attention to economic uses of both articles; even at this hour, the spades and shovels are too small for working with; and as to the millions of ploughs and agricultural implements, there is much to learn in a country where they are the work of the vil lage blacksmith. The advantage of the proprietors of forests was so consulted, that legislation kept up the price of charcoal, and treated the manufacture of iron as a matter of secondary importance. To raise the price of iron was to raise the price of wood; so one of the first acts of the Restoration was to augment the duty on the manufactured article, then only 35s. per ton; and in 1822 it was again raised, so as to bring it to £11 a ton for heavy bars made with coal. Notwithstanding this protection, the manufacture was not so profitable as before; and, while the ore formed only 11 per cent. of the cost of the iron, the fuel, exclusive of cutting and carriage, amounted to 39 per cent. The raising of the tariff had, in some districts, trebled the price of wood. The average value of French iron was above £20 per ton, and of some qualities £24, showing an excess over English of £10 per ton. In order to compensate iron-masters for the excessive and increasing price of charcoal, a tariff-was drawn up, almost precluding foreign competition in ironmongery. Relaxations, however, were, at length, adopted; in machinery, the reductions rose from 40 to 16 per cent., the largest being on agricultural machines.

During the period of these diminutions, an immense increase took place in the English export trade with the relenting country. Between 1840 and 1853, the average annual increase had only been one per cent.; whilst, in 1854, the first year after the Paris Exhibition had been announced, there was an increase of 23 per cent. over the preceding year; and, in 1855, the increase over 1854, actually reached nearly 90 per cent. It has been estimated that the French Douane has been benefitted by an increase of as much as £2,000,000 since 1853. Great as these results are, many greater are, doubtless, in store.

Metallurgy, producing six millions of quintals of iron iron yearly, ve consumes sevenfold as much coal, low price of which is so indispensable, that all the

large metal establishments are situated on coal-basins. The solidity of interest which unites metallurgy to this mineral requires the same conjunction for all the manufactures of iron: these works being the offspring of an economy which thus employs the small coal that otherwise would be wasted. Abundance and cheapness of this moving power are also needful to the railways of France, now consuming ten millions of quintals, and certain to require half as much more when completed; and these qualities are also necessary for her steam-shipping, which at present is dependent on foreign supply. All parties are agreed that the lowest possible price for this indispensable article is a grand national desideratum:-but not as to the mode of ensuring it; for while partisans of free trade preach abolition of droits à l'entree, proprietors look to the development of the national resource, whicli, say they, will only proceed by taxing the foreign article. These latter, therefore, propose to exclude the cheap commodity until their mines shall produce at the same rate.

of her mine

In England, the working of collieries and ironstone mines has hitherto been almost entirely confined to individuals, owing to the non-success which has attended the application of associated capital to this purpose. Subdivision of capital in France, by the law of succession, manifestly impedes the exploitation ral wealth; and in order further to produce equality, the owner of the soil is not owner of its minerals, the State having power to grant them to a discoverer; and therefore, to guard against intruders, the landed proprietors do all they can to prevent discoveries of which they cannot share in the profits. So the effect of having attempted to force open the coffers of the earth has been to make those nearest the doors act like misers; whereas in England, where no one attempts to break the doors, they open readily.

Simultaneously with increased importations of coal, the forests of France will be grubbed up, and the ground depastured or tilled. Hitherto, the proprietors endeavoured to sustain their sales of fire-wood and

charcoal by the instrumentality of taxes on foreign coal and iron. In

1846 no less than 519,991 tons of charcoal were consumed in the manufacture of only 282,683 tons of iron. Being protected, the forge-masters who adopted the use of coke and other points of the English system in ironworks, and whose localities were suitable, made splendid fortunes. Situation has, indeed, been the secret of success; for the ironstone is seldom in the vicinity of the coal; and as the cost of the iron depends upon the price of the fuel, the distance between both explains the backwardness of iron industry in France. The effect of free admission of English coal will be to give birth to forges in places accessible to shipping; and the competition thus impending is what is chiefly feared by existing interests. By the adoption of our processes, the French have, since 1819 to 1856, increased their production of coal-made iron one hundred and fifty-fold.

Another cause has long rendered wood a warm rival of even the native combustible fossil, viz., the national repugnance to the latter sort of fuel, not yet dissipated, although the extravagant price of wood in Paris has compelled this capital to give the example of using coal in domestic fire-places. It is hardly twenty years since French hearthstones began to see their ancient paraphernalia of chenets, "dogs" or handirons, the utensils on which wood is laid to burn, displaced by grilles full of less cheerfully igniting fuel; and such is the constancy of some Parisiennes to their old flame, that they simulate it in their saloons by an iron imitation of wood, lit by jets of gas, giving the idea of a pleasant wood-fire.

