number of corrugated iron goods sheds had been placed in Wolverhampton. The locomotives were coming from Sheffield. The Japanese company expressly stipulated that the materials should be of British make; it was only through the extreme dilatoriness of certain British firms in forwarding catalogues and estimates, that an order, covering a large consignment of iron wire, nails, and galvanised steel telegraph wire, was placed in America. This dilatoriness operates with the most fatal effect upon the success of British industries. The Emperor of Korea instructed Mr. Bennett to order forty complete telephones, switchboards, key-boards, and instruments, all intact. Ericson's, of Stockholm, despatched triplicate cable quotations, forwarding by express shipment triplicate catalogues and photographs, as well as cases containing models of their different styles, with samples of wet and dry cables. One of the two British firms, to whom the order had been submitted, made no reply. The other, after an interval of two months, dictated a letter of inquiry as to the chemical qualities of the soil, and the character of the climatic influences to which the wires, switch-boards, and instruments would be subjected!
A few years ago a demand arose for cheap needles and fish-hooks. The attention of British manufacturers was drawn to the necessity of supplying a needle which could be bent to the shape of a fish-hook. A German manufacturer got wind of the confidential circular which Mr. Bennett had prepared, and forwarded a large assortment of needles and fish-hooks, the needles meeting the specified requirements. The result of this enterprise was that the German firm skimmed the cream of the market. The English needles were so stiff that they snapped at once; and it is perhaps unnecessary to add that, beyond the few packets opened for
