom, if one omitted to reckon the establishments organised, or 
ready to be so, by the efforts of private industry, and which secure to 
our neighbours the material means of almost unlimited action; for, in 
reality, England is the arsenal of the world. - ” 
Let us add a few more details to the summary furnished by M. de 
Grancey. The manufacturing establishments of the British army 
consist of— 
1. 
The Royal 
Carriage Department, 4 
2. 
n 
Gun Factory, > Woolwich. 
3. 
n 
Laboratory, ) 
4. 
n 
Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey. 
5. 
n 
Small-arms Factory, Enfield. 
In the estimates of 1873-4, provision was made for “ the supply, manu¬ 
facture, and repair of warlike stores 99 to the amount of one million and 
seventy thousand pounds. Of this sum, the Carriage Department 
absorbed £253,403, the Gun Factory £228,145, the Laboratory 
£381,589, the Small-arms Factory at Enfield £178,805, its auxiliary 
establishment at Birmingham £19,581, and the Gunpowder Factory 
£94,581 ; the total expenditure exceeding the estimate by many 
thousand pounds. 
The cost of materials was estimated as follows :— 
£ 
Timber. 32,202 
Fuel. 100,653 
Metals. 229,095 
Saltpetre and sulphur . 20,000 
Total. 381,950 
The amount voted for the Clothing Establishments at Pimlico was 
£743,100; and of this sum, £502,121 was for manufactured clothing 
obtained by contract. Moreover, in addition to supplying the require¬ 
ments of the army, this last-named gigantic establishment provides for 
the receipt, inspection, and issue of all clothing for the metropolitan 
police of London and Dublin, the employes of the General Post Office 
and the Custom House, and the Irish Constabulary. 
From the foregoing figures some conception may be formed of the 
magnitude and importance of the interests we have at stake in our 
Government manufacturing establishments. Let us now proceed to 
