the midst of this population of two hundred
and thirty-two thousand people. Whichever
way one turns in the streets, one sees a shop
in which the housewife may buy bread and
thread, bacon and shoes, cheese and knitting-
needles, or whatsoever it may be that she
wants. In such a shop it was that a little
child once made its demand—unintelligible
to a stranger's ear. Laying down a penny on
the counter, the little creature sang out,
"Farden tate, farden teed, farden lang tannen,
farden aden ;" and she received a cake, a
skein of thread, a long candle, and a farthing
of change—"again." The purchasers at these
shops seem to be always forgetting that they
must pay for the prodigious waste of time that
they require from the seller, and for the paper
and string used up in an infinity of small
parcels ; for, in short, all the waste of the
ultimate degree of retailing. Easy and careless,
and usually well employed, large numbers
of the people despise the higher and better
ease which would be secured by sensible
economy—and buy their sugar, and butter, and
tea, by the ounce ; their thread, by the skein ;
their ham, by the pound ; their apples, by the
pennyworth ; seduced by the convenience of
such ways to the thoughtless, and yet more
by the credit given at these hucksters' shops.
The one thing that the workmen of Birmingham
(so clever in so many ways) seem wholly
unable to do, is to keep their affairs well in
hand. Whatever they may be earning, they
are always anticipating. If they can get their
wages in advance, they do ; and whether they
can or not, they ask and obtain credit at
these hucksters' shops—a week's credit at
all events, and, too often, very much more.
For this, and the hucksters' losses from
bad debts, in consequence, they have to
pay in the price of what they buy. Yet
the people stick to the hucksters, and the
hucksters continue to thrive by the
improvidence of the people, through all changes of
times ; and, as a consequence, Birmingham
goes on to be distinguished by its peculiar
possession of bread-mills.

From these mills hucksters supply
themselves. Every morning, at seven o'clock, three
wagons draw up below certain folding-doors
on the upper floor of Mr. Lucy's mill, and are
filled, once and again, with loaves from the racks
where the bread has been cooling—fragrant,
fresh loaves, which will all be eaten before
night. These are dropped at the hucksters'
shops, the money received on the instant, and
deposited in the counting-house on each
return of the empty wagons. The twenty
or forty loaves, paid for by the huckster in
the morning, will be carried to twenty or
forty homes, in a few hours—in company with
candles and cheese, ink and writing-paper,
nails and soap, and every odd thing that can
be thought of.

The fluctuations in the trade of the mills
are a curious subject of inquiry. Flour
is sold at these mills, as well as bread;
and when the sale of bread falls off, that of
flour usually increases in proportion. All
being well with the millers, at all events, we
are at liberty to look at the case. At present,
the sale of bread from the mills has fallen off
prodigiously, while that of flour is flourishing.
Bread is cheap : the people are prosperous :
they eat more meat, and puddings, and
vegetables, and various luxuries, than in bad times ;
and, of course, less bread ; and the bread
that they do eat they go to the bakers' for.
They like it new ; and, as they can pay for it,
they get it new. Of course, the bakers want
more flour from the mills, to supply this de-
mand. As soon as bread becomes dearer,
more will be sold from the mills. Other
provisions rise in price when bread rises ;
less meat, less pudding, less vegetables are
eaten, and more bread. From the same
cause, there will be an increased demand for
bread whenever wages fall, whether the price
of provisions rises or not. Mr. Lucy's mill
did, at one time, send out as much as five
hundred sacks of flour per week, in the shape
of loaves ; and it is supposed that the Union
Mills even now send out as much as four
hundred and fifty sacks ; but this is little in
comparison with what the sales amount to in
hard times.

Being curious to know what was the
proportion of bread sent out by the mills, in
comparison with the supply furnished by
bakers and by private ovens, we obtained an
approximate calculation from a well-qualified
informant, and found that the bakers, at
present, bake about one thousand five
hundred sacks of flour per week; the mills about
one thousand; and private ovens nearly as
much as the bakers. The larger calculation
by the year, averages something like this:—
the consumption of flour is reckoned at about
a sack per head for the whole population,
which is two hundred and thirty-two
thousand. The bakers send out nearly half of
this; viz., about one hundred thousand sacks;
the mills about sixty thousand; and private
ovens consume the remaining seventy- two
thousand.

And now for Mr. Lucy's mill, which we
have mentioned as distinguished by some
peculiarities. These peculiarities are inventions
of his own, by which the production of
bread is raised to the rank of an established
Birmingham manufacture. Everybody knows
the services which Mr. Lucy, as Mayor of
Birmingham, rendered to the Great Exhibition
last year. Many wish that his dough
machine, and other contrivances, could have
been exhibited there; but they could not
have been worked in the Crystal Palace. They
must be seen at home.

We will go first to the top of the mill,
without looking or listening as we go, and
come down through the successive processes,
from the bringing in of the wheat to the sending
out of the bread.

At the top there is the crane, by which the