ing the wars of the revolution and the empire, should not have contributed more to bringing the workmanship of them to per fection. It is only since the re-establishment of their intercourse with England that the French have begun to use pit-coal in their furnaces, and to substitute the instrument called a flattener, or laminoir, for the hammer, in beating iron into plates. Since this invention plate-iron has not only become cheaper, but more tenacious, purer, and more free from flaws. The establishments at Creusot and Charenton, of MM. Manby and Wilson, who work a steam-engine of 160-horse power, furnished the exhibition with specimens of an iron mast weighing 63 cwt., and purchased for the navy; the stock of a cog-wheel of 73 cwt., and a section of a railway, with an iron carriage-a symbol of the approach of the time when France shall really be traversed by these invaluable contrivances. At Fourchambault, in the department of the Nièvre, 2000 workmen are employed by MM. Boigues; they have ten great furnaces, and their bellows are blown by steam. They ship annually, up and down the Loire, iron in rods and sheets to the weight of 6000 tons, and consume about 23,000 chaldrons of coal, and 100,000 cords of wood. The factory of Pont-Saint-Ours, on the Nièvre, is famous for its axle-trees, now used by most of the French diligences, and of tried strength. The mines of the Jura, the Vosges, the Puy-de-Dome, the Pyrenees, and other mountainous districts, furnish an abundant supply of iron; but this, as well as every other of the metallurgic arts, suffers severely from the difficulty of procuring coal. Although France is by no means deficient in coal, but on the contrary large fields of coal and collieries exist in the north-east, in the departments of Puy-de-Dome and Cantal, and thence along the Allier to Nevers, and in many other districts, the difficulty of carrying it away, when raised, renders this sort of fuel almost unavailable, unless it is met with on the spot. The consumption of wood for the fusion of metals takes onefourth of the whole quantity cut throughout the kingdom-a quantity that covers a surface of 400,000 hectares of land; and as coke is scarcely ever employed, it may well be conceived that wood fuel is every day becoming dearer, and that unless steps are taken to open the mines and facilitate the carriage of coal, the effect upon the iron works must be very serious. On this subject M. Blanqui says in his last speech : "In fact, at this moment, gentlemen, the question of the price of French iron is reduced to the question of the price of wood. The refining of iron by coal is twice as economical; but where are our rail-roads, our means of communication by land and water, our steam-carriages and steam-vessels to transport the coal? Where in our engines are those English piston bellows which work four or five years without being out of order, and which produce five or six thousand quintals (two hundred and ten to two hundred and fifty tons), of cast iron a day? Do we not yet see, in many places, miserable furnaces, with leathern bellows fit only for the forge of a horse-shoeing blacksmith? Is our use of the flattener as advanced as it ought to be, when our iron in bars still costs sixty-three francs, and English iron only twenty-six francs? When shall we melt, like our neighbours, 1200 million killograms (1,200,000 tons) of iron yearly on our own soil?" The working of steel and of white or tinned iron, which, since the secret of working it, was carried out of the kingdom in 1686, by the Calvinists, in consequence of their persecution by Louis the Fourteenth, seems not to have been recovered until of late years, is now going on with great energy and success in many parts of France, particularly at St. Etienne and in the departments of the Isère, and of the Lower Rhine. Springs for carriages are made in great perfection by Garrigou, of Toulouse, and the jury at the exhibition awarded a silver medal to Sirodot and Co. of Bèze, in the Côte d'Or, for their steel knitting-needles, coins, dies, and stamps. It is true that the hardware factories, in general, use English and German steel, but as it is well known that steel-working depends more on manual dexterity than scientific knowledge, there is every reason to think that the French will ultimately succeed as well in this, as they have in arts of a similar character. Many manufactures of hardware have been entirely created of late years. France used to procure from Germany her scythes and sickles as well as files, and now she is able to supply all Europe with these articles, if they were wanted. Nail-making has been much improved, and by no one more than M. Sirot, of Valenciennes, who has two hundred machines for nails of iron, zinc, and copper, and who has made their use so easy, that a child of ten years old can make eight thousand nails in a day. Wire-drawing is much better understood than formerly; it is performed at Paris, in the departments of the Orne and the Oise, at Valenciennes, and many other places; and tin has been drawn so fine as to be made into under-waistcoats. Twenty years ago, saws had not been manufactured in France, and now they are made in great numbers and perfection. The circular saws of M. Mongin, of Paris, were deservedly admired by the visitors of the Louvre. Steel bracelets and other ornaments are in common use. The most neglected of all hardware are pins and needles: M. Blanqui