Staffordshire is remarkable both for the variety and the abundance of its mineral products. Coal exists in such abundance that more than 50.000 acres have been found to contain almost inexhaustible strata of coal, which vary in thickness from twenty-lour to thirty-six feet. Iron ore is raised in considerable quantities in the coal mines; the strata of iron usually occurring under a stratum of coal. A remarkable species of coal called the peacock coal, owing to the circumstance of its exhibiting prismatic colours, is raised at Handly Green. Copper and lead also exist, although by no means in such abundance as the iron. The other products are ochre, freestone, limestone, gypsum, alabaster, marbles of different colours. A great variety of clays arc dug up, which are of the greatest service, as they supply the potteries, which are the chief support of the county.
The manufactures of Staffordshire are as extensive as they are various. The working of metals is car ried on to a great extent in the southern part of the county. At Wolverhampton a great quantity of the heavier sort of iron goods,besides locks, hinges, keys, steel chains, Ste. Wednesbury furnishes guns, saws, hammers, edge tools, and almost every description of cast iron articles. Stafford produces a number of ar ticles in the leather and cutlery trade. Walsal sup plies bits, spurs, buckles, stirrups, and all the iron work required by saddlers. '['he potteries, which are earricd on in the northern part of the county, have been long celebrated for the superior excellence of the earthenware they produce. which is exported to almost every part of Europe. They occupy an extent of ten square miles, in which there are several con siderable towns. This district, which goes by the general name of the Potteries, although the most bar ren, is now the most populous and wealthy part of the county. These potteries 011T all their celebrity to the skill and perseverance of the late famous Mr. Wedgewood, who by his judicious admixture of the various descriptions of clay with which the county abounds, brought the earthenware to its present state of perfection. At Stourbridge there are extensive
manufactories of glass. A quantity of salt is obtain ed at Shirley Wick, and at Ingestrie, by boiling brine from natural springs. Burton has long been celebrat ed for its ale, and possesses manufactories for hats and cotton goods. At Tamworth there is a large es tablishment for printing- calico. There are brass and copper works at Cheadle. At Leek a considerable quantity of silk goods of various descriptions are made.
The agricultural products of Staffordshire are chief ly wheat, barley, rye, oats, potatoes, and turnips; crops of flax, hemp, pease, beans and vetches are also raised. The grasses most in use are clover and tre foil, and several artificial grasses have been introduc ed of late.
The cattle of Staffordsire, which are of the long horned breed, are reared in such numbers as to supply the whole county, and still to leave a considerable surplus for other markets. The sheep are of different breeds; but the new Leicesters arc the most common. The black-faced sheep with horns are reared on the commons in the west of the county. At Cannock and Sutton Colfield there is a variety, bearing a strong resemblance to the South Down.
The breed in the eastern part of the moorlands are white-faced without horns, and having long combing The only Roman antiquities in Staffordshire are the Watling Street, and Ichnield military roads which pass through the county. There are also a few ancient encampments. There arc few remains of the Saxons worthy of notice.
The parliamentary representatives are ten, two for the county, and two for each of the undermentioned towns, via. Litchfield, Stafford, Newcastle, and Tant a oral.
The population, icy the returns under the census of 1821, was 341,040; of whom the males were 177,668, and the females 169,372. The number of inhabited houses was 63,319, and of families, 68,780; out of these families, 18,285 were employed in agriculture, 42,435 in trade and manufactures, and 8060 in neither of these departments.