“Sham damn skelp” is made from the most inferior scrap. I should not have mentioned this description of iron had I not seen hundreds of barrels made of it, all which are utterly unfitted for the use of any person who cares at all for his safety. I have met with them frequently under the dignified name of twisted barrels. Guns that are fitted up at from ten to twelve shillings each are not of course patent breeched, but are made to appear so by staining them generally blue, and by having a couple of bands to imitate platina, across the squares. A projecting part is welded on to the side, into which the nipple is inserted, and the lock joints neatly under it. Many of them are good imitations; but only take the barrel out of the stock and the deception is instantly apparent, as it is rarely carried further than the outside. The beautiful way in which the barrels are painted to imitate fine twist, catches the eye of the simple countryman, who is generally the dupe of this artifice; and the persuasive eloquence of the itinerant hardwareman, seldom fails to extract from the pocket of his unsuspecting purchaser sometimes thirty or forty shillings of his earnings for what the _modest trader_ rarely pays above fifteen shillings. Many are the anathemas vented, when the deception is found out by some one more knowing than the dupe, who not unfrequently purchases his experience at the expense of a finger or a hand. It is astonishing what a quantity of this rubbish is disposed of by hawkers who infest market towns and villages with guns for sale.
But the English peasant is not the only dupe of this species of knavery. Thousands of these guns are sent monthly to the United States, to the Brazils, and South America; where they are disposed of, among the poor Indians, in exchange for skins and furs.
They are all understood to be “proved.” How many are so who can tell; but that some of them are not, there can be no doubt.
It is said that the manufacture of these guns is a great support to the gun trade of Birmingham. In one respect it is, certainly; yet would not the interest of the trade be advanced, if we were to manufacture none of so inferior a quality? “But then,” it will be urged, “we could not compete with our rivals in Germany and the Netherlands.” True, we should not be their rivals in the production of rubbish; but the superiority of our guns would then command a better market. By sending to the market an article no better than theirs, we have made foreigners indifferent about the purchase of ours: they say “The English guns are no better than the Belgian or German; we may as well purchase one as the other.” The force of this remark is illustrated by the state of the African trade. The base kind of articles we supplied them with some years ago, has produced a distrust of our manufacture, which will not easily be removed; and a similar distrust is engendered by the same cause in the minds of our present customers. It is much to be deplored that the eagerness for present gain, should render men blind to the consequences of their conduct, and lead them to prefer the immediate gratification of their avarice even to their own future prosperity; to say nothing of the welfare of the trade of the country.