says, there is only one pin ma¬ nufacturer in France, M. Fouquet, of Rugles, in the department of the Eure, and absolutely not one engaged in needles-those essential implements of domestic industry. The moulding of iron in sand, in imitation of bronze, for buckles, bracelets, &c. is carried on chiefly in Paris, and is executed with much taste and elegance. The article of copper is one that has risen into considerable importance within the last twelve years. Several of the great forge proprietors have visited Wales and Cornwall, and made themselves acquainted with the process and machinery of the copper works there, and hence has resulted a material improvement upon the mode of refining this metal for flat sheets and sheathing, for cauldrons, and cylinders for printing cloths. It would lead to too lengthened a detail, were we to particularize the various improvements in machinery that have been effected within the last few years, or even the specimens that were so much admired in the Louvre. The mechanism of pumps has been brought to great perfection, whether for the purpose of irrigation, of exhaustion of canals, ponds, &c. or against fire. The principle of the hydraulic balance has been more effectually than before put into practice by M. Frimot. A pump upon this system has been erected in the dock-yard of Brest, which raises 87 unities of labour, or 260 cubic metres of water an hour, to the height of six or seven metres, and does as much work as 288 men applied to the best naval pumps. Hydraulic presses are in use for packing, for planing, for the making of gunpowder, and the extraction of sugar from beet-root. The new machine for drying tissues, the new loom of M. Bergue, and the simplification of the machine called the Banc de Broches, by M. Calla, are much approved by scientific men; the latter, in particular, has been brought into very general use, and has received many flattering testimonies of approbation from the Manchester manufacturers. Several new engines for working wool are in play; the mechanical printingpress of M. Gaultier-Laguionie throws off 2000 sheets an hour; and the wine-press of Revillon, of Mâcon, obtains a twentieth part more juice than the common machines. The fabrication of woollens in France has been practised, though in a rough manner, from as early a period as the fourteenth century. It received considerable encouragement from Cardinal Richelieu, and still more from the famous Colbert, who persuaded Louis the Fourteenth to offer a bonus of 2000 livres for each loom at work, and to permit the nobility to enter into manufacturing speculations without derogating from their rank. The policy of the French government has been for a long time to encourage the exclu sive use of their own wool, by heavy duties on the raw material of other countries, and accordingly nearly four-fifths of the wool consumed in France is of native produce. The prosperity of the wool trade is therefore made mainly to depend on the exertions of the agriculturists to ameliorate the quality of the fleeces. This object has excited the greatest emulation in all parts of the country; the flocks of the Comte de Polignac and M. Maurel, in Calvados and Ariége; those of M. Portal and the Vicomte Jessaint, in the departments of Aude and Marne; and of M. Bourgeois-Audoux, of Turcoing (remarkable for their whiteness); and MM. Perrault and Girod, in the department of the Ain, have been brought to as great perfection as can well be imagined. The importation of the Saxony sheep, of those of the Leicestershire and the South Downs, and of the merinos, have been successfully practised by the proprietors we have mentioned, by the Vicomte de Bouillé, of Nevers, M. Seillière, the Comtesse du Cayla, and very many others. The career of M. Ternaux is, however, the most splendid, and he is really worthy of the title given him by M. Blanqui, "le représentant par excellence de l'industrie Fran. çaise." This enterprising citizen, in his double capacity of agriculturist and manufacturer, employs upwards of 5,000 workmen, and has establishments at Paris, St. Ouen, Rheims, Sedan, Louviers, and Elbœuf. He has imported the Saxony rams, and crossed them with French merinos, and the fleeces of the sheep thus bred have been found fully equal to the finest and softest Saxony wool. The home manufacture of Cashmir shawls is an invention which France owes entirely to M. Ternaux. It is said that the India shawls were brought into use by the officers of the army of Egypt after their return from the expedition so fatal to the Mamelukes, from whom a large quantity was captured." The rage then began among the French ladies for these beautiful articles, but their very high price, as well as that of the wool of which they were made, prevented them for some time from becoming common. The raw material is supplied by the goats which browse on the plains of Khirgiz, whence it is brought to Moscow for sale, and it is calculated that a pound of this genuine wool, which hardly suffices for the chain of a shawl, cannot be imported from thence into France, washed, picked, and spun, for less than 150 francs, 61. 