But we may be customers to India for their fabrics to a very much larger extent than we are at present, if we fail to imitate them for the Indian market. As a rule we look upon them, as we do upon a Cashmere shawl, as articles de luxe, beyond the means of the middle classes. This is true of the rarer qualities of these precious fabrics, but by no means true of a very large portion of them. Dacca muslins, for instance, have long been imported into the country, and might be used far more generally than they are. The highest qualities of this fabric are splendid examples of the superiority of intelligent labour over the most elaborate machinery. The native woman spins with the finger a yarn which surpasses in fineness the trophies of machine-spun yarn paraded in the Great Exhibition of 1862 as a marvel of European skill. There is a class of muslin termed "woven air," the fabric of which is so marvellously fine, that the Hindoos themselves are fond of relating all kinds of strange tales respecting it.

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kind of garments that leave the loom ready | covers the peoples in the Indian archipelafor use, there is still a great demand for go, China, and Japan, all of which are far jackets, coats, and trousers, worn by men, inferior, artistically, to the Hindoos. and for bodices, trousers, and skirts or petticoats, worn by women. The Mahomedans have always worn these articles of dress, and in course of time their example has been sparingly followed even by the Hindoos. These articles of dress do not quite answer to those worn in Europe; but they are made with needle and thread, and have a general resemblance to those worn by ourselves. In these latter kind of dresses we have not hitherto competed with the native manufacturers. They are in most cases ornamented, in some instances very richly so, and here the Oriental is our master, and if we hope ever to compete with him we must sit patiently at his feet, and learn the lesson which he seems to have acquired by some instinct of his nature. The sun that great natural institution of the east- no doubt has much to do with the native's aptitude for dealing with colour. The first thing that strikes the European in looking at a collection of Indian fabrics is the sobriety and harmony of hue which they present. But if we only consider for a moment, we shall see how this comes about in the most natural manner. If English or French dyes were used, they would reflect so much light as to be unendurable. The dead look of Indian colours is fully compensated by the superfluity of light in which they are seen. Take a Coventry ribbon, a blue for instance, and place it beside an Indian ribbon; the first appears the brighter and more cheerful in this country; but under an Indian sun its garish tone would be intolerable, whilst the Indian blue would be, comparatively speaking, cool and refreshing. But there is something more than the deadness, which strikes us as peculiar to Indian tints, their tones are wholly different. Their green is by no means the same mixture of blue and yellow as with us; the same with their purples and oranges. Again, their primaries are different; their whole chromatic scale, in short, is pitched a note or two lower. All these niceties our manufacturers must patiently acquire if they desire to serve the upper ten million in India. For our part, we scarcely dare to hope they will ever succeed; the sources of the art lie deep in the very nature of the Indian mind and climate; we believe there is but one kind of dyed goods that we have ever succeeded in making palatable to Orientals, and that one is "Turkey red," which still sells extensively in the East; we are not certain, however, whether it is much used in India proper: the East is a wide field, and

Mr. Bolt, in his "Considerations of the Affairs of India," speaking of the Dacca muslins, says that according to report, the Emperor Aurungzebe once was angry with his daughter for showing her skin through her clothes, whereupon the young princess remonstrated in her justification, that she had seven jamahs, or suits, on: another tale was to the effect that, "in the Nabob Allaverdy Khwan's time, a weaver was chastised and turned out of the city of Dacca for his neglect in not preventing his cow from eating up a piece of Abrovan,' which he had spread and left upon the grass," - the muslin, of course, being so fine that the animal could not see it upon the herbage.

The "woven air," or "king's muslin," was formerly made only for persons of distinction and to order. Since so many of the native courts have been swept away. and especially since the Great Mogul has disappeared from the scene- this high-class muslin has not been made in any quantities; but still there is a sufficient demand to keep the art of making it from falling into disuse.

