used comes from Fontainbleau and vicinity, and costs on delivery about £1. 4s. 6d, per ton. Thus the genius that first established the manufacture at Stourbridge and the raw material that now supplies it, the town and district owe to France. The manufacture of iron is also carried on extensively in Stourbridge. William Foster and Co, are one of the largest houses in the kingdom, employing nearly 5,000 hands in all their works.
The town, which contains about 8,000 inhabitants, has a venerable antiquity, and possesses several institutions founded in the olden time, of much value to the community. Chief among these is the Old Swinford Hospital, founded by Lord Foley, which houses, clothes, feeds, and educates about 130 boys, taken in at seven and kept till they are over fourteen years of age. They are then apprenticed to different trades and the premium is paid for them. If they behave and do well, at the end of their apprenticeship they are furnished with certain sums of money to aid them in setting up businesses for themselves. This is an excellent institution: it is one of the thousand acorns planted here and there over the kingdom a century ago, which have grown into great outspreading oaks of strength, refuge, and protection for thousands of poor men's children of this generation. The school is always full, as it is sure to be; and the property on which it is founded is