It is rejoiceful to know that our allies are about to benefit by freer admission of English iron, since, in the words of Turgot, iron is above all a necessary instrument to mankind. The superior construction of English over French machinery has been testified on the hundred oсcasions of agricultural exhibitions held in France, when the former invariably carried off all the prizes. As regards cheapness, the implements in English depôts in Paris are, for the same quality and workmanship, which latter is difficult to obtain in France, twenty per cent. less than the country prices. The successors of the energetic Mrs. Mary Wedlake are now

likely to do good business on both sides of the Channel, while Deane's "Old London Bridge" monster emporium is already bombarding the Seine with every sort of hardware; and Ransome, who has just published a French translation of his list of implements, will be worth a "king's ransom" to Gaulic agriculturists who can afford to purchase freely.

The industry of Hemp and Flax is the most ancient in France, and probably in Europe. It is the only one thoroughly indigenous and popular, and is practical even in the wildest districts of the northern provinces. There is every reason to believe that, precisely because it is the most vulgar of industries, and the one of which the origin is the most remote, it is the most sunk in the wheel-ruts of routine, and the least progressive. М. de Jonnès, in his interesting work, ascribes its introduction in Europe to the Celtic hordes, who, coming from central Asia, brought from the borders of the Oxus and Iaxarte, seeds of the cereal and textile plants they were accustomed to cultivate:

"This cannot be otherwise," says he, he, "as one sees, in countries inhabited by the purest aboriginal races, such as Armorica (Brittany) by the Celts, and Cambria (eastern Normandy and Flanders) by the Cimbri or Gauls, the practices of spinning and weaving exercised to-day as they were centuries ago, with a sort of rude, popular instinct, obstinately opposed to all improvement, one recognises a primitive industry preserving its Celtic character in spite of Ro

man civilization and this of our times."

as

Cambray, the chief seat of fine linen fabrics, whence cambric derives its name, seems to have been the principal town of the Cambrians, who, a sprung from the ancient Cimmeri, also gave their tribe name to Cumberland, and to Cambria, or the Pays de Galles; and it is remarkable that French writers consider the words "Gaulish" and "Welch," as synonymous. We may also observe that Arras, a neighbouring town, gave its name to the first manufacture of tapestry. Scattered as the general operations of the flax and hemp industry were and are, no one deigned to collect statistical clues as to the amount of production, until 1788, a period of unexampled prosperity in France, when a government inspector of ma

Belgium permitting the manufacturers to import linen yarns free of duty, on giving a bond to export an equal weight of linen. This permission is largely availed of; a good deal of cheap Irish linen yarn passes the Belgian frontier into France, manufactured into Belgian linen, and paying the low duties accordingly. It would be more the interest of France to admit our linen yarns direct, at the low duties, and allow their own manufacturers to reap the profit of the manufacture. Evidently, there has for long been an annual loss to the French by the high duties on linen and linen yarns; the nation paying for the former article at least one-fifth more than it would do under a moderate system of duties; and this loss is no trifle, for it amounts annually to at least 2 millions sterling. Their revenue loses a handsome sum formerly derived from this source, while the aggregate capital employed in the flax spinning trade is not greater than the yearly loss sustained by the nation in keeping up these prohibitory duties.

The linen manufacture of France retains an encouragement of which ours has long been deprived, for in that country, the cotton lords do not exercise a potent influence on the government, and consequently, in both the army and the navy, the shirts, trowsers, sheets, &c., are of linen; as the French government wisely judges that, though the first cost may be a little higher than cotton, yet the longer durability of the former material renders it much the cheaper article. It seems that other continental nations are of the same opinion. This is a simple question of economy, in which Belfast might, after fair and sufficient trial, be 1 be victor victorious over Man

chester. Meanwhile, it is to be regretted that suppression of the duties in France on cotton and wool has not included linen.

After shirts, it is natural to take up trowsers and coats, which, as every one who, fearless of the peg-top cut of the one, and of the tight make of the other, may have ordered them of than in England, owing to two or three French tailor, knows, are dearer higher expenses attending the rival woollen manufacture.

