mption of all the wood the country produced, was
formerly unequal to the demand, and the nail trade, perhaps the most
considerable of any one article of manufactured iron, would have been
lost to this country had it not been found practicable to make nails of
iron made with pit coal. We have now another process to attempt, and
that is to make BAR IRON with pit coal; and it is for that purpose we
have made, or rather are making, alterations at Donnington Wood,
Ketley, and elsewhere, which we expect to complete in the present year,
but not at a less expense than twenty thousand pounds, which will be
lost to us, and gained by nobody, if this tax is laid upon our coals."
He would not, however, have it understood that he sought for any
PROTECTION for the homemade iron, notwithstanding the lower prices of
the foreign article. "From its most imperfect state as pig-iron," he
observed to Lord Sheffield, "to its highest finish in the regulating
springs of a watch, we have nothing to fear if the importation into
each country should be permitted without duty." We need scarcely add
that the subsequent history of the iron trade abundantly justified
these sagacious anticipations of Richard Reynolds.

He was now far advanced in years. His business had prospered, his
means were ample, and he sought retirement. He did not desire to
possess great wealth, which in his opinion entailed such serious
responsibilities upon its possessor; and he held that the accumulation
of large property was more to be deprecated than desired. He therefore
determined to give up his shares in the ironworks at Ketley to his sons
William and Joseph, who continued to carry them on. William was a man
of eminent ability, well versed in science, and an excellent mechanic.
He introduced great improvements in the working of the coal and iron
mines, employing new machinery for the purpose, and availing himself
with much ingenuity of the discoveries then being made in the science
of chemistry. He was also an inventor, having been the first to employ
(in 1788) inclined planes, consisting of parallel railways, to connect
and work canals of different levels,--an invention erroneously
attributed to Fulton, but which the latter himself acknowledged to
belong to William Reynolds. In the first chapter of his 'Treatise on
Canal Navigation,' published in 1796, Fulton says:--"As local
prejudices opposed the Duke of Bridgewater's canal in the first
instance, prejudices eq