cheapness of its goods; but of late a decided tendency to improve their quality and prices must be noticed among the generality of its manufacturers. Several of them, like Messrs. Ainsley, Moore, Barlow, and others, are trying to raise their goods to the same level as those of Stoke. There are about thirty-five firms in the Potteries making china, most of them for the home trade, and over five times that number making earthenware. These two hundred and thirty manufactories are spread over an area of ten square miles, comprising the towns of Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall, Longton, Fenton, Shelton, and Stoke-upon-Trent, from which the electoral borough takes its name. These, which in a few years are likely to be amalgamated in a single town, form the district called the Potteries, containing already a population of 170,000 inhabitants engaged in the ceramic and iron trade. It has been remarked that since the foundation of Burslem, the mother town of the Potteries, the population of the district has doubled every twenty-five years, and it is easy to foresee the time when Stoke-upon-Trent will rank in importance with our largest commercial cities. The export of porcelain is not large; but that of earthenware reaches one and a half million of pounds. This does not appear large compared with the enormous amount exported by the iron or the cotton trades, but it is satisfactory, if taken in combination with the quantity absorbed by the home trade, which represents quite as much. Our colonial trade with Australia, India, and British America is decidedly on the increase, and the same may be said as regards South America. On the contrary, our transactions with the Continent of Europe have a tendency to decrease, and to fluctuate in the case of the United States, a very important market, which, in time of prosperity, would take as much as 800,000_l._ of granite ware. To meet the competition of France and Germany, on one side, and the Americans on the other, great changes have taken place in the management of our works. Several processes have been improved or simplified, and large manufactories have been built on better principles. These steps were not taken too soon; for if competition scarcely existed for our goods twenty years ago, that state of things has been much altered, and it will require a great deal of application and energy on our part, if we intend to maintain our position as the largest and best producers of pottery in the world.