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394 and apply steam to the production of ribbons, introduce new improvements, and otherwise strain their wits and activities in order to compete successfully with the French. If Parliament had only been patriotic enough to pass the act of prohibition, they would have been saved from all this bothering exercise of intellect, and have gone on comfortably in the old way. Schools of Design in the large manufacturing towns, though so recently established, have already told with decisive effect upon all articles of taste, luxury, and ornamentation, bringing up the English production to a higher standard of conception and value. The free trade and free play of genius and skill have kept pace with the other great freedoms of commerce and civilization, and constitute a common stock from which all communities may draw at will.

The next in the rank of the industries of Coventry is watch-making. The proportion between them may be put in figures. In ordinary times ribbons give employment to about 10,000 hands, watches, to 2,000; but of this number there are not included 100 females; whilst in the ribbon trade the women outnumber the men by two to one. Coventry once unfortunately had virtually but one string to its bow, and suffered often and deeply in consequence. But not only has the watch trade been added or