Iron Trade

The f utnre of the iron interest in the great industrial nations is very cloudy. Nearly all civilized states have built as much railroad as they could borrow money to do, and havo substituted steel rails íor iron, so that there is not the constant calí to replenish the tracks. The decline of iron-making has affected the coal interest. In Eugland the minera only make SI. 25 a week, or 21 cents a day, counting the idle days. The poorkouses arebesieged there, andtbouwimds would coma to America if they could pay passage. The richeat mining district in Wales gives only two days' work a week, and there is an average loss of 15 cents on every ton of coal they sell, while the railroads are bloeked up with coal trains which cannot sell their contents. In the county of York, celebrated for its iron, $-10,000,000 are investcd in iron-works, whose shares used to be above par; they are now dorn to 60 or 70. English steel has come down iu five years to one-third of its oíd valuó. The Germans, who labor cheap, take the Euglisli and Scotch raw metal and make the differenco by manufacttiring it. The Euglish ironworks derived much business from iron ship-building, particularly after the Suez canal was opened, bnt there are few moro irán ships to build. Meantime Australia has gone into tho iroD business on a great saaie, and will ultimately supply India, China and the surrounding countries with the iron which has heretofore come from England. -