stock company, which has not only been able to compete successfully with the Government, but also to perform work which Enfield could not execute for want of productive capacity. The factory of the Birmingham Small-Arms Company is situated on the Great Western Railway, a few miles out of the town, and will well repay a visit. To an American it presents not only interesting features but facts in mechanical history. He will see there in operation the genius of his own country, and recognize an instalment of his country's debt paid back to Birmingham for all our skilled mechanics and manufacturers have derived from the establishments of Boulton and Watt, and other generating centres of ingenious industry. The American system has not only been introduced here, but the factory was launched into operation under American direction. The late Mr. Corey McFarland, so well known in Springfield, brought to this establishment all the mechanical genius and long experience for which he was so much valued at home. His sad and untimely death was felt nearly as deeply in Birmingham as in Springfield.
The total number of gun-barrels proved in England from 1855 to 1864 was 6,116,305; making an average annual production of 611,630. To show the proportion that Birmingham contributes to this production, the fact will suffice, that in the same period of ten years, 3,277,815 barrels were