5s. M. Ternaux has, after surmounting many obstacles, naturalized the breed of the Thibet goats; and the French wool supplies the place of the oriental so perfectly, that all smuggling from India is at an end. The fabric of carpets may be divided into five sorts. The first is that of the royal manufactories, called by M. Blanqui "le genre parasite," which certainly are creditable to the talent of the workmen, but the length of time required to perfect them, sometimes five or six years, makes their price preposterously high. The carpets of the Gobelins and the Savonnerie are seldom valued at less than 2001. or 3007. each. The next class are those of Aubusson and Felletin, in the department of the Creuse, of both long and short nap and of the velvet kind. At Autun, carpets are made of cows' hair -not very handsome certainly, but both cheap and durable. The competition of these different manufacturers will, in the course of time, bring carpets into as common use as in England; and the royal factories will then be considered as little else than a monument to mark the absurd mis-direction that has hitherto been given to capital and industry in this branch of the woollen fabric. We have mentioned that nearly four-fifths of the wool consumed in France is of home produce, and the rapid progress of this consumption will appear, when it is stated, that in 1812 the whole quantity worked was seventy-seven million pounds, and that in 1826 it had increased to one hundred and ten million pounds; and the value of the cloth manufactures amounted to twelve millions and a half sterling of English money. Unfortunately, however, the duty of 33 per cent. that now attaches on the importation of the raw material into France, operates very injuriously to this branch of industry, and her exportation of cloth is naturally diminishing in proportion to the decrease in the stock of foreign wool. M. Blanqui complains bitterly of the inattention of the government to the interests of the wool trade, and contrasts its effect with that of the policy of Great Britain in reducing the duty on foreign wool from sixpence per pound to a penny on wool above, and a halfpenny on wool below the value of a shilling per pound. "France," says M. Blanqui, "once mistress of the cloth trade, will lose by neglect this lucrative branch of her industrious prosperity; and the productions which we have admired in the Louvre, when surpassed by our neighbours, will only prove, that in 1827 the French could make good things, but that in 1828 they allowed their rivals to make better." We trust there is no fear of our own ministry yielding to the clamour of the agriculturists for an increase of the wool duty to the old rate; but if any additional argument against its being raised were wanted, it might be found in the mischievous effect of the French duty upon a manufacture otherwise so flourishing. The spinning and weaving of flax has been the employment of the French peasantry for their own clothing from a very early period. It was first begun in Normandy, and has been chiefly carried on in the northern provinces, and particularly at Valenciennes and Cambray, the stuffs of which latter town are so well known under the English name of Cambrics. The delicacy and perfection of their Cambrics have long been unrivalled, and many of the specimens in the Louvre proved the perfection to which the linen machinery has been brought at other places. The thread stockings made at Paris are extremely beautiful, and well suited for such of the belles of the metropolis as have pretty ancles, and can afford 100 francs, 47. 3s. 4d., a pair for them. The whiteness of the French linens is a very great recommendation to them, and they are very ingenious in shading the colour from snow-white to milkwhite, and so on. But upon the whole, the linen manufacturers regard too much the patronage of the rich, and too little the means of the public, to extend their fabrics as much as they ought to have been spread; and it is certainly not in this department that her neighbours have any thing to fear from the progress made by France in manufacturing industry. We do not think that the same can be said of the cotton manufacture. Its increase since the peace has been more rapid and striking than that of any other. The trade at present is in various degrees of activity; in the south it has somewhat fallen off, but in the department of Calvados, and especially at Rouen, it is extremely brisk. The latter city is the Manchester of France, and its proximity to Havre-de-Grace, the great American port, gives it the same advantage in point of situation as Manchester derives from being near Liverpool. The population of Rouen now exceeds 100,000, and its cotton factories are nearly two hundred in number, having increased tenfold in the course of ten years. The greater part of these are worked by steam, and employ on an average eighty spinners each, making in the whole about sixteen thousand. There are about thirty thousand weavers who work at home, and including the printers and dyers, it is computed that the cotton trade of Rouen supports from fifty-five to sixty thousand persons. The magnificent premises of that great capitalist, the Baron Vavaseur, and the other spacious establishments that enliven the picturesque valley through which passes the road from Rouen to Dieppe, must be well known to the English travellers. Two of the spinning-houses have lately erected power looms on their premises, and commenced the weaving of piece goods by steam; one of these has a hundred, and the other twenty looms at work, and they have produced calico which we have ourselves examined, and can vouch for its being of as good quality as any made in Great Britain. The comparatively high wages