PREFACE. THE writer was originally induced to collect facts relating to the History of the Iron Trade in the year 1826, when the quantity made in this country amounted to about 600,000 tons, in consequence of reading a petition to the Houses of Parliament in 1750 against a Bill for encouraging the Importation of Iron from our American Colonies. It was from "the tanners of leather in and about the town of Sheffield in Yorkshire, representing that if the Bill should pass, the English iron would be undersold; consequently a great number of furnaces and forges would be discontinued; in that case the woods used for fuel would stand uncut, and the tanners be deprived of oak bark sufficient for the continuance and support of their occupation." The extraordinary change from such a state of alarm on the part of the tanners, when the make of iron was about 17,000 tons, appeared a subject well worthy of consideration, taking into account the magnitude of the advantage to this country, in the abundant supply of this most valuable material, applicable to nearly all public and private uses ; and |