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2. Are you a director of the Union Flint Glass Company?
I am.
3. Is that company supplied with glass from Birmingham?
We have factories there.
4. How many glasshouses have you in Birmingham? Eighteen.
5. How is glass at present sent from Birmingham to London?
By canal.
6. Tell us how many tons in the year? I believe about 1050; I have it from pretty correct data.
7. Would the establishment of a Railroad be a very great advantage to the glass trade of Birmingham and London?
It would be a great advantage, inasmuch as it would shorten the time of transits.
8. Is the glass sent by the fly boats, or the slow boats?
By boats of four days.
9. Is that what they call the fly boats?
The fly boats; the quickest conveyance we have.
10. Do you suffer any commercial inconvenience in your shipping orders by the delay?
We suffer very considerably. It frequently happens that ships are chartered or under engagements to go out on a certain day; when the ship has not her full freight, the owners of the vessel frequently, on their own account, say they will take freight at a certain rate under the ordinary price; any delay that then may arise loses us the order if we cannot get up the goods; if we had two days we could frequently get them. From the peculiar nature of glass manufacture the orders are received on a Monday morning, and we cannot possibly make them till Thursday; by the present conveyance we cannot get them till Monday, and almost all these ships sail on a Saturday. The ships