of the people employed to attend to these looms, which a child may do, enhance the price of this article. It cannot be sold for less than sevenpence a yard, while British of the same sort sells at five-pence. The wages are from eight to ten francs a week, being as high as are given at Manchester. The wages of the spinners, however, are only from sixteen to eighteen francs a week, while in England they are thirty shillings for this sort of labour; and the people work thirteen hours a day, being an hour longer than with us. We were vexed to hear that no diminution of this time is made in favour of children, there being no regulation similar to the humane provisions of our act of parliament which limits the employment of young persons to ten hours a day. The operatives, however, manifest no discontent at their labour, and as to a strike for wages, such an idea never enters their heads. The most expensive article of consumption here is fire wood, which costs a labouring man with a family five francs a week, if he keeps a fire constantly. Coals are beyond his reach, and are very costly to his master, who must pay at the rate of thirty francs a day for the fuel required for a steam engine of twelve horse power, owing, as we before observed, to the difficulty of conveyance that at present exists throughout France. We must not overlook the fact, that since they have allowed the importation of silks at a duty of 30 per cent., the British manufacturers have taken a surprising start; so much so, that at this moment numerous factories are springing up in Scotland, and threatening to become formidable to us." Though we abhor the spirit that views with satisfaction the declension of our neighbours' prosperity, we cannot but express our belief that the fears of the French silkmen are well grounded. It was mentioned lately by Mr. Huskisson, in the House of Commons, as a proof of the flourishing state of our trade, that British Bandanna handkerchiefs were in the course of shipment to India. In addition to this fact, we can state of our own knowledge that they are now exporting to France, in no inconsiderable quantities-not merely as samples-but in the regular course of trade. If, therefore, we have already commenced exporting to those countries whose productions were very lately prohibited on account of our alleged inability to compete with them, and which possess the raw material on their own soil, there is the most encouraging prospect of British silks extending themselves over a far wider sphere than they have yet reached. As we have not hesitated in stating the progress that has been made by In approaching the silk manufacture, we France in rivalling our cottons, we have the must decline entering into any discussion on greater satisfaction in mentioning these the various questions that have divided pub-proofs of our advance in this department of lic opinion for some years on this subject. We must confine our attention to its actual state in France, and only touch upon Mr. Huskisson's measures in regard to their effect upon the French trade. Raw silk was imported for a long time after the introduction of the manufacture; the cultivation of the mulberry for the silkworm in Provence, and the other southern provinces, is chiefly owing to the care of Henri Quatre, and is perhaps the most essential benefit which that monarch conferred on the country that cherishes his memory with so much devotion. 譯 The value of the silk annually worked up in France may now be taken at about six 'millions sterling and its increase may be in some measure estimated by that of the population of Lyons, which before the Revolution was only 100,000, and is at present upwards of $150,000. Great exertions have been made to naturalize the worms in France, and more than half the raw material consumed is of native production. The China worm, which spins the silk so well, known for its peculiar and beautiful whiteness, has been introduced, and the French crapes of this colour are rivalling those of the East. "Let us not, however," says M. Blanqui, "forget how sharply the English are contesting with us this queen of our industries. industry. When the emulation of nations is guided by principles which lead them not to aim at subverting each others trade, but to resort to every means of cheapening their own productions, the effects cannot be otherwise than highly beneficial to mankind. A foreign rival is an excellent antidote against abuses and monopolies at home, and the best possible stimulus to ingenuity and exertion. In this light M. Blanqui, and other well-informed Frenchmen, view Mr. Huskisson's commercial policy-a policy of which every succeeding year is demonstrating the wisdom, and which it is the duty and interest of every Englishman to endeavour to uphold. The ornamental varieties of dress, such as lace, embroidery, artificial flowers, and strawhats, are not undeserving of attention in the list of French manufactures. The latter article was, until lately, imported almost exclusively from Italy, but they have begun to be made in Paris, and at Moirans near Grenoble, which furnished chapeaux-depaille to the exhibition, in every respect as good as those of Italy. French furniture is in general cheaper than ours. Its form of course varies with the fashion, but it is always elegant and tasteful. Glass and porcelain are articles in which France is really unrivalled. This has not however been long the case, for