So delicate is the manufacture of the short staple of the Dacca cotton, that it can only be woven into yarn at certain times of the day. The morning is generally so employed before the dew has left the grass: if spinning is carried on after that time, the spinner, who is always a woman under thirty years of age, spins the yarn over a

the pattern. It must refresh the eye of the Highlander to see in these far distant lands garments that remind him of his home, and it shows that, under like conditions, the results of human labour are wonderfully similar. We cannot conclude this article more appropriately than by recommending the manufacturers who would aspire to feed the almost limitless market of India, to visit the Indian Museum, Whitehall, where he will find a most curious collection of fabrics collected with great care by the government from all parts of India, and where he may learn all the details he requires from Dr. Forbes Watson, who has made the subject of the textile manufactures of the people in India his study, and by his writings has done good work in bringing the customers of both countries in contact with each other to their mutual advantage and enrichment.

A. W.

From the Spectator.

THE COUNTESS DE BOIGNE. ↑

THIS book is a curiosity in its authorship and in itself. The writer of it, the Comtesse de Boigne, has left the mark of all her own peculiarities in the characters, the incidents, and the sentiments of her romance, and the best introduction to it will be a sketch of her curious career. Eléonore Adèle Osmond (such was her miden name) was born in 1780, and died, aged eighty-six, last year at Paris. Her father, the Marquis d'Osmond, was the eldest of three brothers, all illustrious in the pre-revolutionary time. The Marquis himself was born at St. Domingo, served his country from an early age till the year 1788, when he was named Ambassador at the Hague. He married an English young lady, Miss Dillon, of small fortune, and he himself was poorly endowed. His lady very soon after their marriage was appointed one of the dames attendantes on Mesdames Adelaide and Victoire, daughters of Louis XV. They became much attached to the Marquis, his wife, and young daughter, Adèle, and as the child grew up she was constantly either at Belle Vue or Versailles. She was a remarkably lovely child, and becoming the pet of Marie Antoinette, she was almost always with the

first Dauphin, whose precarious health led his physicians to place him at Meudon; and thus, Mesdames inhabiting Bellevue, and Adèle being with them every day, she was the perpetual playfellow and amuser of the poor Royal child. She never ceased to repeat the stories of her young time, and to tell curious details respecting Louis XVI. and his Queen. It seemed to her always in after years as if those days were dreams. She could hardly believe in the harsh contrasts so soon to follow.

The father of Adèle in 1791 was named Ambassador to St. Petersburg, but one event following quickly after another allowed him no opportunity of performing the duties of that office, and he assisted Mesdames to emigrate to Italy, whither Madame d'Osmond and her son and daughters accompanied them. There an asylum for these unfortunate daughters of Royalty was prepared by the generous care of Pius VI.; but although the Marquis soon followed, deserting, like so many of his order, the fallen King and Queen, he would not remain, nor allow his wife and family to remain, chargeable on Mesdames.

To Naples therefore they went, and there again Adèle was under the special patronage of a Queen, for Caroline, the sister of Marie Antoinette, undertook all the expenses of her education, settling a pension of 12,000 livres on the Marquis for that purpose, but stipulating that it was to cease when the education was completed. So it was that our future Comtesse de Boigne became the friend and companion of the excellent Marie Amélie, late ex-Queen of the French.

They did not, however, remain more than ten months at Naples. The Marchioness had her own English family to visit, and in England they had their home for a considerable time, at any rate till Adèle was seventeen years of age, and had come to the end of her education and of the Naples pension.

She must have been a young lady of some nerve and not a little cleverness. How far the love of her parents, always, we think, particularly strong among French girls, was her all-pervading motive for the conduct which followed, and which cannot but be in English eyes most repugnant to every feeling of delicacy, must remain unknown. But the fact is that she was addressed by a military servant of the East India Company, an old man just returned from India with immense riches, how reputably acquired no one knew, with shattered health, and with Une Passion dans le Grand Monde. Par Elé- all the characteristics of a soldier and a naonore Adele Osmond, Comtesse de Boigne. 2 tomes.bob. Smitten by Adèle's beauty, he warm

"The Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the People of India," by J. Forbes Watson, M. D. Printed for the Indian Office, 1867.

