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over every thing in France, and which is so essentially wanting to decorate the industry, as well as to brighten and to cultivate the character, in England.

Dr. Bowring, in his evidence before the Silk Committee in 1832, says, "I was exceedingly surprised (he is speaking of Lyons) at finding among weavers themselves, and among their children, and amongst every body connected with the production of patterns, a perpetual attention to every thing which was in any way connected with beauty and colour. I have again and again seen weavers walking about gathering flowers and arranging them in their most graceful and attractive shape;" and so, he says further on, "I beg to state that the universal conviction in France is, that the French are wholly dependent on the superior beauty of their productions for their foreign sale, and the universal desire among the manufacturers is to do something which, in the regions of taste, shall be better than that which is done by their neighbours." I do not know any thing more worthy of remark than the whole of this part of Dr. Bowring's evidence. The Mayor of Lyons, aware of the pressure which competition is likely to bring upon the trade of his town, and taking the best means to avert the calamity, does-what? Why he supports and encourages a school, where the weaver may be taught painting, and sculpture, and botany; and begs Dr. Bowring to send him-copies of the Elgin marbles from England!

But it is not only a superiority of colour or of pattern which this study of the arts produces; the taste which it creates is not only present in the atelier, and presiding over the loom-it is at the very seat and capital of fashionable empire, viz. :—in the milliner's shop. If the French milliner knows what colours best assimilate, where to put in a little bit of pink and where a little stripe of brown-if she has a peculiar taste in arranging the set of a gown and the fall of a sleeve,* it is the work of

So far has this taste for the arts penetrated into the nation, and mingled with all that is most national, that you find it enter into the occupations of the army, and many of the regiments amuse and occupy themselves by ornamenting with statues and fountains and walks the town in which they may happen to be stationed. But, if I wished to give at once the most simple and striking instance of the influence of literature in France, I do not think I could give a better than is to be found in the first newspaper on Galignani's table. Observe, whatever the paper is, whatever

laws, customs, years, and not the work of chance; it is the effect of an influence cherished and created at the apex of society, and which has worked its way into the foundations of society; it is the effect of the causes which made Voltaire the idol of the court of Louis XV., which gave David the great cordon of honour, which made Bonaparte* boast of being a member of the Institut of France, and which have brought, as I just said, Mons. Delamartine, and Messrs. Thiers and Arago, into the Chamber of Deputies.

If England could join to her talent for detail, to her power of perfecting and polishing the discoveries of others, to her sound and sterling sense-if she could join to the positive qualities which the practice of daily activity gives-the comprehension, the invention, the elevation, which the study of vague and beautiful things inspires-more industrious than the state of Rome-more steady and resolute of spirit than the states of Greece-she would transmit to posterity a fame which antiquity has not left behind it. To entitle her to this fame, and to the riches, and to the honour, and to the moral greatness which would accompany this fame-to make her mistress of

the subjects of the day it has to speak of observe, that literature, either in the review of a play, or in the review of a novel, or in an account of the lectures of a professor, is sure to occupy one third of its sides. Here it is not the literary journal separate from the political journal; the same person who takes an interest in politics is supposed to take an interest in literature; and that to which I wish to draw particular attention, is the public, and popular, and general mode which science, in the weekly account of its proceedingsproceedings which appear with all the other news of the day—has of corresponding with the public, and interesting and perpetually informing the public by its inquiries. I allude to the reports of the Institut, which appear in all the political newspapers, and carry to every extremity of France the daily and weekly discoveries of the metropolis. The savant appears before his brethren; he tells them what he has been doing during the week, and this information is in every body's hands almost as soon as it has passed the philosopher's lips. The circumstance of such reports finding their way into papers only professing to feed the public appetite, is no less extraordinary as a proof of the general taste for science than valuable as a channel for its general diffusion.

* I never heard louder applause than I did at Franconi's (our Astley's, and filled with a Parisian populace), when the actor, who was Napoléon for the night, gave to this painter the same decoration which he had just been giving to Massena, the General. And such was the feeling which formerly made the French bow to a despot whom they had seen boast of being a man of science! They understood from that boast that their emperor placed the power of the mind above every other power, and the respect which they paid his tyranny sprang from the thought that it was governed by intelligence.

the arts, and to keep her mistress of the seas- -to spread with her wealth and her manufactures the love of the beautiful and the study of the sublime-to make commerce a carrier to science, and to impress on a riband, which shall traverse the world, the triumphs of modern industry, and the aspirations of classic times;-here is an object well worthy of a statesmanan object, difficult, but not impossible, to attain—an object the most noble, the most glorious, the most useful, that a British statesman ever yet pursued.

But, reader, when you are shown the child of the operative, walking about the fields and gathering and arranging flowers to improve the manufactures of Lyons-you must at the same time see (for one circumstance is connected with the other) what every successive government has done for men of letters and science in France.

