power, began now to make itself sensibly felt, and while in evenness and regularity of finish the goods contributed shewed a manifest advance, the prices at which it was found possible to deliver them to the market, not only greatly extended the home consumption, but laid the foundation in many departments of production for a very considerable export trade. Thus the manufacture of merino, which fifteen or twenty years before had scarcely existed, had now increased to such an extent, that fifteen million francs' worth were annually disposed of. The shawl, silk, tulle, and blonde trades had also expanded in an equally magic manner.

From our invaluable guide, M. Lemer, we learn that "an important problem had been resolved in the production of silk. Confined hitherto to the departments of the south (long deemed alone favourable to its cultivation), it gradually extended to those of the centre,' and appeared to be advancing to some of the northern districts. While the raw silk was much purer, the processes of winding and throwing were very much improved. The carefully prepared spun silk furnished the constituent matter for a thousand varieties of new stuffs. Fabrics of mixed silk and wool were especially to be admired in this Exposition." Cotton printing for the million began to assume a gigantic development, and in ginghams particularly attracted attention.

The application of machinery to making paper in endless lengths speedily affected the manufacture of paper hangings, and enabled the superior French taste to rival and ultimately monopolize the favour with which up to about this time the English productions had been regarded. In connexion with engineering, the brilliant results of the experiments of Vicat placed the scientific study of natural and artificial cements on an altogether different footing from any on which it had been previously based. Improvements in plate-glass manufacture, and the revival of the processes of painting and staining that material, added another element to the resources of ecclesiastical decoration.

No. 9.-The Eighth Exposition, in 1834.

If no other circumstance had tended to make this Exhibition especially interesting, the mere fact that it had

called forth the ability and knowledge of Charles Dupin, and procured for France the most able Report which has yet been made upon the past, present, and possible future of her industry, would alone have sufficed to render it remarkable. In almost every department of manufacture a steady progression may be traced-in silk, in cottonprinting, in flax-spinning, in tools, and chemical productions of every kind especially.

Among the principal novelties introduced into the collection of 1834 may be enumerated-paper-hangings printed from cylinders, by M. Zuber, of Mulhausen; the revival of the arts of enamel and "niello," by Wagner; the formation of elastic tissues by means of India-rubber; the factitious ultramarine, by Guimèt; the re-creation of the art of woodengraving; and the attempt to emulate the traditionary excellence of Boule and Riessner in marqueterie and ornamental cabinet and inlaid work.

The precious goods contributed were this year deposited in four pavilions erected on four sides of the Place de la Concorde. The number of exhibitors amounted to 2447; of whom 697 were rewarded with medals, 23 with decorations of the legion of honour, and the merits of no less in all than 1785 were distinctly recognized by the Central Jury, over which M. Dupin most ably presided.

No. 10.-The Ninth Exposition in 1839.

The declaration of the leading elements on which the Central Jury founded its appreciation of the products exhibited on this occasion, bears a strong testimony to the increased extent of the French export trade, to the growing demand on the part of the public for vast quantities of goods at the lowest price, and to the consequent adoption by the manufacturers of the principle of "large sales and small profits," a system not previously very much favoured in France. This declaration stated, that the principal points regarded by the jury were:

1stly.-Inventions and improvements, classed according to the importance of their results, as affecting manufacture.

2ndly. The extents of the factories, and their topographical situation.

3rdly. The actual and commercial quality of the goods. 4thly. Cheapness attained by increased facilities of production.

The adoption by the nation of this eminently popular business theory was mainly dependent on four causes. In the first place, on the improvements effected from day to day in all machines, substituting the mechanical for the human hand, and the supply through upwards of fifty engineering firms of steam motive power to any extent. In the second, on the progress of popular education. In 1834, M. Dupin had already traced, in a most interesting series of statistical comparisons, the parallel and corresponding development of industry, and the great increase in the establishment of sources of gratuitous education. For many years the formation of municipal libraries, open to all readers-of communal and drawing schools -of local museums-of free exhibitions of works of art, &c.— and the liberal rewards and aid given to any desirous of prosecuting studies, serviceable to the community but unremunerative to the student, had been laying the foundation for that cultivation of the intelligence of the lower orders which in the present day has elevated the mind of the French artizan so nearly to a par with that of the universal artist. In the third, on the better comprehension of the theory of commercial, as connected with political and social economy, more especially by the master-minds of the Alsatian manufacturers, the Koechlins, the Zubers, the Dolfus Miegs, of Mulhausen-a district which, on the occasion of this Exposition, demanded a vast special saloon for the fitting display of its invaluable products; a district, too, in which the ratio of the means of education to the number of inhabitants was greater than in any other part of France. And fourthly, on the interest which these periodical Exhibitions of Industry, and the publication of admirable critiques upon them, had excited in the public mind, touching the nature, quality, and relative excellences, manufacturing and artistic, of every object supplying the ordinary and extraordinary wants of the people. From the opportunities of comparison afforded by these institutions, demand received the same lessons as supply, and thus the two working together ministered to one another's deficiencies, and mutually assisted in one common progress. It is because this system of vastly extended production, at greatly reduced prices, in fact of" open competition," lies at the root of every important industrial movement of manufacturing France, since its introduction and recognition, that I have thus dwelt in detail on the causes which have apparently aided in its development.

