FURNITURE MANUFACTURE. It is supposed that there are about 50,000 workers in wood in the metropolis, and 350,000 in the kingdom, of whom a very large number are employed in making articles of household fur niture. There has also been a rough estimate that about 100,000 average timber trees are required to make the furniture for the new houses built annually in England and Wales. There are about 30,000 sawyers in England, to cut up timber for various purposes. The carpenters and joiners are about 180,000; car penters construct all the rough portions, and joiners all the more finished details, in the timber-work of houses. The cabinet-maker engages on such timber-work only as is con nected with household furniture ; but there are many departments, such as the chair ma ker, the bedstead maker, the carver, the gene ral cabinet maker (who makes tables, drawers, sideboards, wardrobes, &c.), the fancy cabinet maker (who uses veneers of costly woods, and makes workboxes, teaeaddies, desks, dressing cases, and other highly finished articles). The upholsterer does what is called the 'soft work,' that is, all that relates to curtains, hangings, cushions, and so forth ; he is also responsible for the due finishing and fittings of carpets and beds.
The general furniture or cabinet makers require tools which e6gE from 301. to 401. per set. A portion of the journeymen in this trade in London belong to trade societies, by whom the rate of wages is to a considerable extent determined. Those employed at the west end of London generally receive higher wages than those of the oast ; but a much larger number are free of the trade-societies, and make their own bargains with employers concerning the rate of wages. There has bceu a large in
crease, in this trade, in what are termed ' gar ret masters,' who bear in manufactures a posi tion analogous to that which ' peasant propri etors' bear in agriculture : that is, they supply both capital and labour. Tho garret master buys just so much wood as he can pay for at a time, works it up into tables and other articles of household furniture, and takes those arti cles to furniture dealers, to whom he sells them for the best prices he can obtain. A very large Per-eentage of the showy Frimch-polished furniture now to be seen marked at low prices in the London shops, is manufactured in-this *ay ; and on a Saturday evening, in the busy districts, the garret masters and their appren tices may be seen carrying such commodities to the shops of the dealers, or conveying them in a hired vehicle.
It is one of the features attendant on any extra demand for accommodation for visitors, that furniture makers share in the increased activity. It is known that the cabinet or fur niture makers of London,both garret masters and others, are at present busily engaged in making furniture for houses about to be finished for our expected visitors to the Great Exhibition.