universal education, peace, and commerce, and repressing ignorance, aggression, and vicious idleness.

:

The building was of vast extent, and was erected upon the same site as that occupied in 1839 in spite of wretched weather it was commenced and completely finished in the wonderfully short space of seventy days. The Report of the Central Jury, which consisted of no less than fifty-eight persons, is one of the most elaborate and able of the series from the commencement of these publications, and records the unexampled activity of the country in the happy five years preceding 1844.

No fewer than 3960 manufacturers exhibited, of whom the merits of as many as 3253 were more or less honourably recognized by the indefatigable jury, whose labours on the occasion must have been of no ordinary kind.

No. 12.-The Eleventh Exposition, 1849,

Was characterized by certain particularities which distinguished this from all preceding Expositions. In the first place, it is the largest, the area of the building (exclusive of the enormous agricultural shed) covering no less than 22,391 square mètres, or 27,214 square yards of English, equal to about five acres, two and a half roods-the number of exhibitors amounting to 4494, and that of the central jury to 64.

In the second, it is the first at which live stock and agricultural produce have been admitted to compete for prizes. At foot,* will be found the excellent circular addressed by M.

* Circular addressed to the Presidents of the Agricultural Societies.

Paris, 11th October, 1848. CITIZEN,-Next year will take place the great public Exhibition of French industry. Up to the present time Agriculture has only been represented in these displays of our national riches by some agricultural instruments and dressings, and some few samples of wool and silk. The Government of the Republic has resolved to employ every effort likely to lessen and remove this relative inferiority. It is, indeed, to the credit of agricultural industry that it furnishes manufacturers with the elementary materials of the greater portion of the products to which they put the finishing stroke; it is equally the right and duty of agriculture to vie with manufacture in the merit, value, and variety of its productions: in short, agriculture should prove its equal aptitude in bringing forth raw materials, and perfecting the fabrication of all produce in which it is concerned.

The Administration has determined to neglect no means for the attainment of this result, and designs to devote to agriculture the largest part possible of the Exposition.

E

Tourret, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, to the presi dents of the agricultural societies, briefly detailing the reasons which have induced the government to so far deviate from established precedent in the present instance.

In the third, in addition to a reiteration of the general regulations which had been fixed by the jury of 1844, the Central Jury of 1849 determined that "no uncertificated bankrupt should be permitted to exhibit," and "that none but manufacturers, distinctly recognized and registered (patentés) as such, should be allowed to enter the lists as competitors."

On

The public were admitted gratuitously on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, between eleven and five. On Thursdays, the doors remained open from nine o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, to all willing to contribute one franc, not to the state, but to the poor of Paris. Mondays the jury alone were admitted, in order to examine undisturbed and at their ease, the products on which they were required to exercise their judgment. A limited number of cards were issued by the Ministry, enabling gentlemen of the public press, learned foreigners, and some few others especially interested, to procure admittance" for the purposes of study," at hours during which the public may not be allowed to enter. Every exhibitor was allowed access, under proper regulations, to his goods at any hour, or on any day. No light, under any circumstances, was allowed to be introduced.

The whole of the building was constructed of wood;-the roofs being covered with zinc: of the latter material 400,000 killogrammes, equal to nearly 4000 tons, are stated to have been used, and of the former nearly 45,000 pieces of timber.

Cost of the building in 1839 was 363,791, about 14,550

In consequence of these resolutions I invite you to inform me without delay what agricultural productions of every sort, and kind, and form, in every stage of vegetation, animals, plants, grain, flowers fruits, &c. &c., could be supplied by the different localities within your jurisdiction; at what periods they might advantageously be conveyed to Paris; and in what manner these removals would be best effected?

Health and fraternity from the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. TOURRET.

(Signed)

If to this last amount we add £2000, the lowest estimated cost of the agricultural shed, making the whole sum expended equal to £18,000, the difference of about £3000 between the outlay of the present year and that of the year 1844 will be satisfactorily accounted for.

It is, of course, to be remembered in these calculations, that the money is paid only for the hire of the materials for about three months, the whole remaining the property of the contractor at the termination of the Exhibition.

It was a matter of common complaint among all connected with, or interested in, the present exhibition, that, owing to the commercial crises of 1848, it had become almost impossible to foresee either the probable amount or character of the goods forwarded for exhibition. I fear, therefore, that the most careful computations as to the relative spaces occupied by different trades would rather mislead than inform, if they were likely to be regarded as the slightest indication of what might be probable in England.

On examining and comparing the leading features of all the previous Expositions, we find that each one was specially characterised by some feature peculiarly its own. Thus, Machinery, which this year is the great and predominating attraction, in 1839 was comparatively a minor item; while the products of Mulhausen, which in 1839 actually required a special great hall for themselves alone, this year sink into the ordinary space allotted to many other branches of industry. In forming a judgment as to the proper space to be occupied by any specific manufacture, in reference to its actual importance, much must naturally be left for decision to the constituted authorities for the time being, and they in turn must be swayed more by a sense of duty and justice, than by any laws with which precedent could provide them.

