I will now show you a cheap American rim lock. First, you will notice that both sides are alike. Next, that by pulling the latch forward it can be turned half round, and is thereby converted from a right hand to a left hand, or _vice versa_, in an instant. This is an important point to a builder, but our lockmakers do not seem to know it. Several attempts have been made to introduce locks of this kind, but the fancy prices put upon every article which departs, in ever so slight a measure, from the antediluvian patterns mostly used, practically prohibits their adoption. The carcass of the lock is of cast iron; the casting, like all the small American castings, is simply perfect; bosses are cast round the follower and keyholes; the box staple is one piece of metal, neat and strong. But there is another point, and, to my mind, the most important one. Whatever opinions may be held as to the relative quality of this lock, whether it is better or worse than an English one, it is at least an honest article. It makes no pretensions to be any better than it is. It does not entrap the unwary purchaser by pretending to be a first-class article, when at the same time it may be a swindle. I will now show you an ordinary 6 inch rim-lock of English manufacture. At a short distance it looks like a superior article; the follower and keyhole appear as if they were bushed with brass. But let us take it to pieces, and see what we can find. The follower is a rough casting, not turned at the bearings, and is in no sense a fit. The screw holes are not countersunk, but merely punched in; the key is of the roughest and worst fitting description; the inside is as rough and cheap as possible; the key is cut so as to deceive the purchaser into the belief that there are twice as many wards in the lock as is really the case, and the bushes prove to be thin plates of brass riveted on, and not bushes at all. In short, the whole article is a vile fraud, and the maker was a swindler. This is strong language, but I think you will agree with me when I maintain that it is not stronger than the circumstances warrant.