The superiority of some French and other continental cloths over English goods is precisely in that quality

of fineness, which, as in the case of the richest silks, is only suited to a limited demand; while British articles excel in the common and popular descriptions. The introduction of Spanish or merino sheep into France is the well-known cause of that superiority. De Jonnès speaks of the indigenous breed of sheep of his country as "Celtic," as if they were, like her aborigines, of Gaulic blood :-no other designation however, offers itself, and the whole topic opens up a brief and interesting archæologic retrospect. We have seen that Cambrai, the ancient seat of French linen manufacture, is understood to derive its name from the Cimbri: and somewhat similarly, the department of Seez, in Normandy, was so called from a Celtic tribe, the Saii, who may have received their appellation from being clothed in the woollen stuff, still known at Leeds as "Sayes." The shirt or frock called la Saie Gauloise seems, however, to have been indifferently linen or woollen, and to have resembled the Roman togum. Mediævally, it was worn by every manat-arms over his coat of mail, which it preserved from sun and rain; and its modern types are the French blouse and the English smock-frock. The more antique and half-savage dress, the cow-skin coat, shaggy with hair, is still seen in the streets of Paris, being much worn by the sweepers.

Statistical researches show that, in the reign of Louis le Grand, the woollen manufacture, comprising serges, camlets, and other inferior tissues, furnished only a yard of stuff to each of the population, which proves that at that period of court splendour the bulk of the people were clothed in coarse fabrics made under the domestic roof. The few figures collected clearly point to an epoch of extreme, but narrow luxury, and general indigence. Thus, there were then 17,300 workers in lace, or thirty per cent. of the number of contemporary workers in wool; a singular proportion, showing how, in the seventeenth century, demand for necessaries. Before the sumptuous productions exceeded revolution of '89, clothmaking was so rare that un habit de drap was considered as much an outward sign of a nobleman as a silk gown of a lady. During the seventeenth cen

tury, the custom of wearing silk and velvet at court had retarded the woollen trade; and not until the approach of the revolution did the noblesse, noblesse, beginning to imitate the simplicity of English gentlemen, generally re-adopt plain cloth, yet still continuing to have their breeches and waistcoats of silk-for fashion deemed cloth unsuitable, save for a morning and negligée toilette. Meanwhile, the renaissance of this important fabric having been aided by the wise minister, Colbert, it was vigorous enough to clothe in the national colour (blue) the vast armament arrayed in 1792 against foreign invasion. The precedent of this patriotic effort is now upheld to encourage traders of the present time to struggle with the same courage and success against the most redoubtable foreign industry. As to the prospect of success, we extract this paragraph from the Statistique workabove cited:

Number of Sheep in France.
33,827,000 Indigenous,
1,309,000 Ameliorated breeds,
201,000 Merinos, .

"A great economical event renders the conversion of our ancient Celtic wools into Spanish, Saxony, and English wools a pressing necessity. This is the unforeseen production of superior kinds of sheep-skins from the innumerable

flocks in Australia, which colony, in 1819, furnished England with only 74,000 pounds weight of wool, but, in 1852, sent there the enormous quantity of seventyfive millions of pounds weight, worth 215 millions of francs. This overflow, which threatens the countries of the Continent, will allow the English to make woollen stuffs at such low prices that all competition will become impossible. It is a grave subject for meditation. The English woollen stuffs, fabricated with Australian fleeces, at thirty per 100 under the price of ours, will possess themselves of all the foreign markets, and we shall lose a commerce which rose in 1851 to 150 millions."

The following calculation was made in 1812:

Produce in Kilogrammes of Wool. 55,500,000 3,921,000 603,000

60,024,000

Value.

62 millions of francs.

71

262

"

Total of Wool employed,

Notwithstanding the vast extent of light soil in France, she possesses fewer sheep in proportion to her population than either the British Islands, Denmark, Spain, and Prussia. And not only has England more than double the advantage in this respect, but the superiority of her ovine breeds furnish her a much larger production of wool per head, the difference between her Heeces and the French being nearly half. Climate is, of course, the cause of the thinner quality of the latter wools, and therefore deficiency in weight should be made up by increased extension of the merinos and other fine-woolled sheep. The following contrast between the value of the indigenous and foreign articles is drawn in the Statistique :

"Raw wool is of two sorts, of which the origin, the nature, and the industrial treatment differ considerably. The one is that arising from the race of Celtic

flocks. This is the common wool; it is black, brown, or white, formed of crisped threads, frizzled, entangled, like the hair of a negro; it requires carding to prepare it for spinning. The other is

the long, shining wool, more or less fine, that is obtained from the sheep of Spain, of Saxony, and of the ameliorated flocks of England. Instead of carding, it is necessary merely to comb it. The following figures make known approximatively the proportion of each of these different sorts in the wools spun in France in 1860 :

"There is nothing in the past that one can compare with these curious and important statistics, the facts which they represent being contemporaneous."

The "Celtic" sheep-skin was manifestly not the fleece Jason went in search of. The modern commercial quests of the same nature seem to show that the "Golden Fleece" of our days comes from a newly-discovered region, the Antipodes.