In quality of her position as "mistress of the reigning mode," France this year, as in duty bound, exhibits a dazzling array of pretty and tasteful objects. Evidence is exhibited on all hands of the extent to which the education of her workmen has been carried. Scarcely ever do we recognise a piece of bad ornamental modelling; where the human figure is introduced, it is rarely ignorantly drawn. In the departments of manufacture requiring tender manipulation, such as the more delicate articles of jewellery, carving, tooling, &c., we recognise a practised hand, acting in unison with an ever thoughtful head.

Everything seems produced, to a certain extent, con amore; and on conversing with every tradesman, he will be found to take an immediate pride in his occupation, as a means of elevating him in the social scale, rather than as a drag to prevent his entering into competition with a class, whose hopes, fears, associations, prejudices, virtues, and demerits, have little natural affinity to his own. Thus, French manufacture has a certain peculiar charm, which frequently paralyses the judgment in appreciating the numerous structural defects which her productions constantly exhibit. If a piece of furniture be well and artistically carved, the ordinary eye cares little whether it be or be not well fitted or well seasoned. A beautiful silver gilt ornament is at once preferred to an ugly gold one; and a paper-hanging printed in two tints which harmonise, is far preferable to one executed with sixty, all of which fight" and weary the eye. The only important branches of manufacture in which, to judge from the present Exposition, France seems decidedly behind England, are those of the application of mechanism to carving on a large scale, the manipulation of gutta percha, tin-plate and Britannia-metal working, earthenware, and japanning on papier maché, and generally, perhaps, in her immediate adaptation of new machinery to facilitate, and consequently cheapen, production; while in many departments, such, for instance, as the cultivation of the art of enamelling, of bronze-working, of the production of artistic stone-ware, the making and colouring of terra cotta, and of riband and silk-weaving and dyeing, she appears as decidedly in advance. In such a Report as the present it would be needless to particularise the differences between the manufactures in detail; but it may, perhaps, be well to remind those interested, that the predominating feature of this year's exhibition in France is the manifestation of her power to get up those machines, on the possession of which our facility in production has long depended, and that if once she attain in this department anything approaching our mechanical resources, at the same time retaining her present artistic capability, there is little doubt that she will be enabled to command many markets to which we alone now procure access, and which we are too apt to regard as permanent property, rather than as requiring peculiar and continued exertion to monopolise.

The exhibition of raw silk of the finest quality should make us turn with peculiar interest to the details of the experiments

lately made, with a view to introduce the subject to the notice of the English cultivator, recorded in the last portion of your Society's Transactions, and encourages us to hope that ere long this important material may be naturalised in England.

The raw products of Algeria seem to promise much as a field for the outlay of French energy and capital.

It is certainly a source of regret to all who wish well to France, that the happy idea indicated to the Chambers of Commerce throughout the country by M. Buffet, the Minister of Agriculture,* was not favourably received. Smarting under

* Circular addressed to the Members of the Chamber of

Commerce.

February 10, 1849. GENTLEMEN,-At a time when I and my colleagues in office are busily engaged in doing all we can to give to the Exhibition which opens on the 1st of June next, a character of public utility, it has occurred to me that it would be interesting to the country in general to be made acquainted with the degree of advancement towards perfection attained by our neighbours in those manufactures in which we so often come in competition in foreign markets.

Should we bring together and compare the specimens of skill in agriculture and manufactures now claiming our notice, whether native or foreign, there would, doubtless, be much useful experience to be gained, and above all, a spirit of emulation, which might be made greatly advantageous to the country.

This I had thought of before the portfolio of Agriculture and Commerce was confided to me; it has since been strongly confirmed in my mind by the similar views which I have heard expressed on the subject by gentlemen distinguished by their success in the industrial arts, and the consequent position they occupy. At the same time I cannot but foresee that difficulties would arise in carrying it out, were it unavoidable to admit without distinction all the productions offered for exhibition. There would be no room to contain them, since the area of the building intended for the Exhibition is calculated for the admission of native poductions alone. This circumstance, no doubt, is of sufficient importance to delay the execution of this project, however useful; but this obstacle might be overcome by limiting the admission to those foreign productions which, by their novelty, or evident superiority, might exercise a beneficial influence on our manufactures.

You will, therefore, first give your opinion on the abstract principle of exhibiting the productions of other countries, and should you consider the experiment ought to be made, to enumerate to me officially the articles you consider would most conduce to our interest when displayed in the ensuing Exhibition.

To this end I shall be obliged by your detailing precisely the objects it would most benefit us to become acquainted with, whether new applications of the arts, new productions, or improvements of importance. Feeling anxious to preserve the twofold character which my predecessor had given to the Exhibition, I wish it to be understood