Paris: Levy. 1867.

ly pressed his suit. She, contrary to all | Marquis d'Osmond and his party with the ideas of propriety on the part of French people of the First Empire. When the parents, requested leave herself to conduct Bourbons returned they were gladly wel the negotiation for her own hand, and then she frankly told him the present condition of her family, banished, ruined, and without resource; and she said that she would marry no man who would not engage to provide for her father, mother, and young brother. General de Boigne seems hardly to have hesitated; a rude, passionate soldier, he accepted all the conditions, and Madlle. Adèle

comed, and honours were bestowed by the returned Royalties upon them; M. d'Osmond being made a Peer of France, and sent to London as Ambassador, in 1815. Whatever her political tendencies might be, however, Madame de Boigne at least was not blind to the defects of the Bourbons. She saw the faults of all parties, and in the letters which most evidently represent her sentiments, though put into the mouths of fictitious persons, there is sometimes an expression of bitter disappointment. She accompanied her father to England, and remained till he resigned his appointment. He died in 1838, at a very advanced age. Madame Lenormand hints at the Countess being severely mortified at his never having obtained the Cordon Bleu. Whether from discontent with the elder Bourbons, or a revival of the old attachment to the daughters of Caroline of Naples, it is certain that nearly all Madame de Boigne's intercourse was gradually centred upon the Orleans family. She had become a woman of considerable political influence. With Comte Pozzo di Borgo her counsels and opinion carried weight, and it is said that she had much to do with procuring the neutrality of the Russian Government after the Revolution of July. Of course this impression had a tendency to sever her from many of the heretofore intimates of her salon, and she felt their secession very keenly, for at heart she was certainly a Legitimist, and besides that had strong affections; but we suppose she was consoled by the society of the many distinguished persons who formed the new Government, and flocked to her abole. Among these, perhaps, the chief was the Chancelier Pasquier. This able man only withdrew from public affairs in 1848, but then, though deaf and almost blind, the powers of his mind remained unimpaired, and he lived on, clear-headed, brisk in temper, but easily mollified, to the age of ninety-seven, to the last regarding the Countess, and justly, as his most attached friend. And that death created a void indeed for Madame de Boigne. People grieved for her; all knew how strong were her sympathies. It was seen that, though she might very fairly be called a "femme de mille côtes," yet she was exclusive in her affections. As to her tastes, they were perfectly feminine; passionately fond of flowers, never being without them in her rooms; skilful in needlework, her tapestry always in her hands, There was little sympathy between the and in her eighty-sixth year using no

became "a woman sold."

The probability is that all her talent, all her high cultivation, were thrown away on such a man, and, as Madame Lenormand, who writes the introductory narrative, says, "Une semblable union ne pouvait pas être, et ne fut pas, heureuse." Whether she behaved ill to him or he to her we are not told, but at the end of six years he bought her a château (Beauregard), took her there, waited till her father and mother joined her, and then made his bow, and went himself to live at his own native town of Chambéry. He provided, at any rate, magnificently for her and hers. Respecting his own tastes and habits we are not to be too curious, but it ought to be mentioned to his credit that his munificence was largely exercised in Chambéry, and also that he retained perfectly amicable relations with his lady, who spent some weeks of every year so long as he lived with him, and always spoke of him with respect. Of the date of his death we are not informed.

At the beginning of the First Empire, Madame de Boigne might be found established at Paris, and her salon was frequented by most of the celebrities of the day; by Madame de Staël, by the Montmorencies, and by Madame Recamier. Some beautiful remarks on the character of the latter are surely, even after all we have read of her, worth looking at:

"Plenty of pictures of Madame Recamier," she says, "have been given, and yet none, according to my ideas, have rendered the exact traits of her character; this is the more excusable, because she was so mobile. Everybody has chaunted the praises of her incomparable beauty, her active beneficence, her sweet urbanity. Many even have spoken of her wit, but few have penetrated through the habitual charm of her manner to the real nobility of her heart, her independence, the impartiality of her judg ment, the justness of her spirit. I have some times seen her overruled, but never, I think, merely influenced."