nd set himself up in some village where rent and premises are
low, and where a range could be got close to his door, and
deliberately set down to make a name for really first-rate guns, at
a moderate price, and with some pretensions to individuality and
beauty. There is water-power, which is cheaper than steam, running
to waste all over the country now. The old gristmills, which may be
found three or four in a single parish sometimes, are half of them
falling into decay, because we eat American wheat now, which is
ground in the city steam-mills, and a good deal imported ready
ground as flour. Here and there one would think sufficient
water-power might be obtained in this way. But even if we admit that
great manufactories are extremely expensive to maintain, wages high,
rent dear, premises in fashionable streets fabulously costly, yet
even then there is something in the price of guns not quite the
thing. You buy a gun and pay a long price for it: but if you attempt
to sell it again you find it is the same as with jewellery, you can
get hardly a third of its original cost. The intrinsic value of the
gun then is less than half its advertised first cost-price. The
second-hand gun offered to you for L20 has probably cost the dealer
about L6, or L10 at the most. So that, manage it 'how you will,' you
pay a sum quite out of proportion to the intrinsic value. It is all
very well to talk about the market, custom of trade, supply and
demand, and so forth, though some of the cries of the political
economist (notably the Free Trade cry) are now beginning to be
questioned. The value of a thing is what it will fetch, no doubt,
and yet that is a doctrine which metes out half-justice only. It is
justice to the seller, but, argue as sophistically as you like, it
is _not_ justice to the purchaser.

I should recommend any gentleman who is going to equip himself as a
sportsman to ask himself before he starts the question that occurred
to me too late in D.'s case: What kind of shooting am I likely to
enjoy? Then, if not wishing to go to more expense than absolutely
necessary, let him purchase a gun precisely suited to the game he
will meet. As briefly observed before, if the sportsman takes his
sport early in the year, and practically in the summer--August is
certainly a summer month--he will like a light gun; and as the
grouse at that time have not packed, and are not difficult of
access, a light gun will answer quite as well as a heavy a