It reached £7,200,000 in 1855. Such a progress is prodigious. England took nearly thirty years, and France scarcely twelve, to double the exportation of woollen manufactures. The total production of yarns and tissues of wool is ten millions sterling in Austria, seventeen in the Zollverein, thirty-six in England, and exceeding forty in France. As a last fact, the consumption of foreign wool is sixty-six millions of pounds in England, and seventy-seven millions in France. Thus this latter country is the greatest market in the world for wools, and has the most considerable manufactory of woollen articles, notwithstanding a restrictive customs tariff.* The French woollen trade, especially abroad, being the branch of commerce most menaced by English competition ever since the prodigious multiplication of flocks of sheep in Australia, and of the mechanical power of British manufacturers, its supporters look to sustaining the contest by means of increase of sheep in France, and above all, by amelioration of the quality of fleeces, "objects which," says our author, "are worthy of the solicitude of the Government." If, however, these desired improvements, on any extended scale, are to await aid from that Hercules to whom Frenchmen always pray, our clothmerchants may calculate on performing the part of Atlas, as far as concerns upholding the woollen trade of the world.

The silk manufacture in France is that of which the nation is most proud, and to which it justly attaches prime importance. It has the advantage arising from contiguity to the districts producing the raw material. The following statistics, the want of which is deplored in the Reports, and which show the great value of this branch of industry, are taken from M. de Jonnès' work:-Twentyfour millions of mulberry trees, surrendering their foliage, in 1846, as

sustenance to the silkworm, produced 12,529,058 kilogrammes of cocoons, valued at 49,334,290 francs, or nearly two millions sterling. To this vast source of wealth, the department of Gard, supplying a superior quality of silk, contributed as much as 11 millions of francs. So essential to success are traditional knowledge and care, that any plantation they fecundate yields twice as much as another where they are wanting. On the average, each hectare, equal to 2 English acres, contains 600 trees; their leaves, gradually removed and applied to nourish silk-worms, produce 300 kilogrammes of cocoons, valued at £48, an enormously profitable return per hectare, and contrasting notably with the yield from corn, which seldom surpasses £8, and is burdened by the loss of a naked fallow every third year. Confident that the present production, exceeding two millions sterling in value, could, without extraordinary efforts, be doubled, the trade hope to see a rapid spread of the plantations on which multiplication of the precious worm depends; but the obstacles are far greater than those besetting extension of the growth of flax, a plant matured in one year, while the tree yields little until it be five years old, and is not fully profitable until it reaches a growth of 15 or 20 feet. Hence, proprietorship of land is not only essential to induce plantation, but the law of succession in France, prohibiting liberty to entail, and favouring partition and sale, deprives proprietors of that motive for outlay which obtains in England from the sense of security that the future benefit to the heritage will be reaped by a primogenitural representative of the family. Importation of the raw material had increased tenfold in thirty-three years previous to 1849, when it amounted to 2,358,000 kilogrammes, of an actual value of 83 millions of francs; but De Jonnès argues that native production could soon displace importation to the extent of 100 millions yearly. France is stated by our author to hold second rank in the silk production of the world, Lombardy and the Venetian

provinces claiming the first by an annual product, some years back, of 3,500,000 kilogrammes. This sum, reduced by a million, represented the amount furnished by French industry. Third on the scale came active Piedmont and Genoa, supplying a round million, surpassing the importations of India and China, and exceeding the product of Persia by 400,000.

Transported into the Morea by the wise emperor Justinian, the serica, or mulberry tree, received in the French tongue the name of mûrier, from its land of adoption. Passing thence, during the Crusades, into Calabria, it was not imported into the country under view until so lately as the year 1494, when, as a result of one of those frequent French raids into the Latin peninsula, some gentlemen of Dauphiné brought back eggs of the exotic moth and plants of their favourite tree, the plantation of which was further extended by the provident and patriotic Henry of Navarre.

