brass, is too hard for women. The strongest
men look as if it was enough for them. They
rub away with their hard steel burnishers, or
with bloodstones; they rub away at a veining
of a leaf here, at the swelling of an acorn
or a grape there, at the niceties of a pattern,
of which a part is to be left "dead." Such
common things as hinges and door-handles
are polished by a brush and rottenstone.
While seeing these things, we have been
passing from room to room, from counter to
counter; moving among scores of machines,
till the place appears a labyrinth of unknown
extent. The gas-fitting stock, and the
preparation of it, seems like a great establishment
in itself. But we are coming to the end of
the business. We are to see the final process
of lacquering.

This is the process which we alluded to as
being such a pity, spoiling as it does the beauty
of the hue of the metal. But this lacquering
is essential to its preservation. If it could be
dispensed with, it certainly would, for out of
this process come the greatest annoyance and
expense of the manufacturer. The coating
consists of seed-lac and spirit of wine. Now,
the duty on spirit of wine is so high that the
cost of the lacquer amounts, in an establishment
employing three hundred people, to no
less than two-thirds of the rent. In many
large establishments, the cost of this raw
material, essential to the manufacture, is not
less than from ten shillings to twenty shillings
per day; while foreigners obtain for four
shillings and sixpence articles which we have
to pay eighteen shillings or nineteen shillings
for. In order to compete with the French
and Germans under such a disadvantage as
this, the manufacturer has to lower his own
profits, and his people's wages; so that the
operation of this pernicious duty is truly
disastrous on a large working-class. Here,
again, we meet, as everywhere, complaints of
the paper-duty; and it is proved, to our
conviction, that the wrapping-up of some of the
commoner articles in this manufacture costs
more than the finished article itself. This is
very ridiculous and very sad; hard upon the
maker at home, and the purchaser abroad.
Another thing ridiculous enough, but tending
to lessen sadness when discovered, is a
mistake made by the statistical calculators, who
have been alarming us all about the deadly
amount of spirit-drinking in England.
Gentlemen sitting at desks, to calculate from
Excise and Customs returns, without being
familiar with the processes of our manufactures,
may easily fall into such mistakes; but
it is a great comfort to have them cleared up.
Such an enormous error, for instance, as the
negligent supposition that all the spirit of
wine used in lacquering here, and everywhere
else, is the sort of spirit that may go down
somebody's throat! If three hundred or
four hundred pounds a-year is charged against
this establishment, and as much to a dozen
or two of other brassfounders in the town, as
spirituous liquors, what a libel it is upon the
place! and how comforting it is to discover
that, instead of our people spending seventy
millions per year in intoxicating drinks, some
gentlemen in London have something to learn
about the application of distilled spirits in
the arts of life! We, as a nation, tax ourselves
dismally enough for strong drinks: but we
are not yet such a nation of sots as to drink
all the spirits of wine on which duty is
paid.

After talking this over, we almost fear to
enter the rooms where the lacquering is
going on, lest we should be drunk with the
fumes, and so have to take our place among
the sots who lie under this spirituous
censure. But, though the air is sufficiently
loaded, it is not in an intoxicating way.
There sit companies of women, looking sober
enough. One wonders that they can be
healthy, sitting in such a heat, and in such
a smell. They earn good wages. The
demand for female handiwork, in Birmingham,
has so increased, that women's wages have
risen lately about twenty per cent. Here,
some are earning eleven shillings per week,
under the disadvantage, we must remember,
of the duty on lacquer. The lacquer is laid
on with a brush, while the article is hot; so
that the spirit evaporates, leaving a coating
of the gum. Sometimes the lacquer is
coloured. We saw some green; an imitation
of bronze, not very successful, but in some
demand, or it would not be there. We need
not say that the commonest lacquer gives
simply a deeper yellow to the brass.

Next, and lastly (as the farthest way about
is the nearest way home), we step into
Bohemia. We have only to say we are there,
and there is evidence, all about us, of the
fact. Rows and layers of exquisite glass fill
the chamber, and everybody who enters it is
subject to a fever about lamp-stands. We
must not go into any raving about them, as
our subject is brass; but we may just
mention one solid fact, that the dark-red lamp-
stands, so splendidly produced in Bohemia
are to be eschewed, as they absorb the light.

Now, thought we—as we came away, with
some of the beautiful designs we had seen,
lodged in certain of the best chambers of our
brain—what are we about, that we do not
offer our reverence to the spirit of Art in
Birmingham, as we do in old Italy, or any
other place, that is only far enough off in
space or time? Why do we dare to talk of
Benvenuto Cellini, and other divine craftsmen,
with reverence, while giving no heed to
the extraordinary progress of popular Art in
our own towns, and our own day? It must
be from ignorance, for it is impossible to
despise some things that are done among us
now; but that ignorance makes our talk
about ancient Art, and foreign Art, look very
like affectation. We should like to know
how many British travellers—who rush into
enthusiasms about fountains in Germany and