erican
lock, which, at any rate, was an honest article, especially when the
latter had the great advantage of being considerably cheaper. I am
afraid that the swindling and greed of our merchants is having the
effect of thrusting us out of the markets of the world, including our
home markets; and when it is too late, these men who are making the
name of English goods a byword and a reproach, even among the Hindoos,
the Chinese, and the untutored savages of the South Sea Islands, will
find that "honesty is the best policy."

We have been accustomed to hear a deal of buncombe talked about the
honesty of the Englishman, and the want of honesty of the Yankee;
about the enterprise of our manufacturers and the skill of our
workmen; but if what I have shown to you is to be taken as a specimen,
it is time we set our house in order. Since commencing the paper I
have read the discussion between Messrs. Chubb and Hill, and am at a
loss to know why Messrs. Chubb entered into the arena. If all the
English makers tried to reach Chubb's standard we should keep our
markets, at least so far as high quality is concerned; and to see
Messrs. Chubb acting as champions of the English lockmakers is
something like seeing Messrs. Horrocks taking up the cudgels for those
people who manufacture china clay and call it calico, the proportion
of fiber in the material being just a little greater than that found
in hair mortar.

In conclusion, I wish it to be understood that I bring these facts
before you in no exultant spirit. I am an Englishman, and the future
welfare of myself and my children depends very much upon the future of
English manufactures; but we cannot be blind to the fact that the
apathy and conservatism of our manufacturers, the greed of our
Merchants, and the ignorance and drunkenness of our workmen, are
weighing us so heavily in the race for trade that a member of our own
family, whose leading business should be to produce food for us, is
outstripping us with the greatest ease. Our boasted supremacy as a
manufacturing people is leaving us, and leaving us under such
humiliating circumstances--and if the men of Birmingham and the
district are content to dwell in their present "fools' paradise," it
is the duty of every lover of his country to speak as plainly as
possible to them.

Of course I am prepared to be told that as I am not a lockmaker my
opinion is worthless; but I have been about 28 years as man and boy,
employer and wor