The inimitable glossiness of Chinese silk is said to be owing to the better quality of the food of the silkworm in the Celestial Empire. M. de Jonnès does not, however, state the particulars in which its diet differs from that of its kindred in France, The Societé d'Acclimation published, two years ago, a report on a project of a voyage to China by two Italian counts, the object of which would be to study the silk-worms of the Flowery Empire; and among the instructions contained therein to these savans, they are requested to observe "seriously the manner in which the worms are fed, and particularly the methods which consist in covering the mulberry leaves with powder of baked rice, &c." The essays of M. Guerin-Ménéville, Professor of "Education of Silk-worms" and of Sériciculture in all its branches, contain valuable hints as to improvement of this exotic department of industry in France. Certes, it would be well if, in the country where the art of cookery for mankind takes the highest honours, the lustre of this sensitive creature's bequest to womankind could be enhanced by ameliorating its regimen. Perhaps there are few animals, certainly none of such small dimensions, who deserve better of their country in the article of nouri

ture, or, to use the technical expression, d'éducation, than the ver-à-soie. For some time, this ugly little worm seems intent, like the beast of the stall, upon nothing but voracity; when suddenly it becomes the very type of industry, and even constructs the abode in which it works. No longer egoistic, it is then indebted to you for relieving it of its silken envelope; and before expiring becomes an eggoist again, to show its sense of the obligation by leaving an abundant posterity, who, in their turn, merely ask a few leaves at man's hand.

The slow progress of silk manufacture in England is justly traced in the Reports to the fact that the acknowledged genius of the country lies more in the production of goods suitable in quality and price for the million, than in enriching a foreign and costly raw material with tasteful designs. Moreover, Fashion, that fickle goddess, whose dominion is as wide as it is capricious, holds her court in Paris, so that all who, like dealers in silk goods, are dependent on her smiles, find that her decrees are issued there; and thus the home trade has the first intimation of changes effected by high taste in the earliest goods of the season. As France has been the seat of fashion from time immemorial, a desirability and priority are given to such of her fabrics as are affected by it over those of all other countries; and though taste and beauty do not insure fashion, yet no fashion succeeds well apart from them. The very derivative of the word, namely, façon, i.e., the mode of making, is French. To maintain her position in this respect, France, fully alive to her advantage, has spared no pains in fostering the art of design; and at the seats of her manufacture every appliance and convenience exist which can facilitate the application of the skill and taste thus encouraged to the articles produced. The charm of these products is manifested by their success with foreigners. Here are the progressive figures of the official value of exportations of tissues of silk at recent epochs :

sult, French silks, far from having diminished in price, like calicoes and many other merchandises, have augmented in value according to their quantity and weight. It was necessary in 1851 to raise the rate of official appreciation of the silk trade estimated in 1826, and which had ceased to represent the real value. The increase of this value is about a fifteenth. In 1849 the exportation, officially estimated at 181 millions, was really worth 193. This is a unique example, which explains itself by the attenuation of weight of the new stuffs, and by the increase of price, which the beauty of their execution obtains for them by means of the happy union of the arts and sciences in their fabrication.

The Manchester manufacturers of broad silks demanded, in a remarkable memorial addressed in 1852 to Mr. D'Israeli, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, total and immediate repeal of the duty on foreign silk goods, as a proclamation to the world that, say they, boldly and manfully, "the Manchester manufacturer denounces the so-called protection, and is prepared to depend solely on his own inerit." They declared they considered the non-extension of their trade to be chiefly owing to the limited nature of the foreign demand for their goods, and believed that the protection duty created an impression in every market that England is unable to compete with the continental manufacturer. Across the Channel, M. Arlés Dufour, a competent authority, argued on the part of his countrymen engaged in the similar textile fabric, that "free trade would be profitable to both countries; for then England would cease to copy our rich fancy silks, and would devote her energy to the production of the low and middle qualities, while France would apply herself with increased attention to the former." In effect, he recommended exclusive attention to the two distinct national specialités; or, in other words, advised such a division of labour as the conditions of nature and art in each country point

out.