Among the raw products exhibiting features of interest or novelty, the jury of 1849 especially dwelt with admiration on the native silk, and the native nitre, the marbles of the Pyrenees, the lithographic stones discovered in France, the introduction of stearine, the fine wool, and the various qualities of iron-stone. Among the machinery (in addition to the improvement already noticed in the manufacture of steam-engines), the jury recognised the perfection attained by the makers of Jacquard looms, endless paper machines, chronometers, well-boring instruments, wool and cotton spinning apparatus, and sawing and planing machines. In the processes of manufacture, steel, glass of every description, and leather, were reported to have made very remarkable progress: while in the dissemination of the elements of beauty through graphic representation, the arts of lithography and engraving on wood were allowed to have materially aided in popularising fine art, and by spreading abroad reproductions of models of form, to have assisted in adding the charm of elegant design to almost every department of industry, susceptible of the happy combination of grace and utility.

No less than 4381 exhibitors contributed, of whom 878 gained rewards, independent of the formal recognition of the past successes of very many more. The building consisted, in addition to the hall expressly constructed for the products of Mulhausen, of a gallery and eight long apartments, altogether covering a superficies of 16,000 square mètres, and occupying the great square (Carré de Marigny) of the Champs Elysées.

No. 11.-The Tenth Exhibition, in 1844,

Was certainly the culminating point of the series, revealing the successful results of the influence of long-continued peace and peaceful government on the industry and producing powers of France.

In every possible department of manufacture, from the most elaborate to the most simple, specimens of great beauty and utilitarian perfection manifested the ingenuity of a people cultivated by long study and habit in the highest degree to appreciate excellence, as consumers, and at the same time fully equal to the task of supplying it as producers. It was in these remarkable words that the Baron Thénard, president of the Central Jury, addressed the King on the occasion of the

glorious fête celebrating a long series of bloodless victories gained by mind over matter-by civilization over barbarism. 66 Sire," ," said he, "the Expositions of 1834 and 1839 have bequeathed to us memories which have sunk deeply into our minds; that of 1844 will hand down to us others yet more worthy of remembrance: it surpasses even the lofty hopes in which the character of its predecessors had sanctioned our indulgence. Industry pursues its steady onward movement; deeply conscious that hesitation would be inevitable retrogression, it unflinchingly redoubles its efforts to advance-to win new conquests of peace and of prosperity." Proceeding to justify the proud strain in which he commenced his address, the Baron enumerated in succession a number of the most important points in which notable improvement had been made. He dwelt on the progress of steam navigation, on the distillation of salt water, on the perfection of iron casting, on the application of new systems of warming and ventilation, and of electro-metallurgy, on the manufacture of the best flint glass for astronomical purposes, of pyroligneous acid, of sulphate of soda, of muriate of potass, of artificial manures; of white lead, of sulphuric acid, of dyes and pigments, of silk and sugar; on the admirable arrangements of light-houses; and on the increase in the supply, from national resources, of raw silk, of wool, sugar, and of flax: but most earnestly of all did he commend to his sovereign's attention the amazing advance which had been made in the construction, not only of machines, but of those mighty engines by which machines themselves are made-by which the stubborn iron is moulded to the will of man, with an ease of operation as far exceeding his uncertain efforts in regularity and precision, as in force and almost limitless power. When, in addition to these great and material acquisitions, we remember, that in all those handicrafts which rise from the industrial, almost into the department of the fine, arts,that in silver and bronze working, in jewellery, ornamental modelling, and designing in every fabric, and in every material, France in 1844 exhibited such a display as no other country could possibly have brought together, we cannot but feel that the benefit derivable to her citizens, and to the world, from an inspection of this gorgeous collection of her products, must have been one of the greatest it has ever been the happy privilege of any one country to bestow upon the industry and producing powers of the world at large-stimulating at once