The following are among the names of persons who, during the Empire, the Restoration, and since the Revolution, have received the rewards and honours of the state on account of their literary and scientific attainments.*

UNDER THE EMPIRE.-Bernardin de St.-Pierre, Legouvé, Andrieux, Luce de Lancival, Piis (chansonnier), Baour-Lormian, Picard, Chénier, Lebrun (le Pindarique), Lebrun (Pierre), Millevoye, Victorin Fabre, Jouy, Delrieu, Parseval-Grandmaison, Treneuil, Parny, Tissot, Campenon, Roger, Creuzé de Lessert, Lacretelle, Chénedollé, Castel, Soumet, Etienne, Mercier (du tableau de Paris), Laya, Bonald, Féletz, Palissot, Arnauld, Esménard, Delille, Cuvier, Fourrier, Villemain, Guillard, Raynouard, Le Chevalier, Dacier.

To this list add the names of those persons whose literary talent raised them to the high ranks of the empire-Among the

senators were:

Fontanes, Lacepède, Laplace, Lagrange, Lebrun, Volney, Bougainville, Tracy, Pastoret, Garnier, Daru, Ségur, Bassano, Régnauld de Saint-Jean-d'Angely.

UNDER THE RESTORATION.-Châteaubriand, Ancelot, Delaville, Victor Hugo, Nodier, Briffaut, Chazet (30,000 francs), c'est un chansonnier, Mazères, Barante, Augustin Thierry, Guiraud, Aimé Martin, Auger, J. Bonald.

SINCE THE REVOLUTION OF JULY.-P. Lebrun, Arnauld, père, and Tissot (in reparation; they had been deprived of their peusions), Benjamin Constant,

In this list the members of the four classes of the Institut are not included, though all, as members of this institution, receive incomes, the least of which is 1,500 francs, the largest 12,000 francs, per annum.

Thiers, Mignet, Alex. Duval, Say, Casimir Delavigne, Casimir Bonjour, Barthélemy, Méry, Jouy, D'Espagny, Lucien Arnauld, Augustin Thierry (augmentation), Rouget-de-Lisle (auteur de la Marseillaise).

Made Peers.-Cousin, Villemain, Royer-Collard, Bertin de Vaux, &c.

For the number of libraries, and for the number of books which these libraries contain, relative to the population in the different departments of France (the department of the Seine excepted), I refer the reader to the Appendix; but, as the provinces are far behind the capital, it is worth while remarking that, in Paris, the public has three volumes to every two individuals; i. e. there are 1,378,000 volumes, and 774,000 individuals.

For the number of works published in literature, the arts, and on science, I also refer my reader to the Appendix, where he will find a statement of the number of the establishments and societies founded by the state, or by individuals, for the advancement of different branches of knowledge among different classes of society.

Among these I would here, however, mention

"Ecole royale gratuite de mathématiques et de dessin en faveur des arts mécaniques,” where five hundred children, the children of artisans, receive instruction gratis. Observe, that this school was founded in 1760, and authorized by the letters patent of Louis XV.!

"Ecole royale et gratuite de dessin de jeunes personnes," where drawing in its various branches is taught for the same purpose.

The School of St. Peter, at Lyons-and for an account of which I refer to Dr. Bowring's evidence on the Silk Committee, which I have alluded to, and "les Ecoles royales des arts et métiers"; the one at Châlons (Marne), the other at Angers (Maine-et-Loire). Here, the boys, going at fourteen or seventeen years of age, stay three years, and study every thing which can conduce to their understanding or practising their profession with skill and intelligence. They are not only taught the principles of science that would be applicable to their craft, they are made to apply those principles. They work in the carpenter's shop, at the forge; they handle the hammer and the file; and every pains is taken to make them at once clever men and good mechanics. In order to confine these institu

tions strictly to persons connected with industry, none by a late rule are allowed to enter them who have not served for one year as apprentices to a trade.

Some of the children are apprentices to fathers who can afford to pay five hundred francs per year, the ordinary sum , which those not admitted gratuitously pay; but there are one hundred and fifty who pay only half of this; one hundred and fifty who pay only three quarters; one hundred and fifty who pay nothing besides, as prizes are distributed to those boys who distinguish themselves, many, who enter at two hundred and fifty francs per annum, gain their pension before the time is expired.* It only remains for me to observe that, so entirely does the government abstain from any improper influence in the patronage of these schools, those who are sent at a less rate than the five hundred francs, i. e. for two hundred and fifty francs, or for three hundred and seventy-five francs, or for nothing, are named on an examination by a jury of the different departments.

It is impossible to, calculate the advantages of the establishments, since such advantages are not to be estimated by the number of persons who receive instruction, but by the extension which, through them, that instruction receives, and by the emulation which, through them, that instruction excites. It is by the union of practice and theory, of science and its application; it is by the Ecole polytechnique in one class, and these institutions in another; it is by these two fountains which, starting from two different sources, meet and blend in the great stream of social civilization, that the French are now extending the advantages of literary influence, and at the same time correcting the defects it was likely to engender.... But when by and by I speak more fully of industry and education, then will be the time to pursue the discussion of these mattersit pleases me now to turn back from the artisan and the workshop to the fine lady and the salon, and to show the same spirit presiding over the two extremes.

As the literary man is honoured in the state, so is he honoured in society. At Madame D's, at Madame de

On quitting these schools, the pupils are placed out advantageously, according to their profession and their proficiency in it.

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