There are reasons for believing that, though England will probably maintain her superiority in fabricating common articles of cotton, she will find the rivalry of France formidable

Th

in the department of goods made cotton mixed with other substanc These tissus mélangés, a novel cr tion, present new, ingenious combin tions, crowned with success, eve day. Cotton is admirably adapt for textile amalgamations, readi taking all forms, colours, and aspec It is, turn by turn, either a stron opaque, brilliantly white robe for t female form; or, as muslin, a ligi transparent tissue, enveloping wit out hiding the charms of youth an beauty. As tulle or lace, it see to take the honours of ladies' ve from flax; and if not yet a succes ful rival of linen in courts and ch teaux, has effectually supplanted on the backs of the people. vegetable wool, the Proteus of moder industry, deceives the world by r sembling-firstly, silk, in the form shining and capillary stuffs and ve vets; secondly, wool, by its plush and moleskins; thirdly, flax, by i cambrics and lace; and, fourthl linen, by its madapolams and oth tissus à l'indienne fabricated France. Its qualities, special an economical, display themselves be in the stuffs peculiarly its own; thes advantages consisting in the lightnes of its tissues, their suppleness, resist ance to the action of the air and o damp; and their aptitude in receiv ing all kinds of dressing, and in bein adorned, by impression, with delicat and complicated designs, which again may be ornamented with all the shade and colours of the rainbow: very val able qualities, and so much the mor precious because the goods possessin them are of so low a price as to b generally accessible; a privilege de nied to other stuffs. Assuredly, th grand service cotton has rendered t mankind is the multiplication, o domestic vulgarization of its tissue

As in the case of flax, increase the raw material is the desideratum and there are several reasons for hop ing that the United States, which ha hitherto had almost the monopoly o cotton, will be encountered by old and young rivals. Calico is understood t be so called from Calicut, a town i Malabar, on the south-western coas of Hindostan : but our savans, such as Dr. Royle, are not sanguine as to the results of any attempt to raise the character of Indian samples up to the American standard, except in the

Dharwar and Berar districts. But the island of Ceylon may offer a promising field for a culture which mainly depends on sufficiency of the very cheapest class of labourers. The cotton-tree grows every where in hot countries, and flourishes in soils incapable of producing any other useful plant, in amiable independence of agricultural cares and of manure. To produce it, you need but dibble a hole in the ground, insert a couple of grains, cover them up, and leave them as the ostrich does her egg. The flakes of wool fall of their own accord, and the operation of gathering them is suited to the smallest intellectual and physical capacities.

In 1855, when growth of cotton in Algeria, had only attained its fifth year, no fewer than 150 exhibitors of its produce sent specimens to the Paris Exposition. During the previous year, 1,800 bales had been exported to France; and in that year, 9,000 acres were under cultivation of the prospering and promising plant. The soil all along the coast, and in some parts for upwards of 200 miles into the interior, is represented to be exactly suitable to the Sea Island variety; and whereas in America it is not profitable to cultivate cotton except as an annual, in Algeria the produce is greater the second year.

The cotton plant does not succeed so well in the north as in the south of Algeria, being liable to injury from the occasional frostiness of the northern latitudes. At present, the complaint is, that its culture is not progressing, for want of hands, a deficiency almost certain to forbid considerable extension. So that there may be truth in the American slave-owner's saying, "No nigger, no cotton."

Ceramic manufacture is the branch of industry which, in France, has, oddly enough, reached perfection in point of art in its highest branches, while its lower limbs are neither perfectly useful nor beautiful; for while Sévres porcelain may be compared for delicacy and loveliness to the face of Milton's personification of Sin, the ordinary earthenware of the country is as coarse and ugly as her grovelling extremities. Even the crockery which figures on the dinner tables of Paris is notoriously so defective, that the people who excel in the art of dining dare not warm their plates and dishes.

The secret of the superiority of the English article in this respect seems to lie in the use of iron-stone. Of all manufactures the ceramic most demands the union of a taste for art with skill in handling the rude material; and where there is a happy combination of these qualities, as they existed in Palissy and Wedgewood, the potter, fashioning the clay to please the growing taste of the times, is in possession of the talents which will insure his reputation. For ourselves, we are no admirers of Faïence, a kind of pottery highly coloured, embossed, and vitrified, deriving its name from Faenza; but our memories of the great London Exhibition invariably lead us back first to the "Sévres Court," in recollection of the exquisite specimens it contained. When the ceramic fabrics of France and England entered the lists of the grand industrial_tournament subsequently held in Paris, the result was somewhat the same as when the china jar and the earthen one, floating in the same stream, came in collision; for in that contention, French fancyware made an animated display, and carried off the palm from our porcelaine tendre: but its compatriot earthenware fell to its mother earth heavily before the competitive lance or fabric of Minton; and its cognate crockery, whether flower-pots or paving-tiles, paled before the blushing beauties of Bridgewater. The excellence of English table-services was established by the fact, that not one of the French would-be purchasers, deterred by the high duty, and thereby disappointed in his wish to obtain this superior article, thought fit to transfer his orders to any manufacturer among his countrymen. In this instance, therefore, prohibitory laws proved profitless. One of the earliest results of the recent treaty has been the appearance of our table-services in several shops in Paris.

