The opposite plate (No. 2) represents my mixture in imitation of Damascus; the process necessary to produce it, as well as its companion, has already been described. These two also come under the head of best barrels, as they are costly, and when honestly made (not plated) constitute, with the defects before enumerated, good barrels. The cost of a really good first-rate gun must and will always vary, according to the circumstances of manufacture or the peculiar arrangements of the manufacturer. Joseph Manton is entitled to the gratitude, not only of the present generation of gun-makers, but of all succeeding ones, for this reason,--he not only gave a character to English guns, but so linked his name with improvements, that it will never be forgotten. His was the mind to know and appreciate the value of good workmanship; he elevated the English artisan with himself, and raised the gunmaker to the acme of mechanical skill: for, without invidious comparison of the ability required in other professions, we may say that a first-rate workman as a _gun-maker_[11] (_I mean only a gun-maker_) is one of the very best mechanics England can boast of, or in truth any part of the world. Gun-making is the profession of a man of mind: any man or any workman cannot make a gun, working by square and rule entirely, as other mechanics do: no, the true _gun-maker_ is an artist, and Joe Manton made him so. [11] Barrel welders, borers, lock-filers, &c., are not technically gun-makers: the latter are those workmen who, having barrels, locks, wood for stock, &c., make them into a gun. It has been customary to say gunsmiths; but this appellation can be applied to the worker in iron only. It is true, we have not now that complex machine, the flint-lock gun, in which Joe so peculiarly excelled; but we have a more simple and a more efficacious one in the percussion gun. He was not so fortunate in the latter as the former; but all men are at fault sometimes, and he could not be expected to fondle the child of another: no, it was for the first improvement of the _workmanship_ of the gun, that his memory must be revered. The English gun, at the outset of his career, was as far inferior to what he left it, as the tawdry manufacture of the continent is to ours of the present day. The prices he obtained were enormous certainly; but all men should be paid well, who can prove they possess extra brains and ability: he remunerated his workmen on this scale, and he unquestionably had the best set the world ever saw. We can, at this period, far excel them, for the _pupil_ sometimes exceeds the _tutor_; but this arises from laying firmly the foundation of a superior system.