There is a “Royal Free Grammar School” founded in 1649, with an income from endowments of about 150 pounds a-year.  Free to thirty boys, as regards classics, subject to a charge of four guineas per annum for instruction in the commercial department.  In 1850 there were eighty-one scholars.

Manufactures.—­Sheffield, through every change, has deservedly retained its reputation for the manufacture of razors, surgical instruments, and the highest class of cutlery, and a considerable number of carpenters’ and other steel tools.

In the coarser steel articles Birmingham does a considerable and increasing business, and Sheffield workmen settling in Germany and in the United States have, from time to time, alarmed their native town by the rivalry of their pupils; nevertheless, it may confidently be asserted, that with its present advantages Sheffield can never lose her pre-eminence in cutlery if her sons are only true to her and themselves.

The steel consumed in England is manufactured chiefly from iron imported from Sweden and Russia.  It has not been exactly ascertained whence arises the superiority of this iron for that purpose.  But all foreign iron converted into steel is composed of magnetic iron ore, smelted with charcoal.  This kind of ore is found in several countries, particularly in Spain.  In New Zealand, at New Plymouth it is said to be found in great quantities; but from the two countries first mentioned we obtain a supply of from 12,000 to 15,000 tons, of which about 9000 come from Sweden.  The celebrated mines of Danemora produce the finest Swedish iron, and only a limited quantity is allowed to be produced each year.  All the steel-iron used in England is imported into Hull.  Bar-steel is manufactured by heating the iron, divided into lumps, in pots, with layers of charcoal, closely covered over with sand and clay, for several days.  By this means the iron is carbonized and converted into what is commonly called blistered steel.  The heat is kept up a longer or shorter time according to the hardness required.

Bar-steel, as it comes from the furnace, is divided and sorted, and the pieces free from flaws and blisters are rolled out and converted into files, knives, coach-springs, razors, and common implements, according to quality.  It will be seen that there is a good deal of science and judgment required to manufacture the best steel.

Sheer steel is made from bar-steel by repeated heating, hammering, and welding.

Cast steel, a very valuable invention, which has in a great degree superseded sheer steel for many purposes, was first made in 1770 by Mr. Hunstman, at Allercliff, near Sheffield.  It is made by subjecting bar-steel, of a certain degree of hardness, to an intense heat, for two or three hours, in a crucible, and then casting it in ingots.

The Indian Wootz steel, of which such fine specimens were exhibited in the Exhibition, and from which extraordinary sabres have been made, is cast steel, but, from the rudeness of the process, rarely obtained perfect in any quantity.  Whenever we have the good fortune to intersect India with railroads, steel-iron will be among the number of our enlarged imports.