in 1807, her exportations were only about 150,000 francs worth of glass, and 10,000 francs of crystal; while in 1826, the value of the exportation of those two articles was about five million francs. The glass manufacture has been regularly improving for a scries of years, and the specimens of last year's exhibition are almost perfect of their kind. The large size of the pier glasses has created a demand for them throughout Europe; their price is within the reach of the most moderate incomes, and there is scarcely a family in France which does not possess one or two, while, as we all know, they are rarely to be met with in England, except in expensively furnished houses. The glass manufacture that is, the art of blowing-was introduced into France by Colbert; but the method of melting was invented by Abraham Thevart, a Frenchman, in 1668, so that France may justly boast of the honour of the discovery of the art in which she has since attained such excellence. The crystals and cut glass of Mont Cenis, in the department of Saône et Loire, and of Baccarat, in the department of the Meurthe, are the most celebrated. The establishments are on a large scale, and are worked both by steam and water. The last novelty from Baccarat is its wine glasses of all sorts and sizes, among which are Champagne glasses two feet long, called à la giraffe, the only advantage of which appears to be to give people an opportunity of exercising their ingenuity in trying to drink out of them without coughing. The crystal manufactories in and near Paris are very numerous; that of Choisy-le-Roi, which makes to the value of 40,000. a year, is well worthy of inspec tion.. Connected with this subject, though more in the department of the fine arts, is the painting or staining of glass, which great pains have lately been taken to revive in France, and a manufactory of which is at work near Paris, under the especial patronage of the king. The Count de Noé (a peer whose talents and ingenuity are an ornament to the French nobility, and who is a striking instance of the improvement that has taken place among them under the new régime) has been chiefly instrumental in directing the progress of this beautiful art, and has himself constructed a painted window which many of our readers must have seen in the palace of the Luxembourg. The vivid colours of this specimen are a proof of the correctness of Walpole's opinion, "that the colours of the ancients exceed those of the moderns, not so much because the secret of making them is entirely lost, as that the moderns will not go to the charge of them, nor be at the necessary pains, by reason that this sort of painting is not in so much esteem as formerly." VOL. I. 4 I We are surprised M. Blanqui has not noticed the revival of this elegant branch of art. Porcelain has made as much progress as crystals during the last twenty years. The superb productions of the royal factory of Sèvres still contribute to the splendour of palaces, and call forth the admiration of the public. The addition to the national comforts by these improvements is justly estimated by M. Blanqui. "In short," he says, "we cannot bestow too much praise on the efforts that French industry has made in the branches we just mentioned; we owe to it the power of having replaced almost generally the awkward glasses of the old régime by magnificent crystals, and the ugly and thick black pottery of the same period, by porcelain and earthenware as excellent as could be desired. It is thus that civilization conducts nations by a thousand different ways to a better existence, by putting every day within the reach of us all a multitude of new and unexpected enjoyments." The French are known to be clever in the construction of surgical and mathematical instruments and clock-work. Several new scarifying and bleeding instruments have lately been invented, among which the bdellomètre of Dr. Sarlandière has been much approved. M. Cloquet's siphon for urinary disorders; Dr. Deleau's apparatus for curing deafness; Dr. Montazeau's machine for relieving pulmonary complaints, sore throats, and what is called phthisie; Dr. Jalade-Lafand's invalid bedstead for deviations of the spine; Colonel Amoròs's instruments for gymnastic exercises; M. Nuellen's elastic mattresses, and M. Greiling's lithotritic knives, occupy a prominent rank among the late inventions for the relief of human sufferings. In optical instruments the achromatic microscope of M. Selligue has been made to magnify 1200 times; the telescopes of M. Chevallier, it was well said, only want the device sic itur ad astra; and that of M. Canchoix, 24 feet long, and including a flint glass of 12 inches, and a crown glass of 13 inches in diameter, has a greater objective force than any hitherto used in Europe, none having been made in England of more than 7 inches in diameter, and the largest at Munich being only 9 inches. The meridian circle for observing the right ascension of the heavenly bodies, and the time of their passing the meridian, has reflected well-merited honour on its scientific inventor, M. Gambey. Clocks and watches are become extremely cheap of late years; good watches are selling at 200 francs a dozen, and very superior ones may be bought for 80 francs each. The elegance of the pendules makes them an ornamental as well as useful article of furniture; they are to be found even in cottages in France, and their superiority over our own clocks |