..By the increased cheapness of his product, the iron maker will soon pay back to the consumer the tax, if any, which for a short time he may pay for his benefit.
     Another important consideration to the consumer, is the actual benefit which he derives from being induced to buy American instead of British iron. The superiority of American over British iron is unquestionable. A great part of the British iron is made from impure ores and sulphurous coal, and the efforts of the iron-masters are devoted, especially during periods of low prices, to increase of make, and not to perfection of quality. In many establishments, and especially within the last year or two, iron is made from old refuse cinder, which is rich in metal, but contains all the impurities, sulphur, arsenic, and phosphorus, which deteriorate the iron. Mr. Mushet, an English metallurgist, son of the celebrated David Mushet, says that common Welsh bars do not contain more than ninety per cent. of iron. "We often hear," says he, "of extraordinary makes of pig-iron, as to quantity, but never hear at any work that bar-iron has been produced equal in quality to foreign marks; on the contrary, the general quality of British iron is much lower than it was twenty years ago." We have before us a letter from a former manager of iron works at South Wales, addressed to parties in this country, requesting employment as an inspector of rails. We make the following extract in proof of the above position: "In consequence of the increased quantity of inferior materials now used in the manufacture of rails, it becomes the more important that foreign purchasers should employ an inspector who is thoroughly acquainted with every process in iron making, whose business would be to secure them from defective rails, and secure a quality of iron possessing undoubted durability."
     In the report of the Chief Engineer of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, eight dollars per ton is set down as the usual allowance for the superiority of American railroad iron. Charcoal pig-iron made in Woodstock, New Brunswick, from ores which abound in the State of Maine, has been sold in England for thirty dollars a ton, a higher price than their bar-iron commands there. Mr. Mushet, whom we have before quoted, remarks, in the April number of the London Mining Journal, while speaking of the importance of introducing the charcoal iron of Nova Scotia into Great Britain: "This iron would supersede the common iron, at present in use, for many purposes of machinery, for ordnance and firearms, for steam-boilers, for wire iron, for anchors and cables, for axles of locomotives, for wheels and wheel tires, and above all, for railway bars, it being an indisputable fact, that the best charcoal iron rails will endure more traffic, without wearing, crushing, and laminating, than from four to five sets of coke iron rails; so that the former would prove the more economical even at four times the price of the latter."
     The superiority of American iron, and the improvement in its quality within a few years, is strikingly exhibited in the following letter, a copy of which we have obtained at the Navy Yard at Washington.

Navy Yard, Washington, January 16th, 1844.

SIR:
     In obedience to your order, I have prepared the annexed table, showing the breaking strain of chain cable-iron, 1 1/2 inch, when tested, and by whom furnished:

Very respectfully,                    
          Your obedient servant,          
                    JAMES TUCKER.

Captain B. KENNON, Commandant.

     We learned at the Navy Yard, that for several years, until the American iron improved, a piece of English chain cable-iron, called by the workmen the "bully" piece, 1 3/4 in diameter, broke American cable iron 2 1/8 in diameter. The English chain cable-iron was ruptured by a breaking strain of 716, less than that of American 11 inch iron, as appears by the preceding table. The American 2 1/8 inch iron, in 1841, required a breaking strain of 1277 pounds. The breaking strain of the best French cable of the same size was 1081.

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