apartment.--PARKES' Essays, 1841, p. 495.
...]
Long after Andrea de Ferrara's time, the Scotch swords were famous
for their temper; Judge Marshal Fatten, who accompanied the
Protector's expedition into Scotland in 1547, observing that "the
Scots came with swords all broad and thin, of exceeding good temper,
and universally so made to slice that I never saw none so good, so I
think it hard to devise a better." The quality of the steel used for
weapons of war was indeed of no less importance for the effectual
defence of a country then than it is now. The courage of the
attacking and defending forces being equal, the victory would
necessarily rest with the party in possession of the best weapons.

England herself has on more than one occasion been supposed to be in
serious peril because of the decay of her iron manufactures. Before
the Spanish Armada, the production of iron had been greatly
discouraged because of the destruction of timber in the smelting of
the ore--the art of reducing it with pit coal not having yet been
invented; and we were consequently mainly dependent upon foreign
countries for our supplies of the material out of which arms were
made. The best iron came from Spain itself, then the most powerful
nation in Europe, and as celebrated for the excellence of its weapons
as for the discipline and valour of its troops. The Spaniards prided
themselves upon the superiority of their iron, and regarded its
scarcity in England as an important element in their calculations of
the conquest of the country by their famous Armada. "I have heard,"
says Harrison, "that when one of the greatest peers of Spain espied
our nakedness in this behalf, and did solemnly utter in no obscure
place, that it would be an easy matter in short time to conquer
England because it wanted armour, his words were not so rashly