Some comparatively minor manufactures are notoriously better than ours in some qualities, as those of leather, yielding 212 millions of francs in 1850. Of these, the calf-skins are largely exported to England, and are of admitted superiority, which is said to be due to the tan of the evergreen oaks of the south, but is more probably to the elder age of the animals. Paris bootmakers ascribe much vir

tue to the softness of the water used in the tan-pits of Bordeaux. The special softness of French gloves is well known. It is remarkable that a portion of a nation so advanced in the art of clothing, namely, the peasantry in the hills of Brittany, still appear in goat-skins, calling to mind the forlorn shepherds of Asiatic deserts.

The sugar industry is chiefly notable as an instance of the force of necessity under difficulties-French production of this condiment, which we consider an exotic, having been one of the results of the great war. The discovery, in 1782, that beet-root would produce sugar, enabled France to increase the value of her consumption from 30 millions of francs in 1788 to 55 in 1812, and 140 in 1850. About the period foreign sugar, gaining gradually victory over the native article, the consumption of the latter has diminished one-third; and verily its growth in France is, in raising beet-root into rivalry with the sugarcane, as if Kent should be turned from hop to tea culture.

The probabilities as to future increase of the trade in Wine would be the most interesting portion of our theme, if space permitted some examination of them. It is said that the price of French wine is already double; that English merchants have recently laid out two millions sterling; and that they have, in many cases, purchased the coming ten years' growth of vineyards. Hitherto, the strong wines of Spain and Portugal have been preferred in a climate like ours, which makes the inhabitants feel the need of an alcoholic and exciting beverage, a French climate being necessary for the enjoyment of French wines.

The department of La Gironde, of which Bordeaux is the capital, has naturally benefitted firstly and most largely by the new influence: a general stimulus has been given to the price, and consequent increased production, of second-class clarets, which have now found vent. Hitherto, the first-class vintages, or vins de chateaux, enjoying an incontestable superiority, possess ed the monopoly of exportation; and, on the other hand, les vins ordinaires must be content to stay at home. But the renowned vineyards of great proprietors are surrounded by crowds

of crûs belonging to lesser proprieto who form the middle class of vi culture. During late years of abun ance these small cultivators had th cellars full-four, five, and six récol lying in wait for rise of prices. An era has opened for this intermedia yet still very good wine. At t same time, the foreign consumer mu beware of buying inferior qualities the high rate due only to the mary of the chateaux. All these consider tions extend, of course, to the oth vinicultural regions; but we ta leave to repeat our caution again paying for, say the best Sauterne, t price of Chateau d'Yquem.

As has been remarked, the duty brandy has just been doubled, in th expectation of raising the present r ceipt of forty-nine millions of fran yearly to seventy-three millions. E increasing the price, the export this alcohol will be less; and it is e pected that its consumption in th form of drink will diminish from i present enormous figure, about 800,00 hectolitres, to the moral advantage the working classes, since the measu has been accompanied by reductio of the duties on coffee, cocoa, suga and tea.

From a return recently furnishe for the House of Lords, specifyin the various articles the duties o which have been reduced under th late commercial Treaty, and showin the former and present rates of duty and the produce of the duties last yea we subjoin important particulars (t be found in the Table on page 15.)

The return specifying the variou articles the duties on which have bee repealed, gives the total amount c customs duty received in 1859 a £537,447.

The Treaty recently concluded b the United Kingdom with France ha been said to be “one-sided,” in abol ishing most duties, and greatly re ducing the residue in one country yet effecting much less reduction i the other, to the injury of the revenu of the one, without the recompense o sufficiently opening trade with the other. Yet, broadly viewed, wha has been done? The French hav lowered their customs on our coa iron in all shapes, cotton goods, flax and many other articles, and we hav lowered ours on wine and brandy, and abolished them on silk and a hundre