The improvement in the manufacture of gun-barrels depends on the quality of the iron entirely; for it would be a useless waste of time to endeavour to make a good barrel of inferior metal. Science and experience have worked a wonderful change in the mixture of the superior qualities of iron: we have had announcements of silver-steel barrels at _ten guineas a pair_ in the rough, of Brescian steel barrels, carbonised iron, and I know not how many more descriptions or compounds of metals, to form the best material for high-priced barrels. We have now metal which, in the rod, cannot be sold for less than one shilling and twopence per pound: the iron for a pair of barrels thus costing sixteen shillings and fourpence. This is good; nay, more than good--’tis excellent. But there is a dark side of the picture, over which I would fain draw a veil: but I must not. Belgium, France, Holland, and Germany, are improving, are marching onward, and we, alas! are standing still. Competition and cheapness combined, are driving our gun trade into a labyrinth, out of which it will be long ere it finds the clue of exit. Our manufacture of inferior gunnery has certainly reached a depth of inferiority which never any other manufacture in the world reached, and I hope never will. During the existence of the slave-trade, many thousand guns per year were made of what is, by the trade, technically termed “_park paling_,” a material only fit for such purposes; and the cost of it was only _seven shillings and sixpence_ each _spike_; but now we can furnish slave traders with ship-loads, if they choose, at only _six shillings and sixpence_ each, and it is still supposed that one of these _imitation_ guns is the blood-money for a fellow-creature. It would be a just and equitable law, if our legislature would pass it, “That every man should fire the guns he manufactures:” nothing would more surely tend to improve the quality of guns of a low grade. A considerable increasing difficulty attends the obtaining of horse-nail stubs from the continent. In various continental markets from whence we draw our supply, the skill and ability of the gun-barrel makers have increased; and the preference for superior fire-arms which is gaining ground with many continental sportsmen, has taught foreigners the value of their old horse-nails; and hence their increased scarcity. The inferior iron of which we make horse-nails prevents entirely the use of our own; consequently it requires no foresight to predict that our manufacturers will soon resolve themselves into two descriptions--the very best and the very worst. The latter are already actively employed, and the others are advancing; as no doubt an increasing desire to obtain the most perfect gun pervades the thinking and affluent portion of the sporting world.