sover, an
ingenious mechanic, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and
extensively applied by Mr. Joseph Hancock. This trade has been seriously
affected by the invention of electro-plating, which has transferred much of
the Sheffield trade to Birmingham. The invention of Britannia metal speedily
followed that of plating.

In 1750 a direct trade to the continent was opened by Mr. Thomas Broadbent.
The example was soon followed. The first stage-coach to London, started in
1760, and the first bank was opened in 1762.

At present the population can be little short of 120,000. The passing of the
Reform Bill gave to Sheffield two representatives. The constituency is one
of the most independent in the kingdom. No "Man in the Moon" has any room
for the exercise of his seductive faculties in Sheffield.

What is still more strange, until after the enactment of the Municipal
Corporation Bill, Sheffield had no local authorities. The Petty Sessions
business was discharged by county magistrates, and the Master Cutler acted as
a sort of master of the ceremonies on occasions of festivity, without any
real power. That honorary office is still retained, although Sheffield has
now its aldermen and common councillors.

There is a "Royal Free Grammar School" founded in 1649, with an income from
endowments of about 150 pounds a-year. Free to thirty boys, as regards
classics, subject to a charge of four guineas per annum for instruction in
the commercial department. In 1850 there were eighty-one scholars.

Manufactures.--Sheffield, through every change, has deservedly retained its
reputation for the manufacture of razors, surgical instruments, and the
highest class of cutlery, and a considerable number of carpenters' and other
steel tools.

In the coarser steel articles Birmingham does a considerable and increasing
business, and Sheffield workmen settling in Germany and in the United States
have, from time to time, alarmed their native town by the rivalry of their
pupils; nevertheless, it may confidently be asserted, that with its present
advantages Sheffield can never lose her pre-eminence in cutlery if her sons
are only true to her and themselves.

The steel consumed in England is manufactured chiefly from iron imported from
Sweden and Russia. It has not been exactly ascertained whence arises the
superiority of this iron for that purpose. But all foreign iron converted
into steel is composed of magnetic iron ore,