Salt is made in various parts of France. Works corresponding with the salt mines, or brine springs of Cheshire, and called, from their position, Salines de l'Est, are situated at the small town of Salins in Franche Comté. They are wrought by undertakers on lease, yield about 20,000 tons a year, and afford a considerable revenue to government. The heat of the climate on the south and south-west coast, being favorable to the evaporation of salt water, bay salt is made here extensively, not by the action of fire, but by the heat of the sun, operating on sea water, enclosed in a shallow bay (in French etang), so as to produce a saline deposit. The duty raised from salt in France in all is nearly £2,000,000. Mineral waters are found at Aix, Bagneres, Bareges. The first seem to have been known to the Romans, and a bath was erected by C. Sextius Calvinius. See Aix. The water has nearly the same temperature as some of those at Bath. Bagneres, in the eastern part of Guyenne, was also known to the Romans, and the hottest of its springs is about 123° of Fahrenheit's scale, and the coldest 86°. The baths are about thirty in number. Bareges is situated in chasm among the mountains, and is only a summer residence, in consequence of the torrents and avalanches that so often prove destructive in winter. The waters issue from a hill in the centre of the village, and are distributed into three baths, the hottest of which exceeds 112°. They are strongly sulphureous and fetid, greasy to the touch, and turn silver black. The waters at St. Sauveur, near Luz, in the department of the Upper Pyrenees, are not so hot as those of Bareges, but are more nauseous to the taste. Hot springs also arise in the midst of beautiful scenery at Cauterets, in this department, the hottest of which is 118°. Other springs are found among the Pyrenees; and there are baths at Forges, Vichi, Bourbonne, Balaruc, and Plombieres.

Woollen cloth is perhaps the most important and most extensive manufacture of France. The best superfine cloths are made at Louvieres in Normandy; those of Abbeville, in Picardy, though fine, are not to be compared with them in quality. The Londrines, made at Carcassone in Languedoc, which were formerly the most successful manufacture in France, and were manufactured expressly for the Turkish and Chinese markets, are also of beautiful quality. The cloths of Julienne, and the superfine fabrics of Sedan, as well in scarlet as in other bright colors, and in black, are only suitable to the affluent. Fine cloths are also manufactured at Rouen, Darental, Audelis, Montauban, and in various places in Languedoc and Champagne. Those of Andelis in Normandy are fine mixed cloths. Fabrics of a second sort of cloth are found at Elbeuf in Normandy, and at Sedan: those of Elbeuf are best suited for workmen and mechanics. Chateaurouge, before the revolution, furnished a great deal of livery cloth. Roma rantin, Issodoren, and Lodeve, furnish cloths for military clothing. There are still inferior coarser cloths, made for the wear of the country laborer. The fabrics at Rheims, before the revolution, besides the sort called draps de Rheims, consisted

of an imitation of Silesian drapery, called Silesies, imitations of our Wiltons, called Wiltons, and casimeres, which they called maroes. Ratteens were made at Roybons, Crest, and Saillans; cloths and ratteens at Romans; cloths for billiard tables at St. Jean-en Royans. Cloths of different descriptions and qualities were also made at Grenoble, Valence, Troyes, St. Leo, Bayeux, Amboise, Niort, Coutange, Lusignon, &c. In the rank of coarse cloths may also be placed the woollen stuffs of Aix, Apt, Tarascon, Oleron, Orthes, Bagneres, Pau, Auch, the valley of Aure; the cloths of Cevennes, Sommieres, Limoux, &c. The greater part of these cloths bear the names of the various places in which they were fabricated. Besides cloths, properly so called, camblets, callimancoes, baizes, kerseys, wool and hair plushes, are made at Amiens; druggets, flannels, blankets, at Rheims; blankets in the suburbs of Paris; flannels at Beauvais; serges at Aumale, Bicomt, &c.; camblets and plushes at Margny.

It has been thought that the woollen manufacture decreased during the revolution, and even subsequently; but the following are the official numbers of the workmen employed in this branch in the three specified years

The machinery used is very defective. It was only in 1804 that carding engines were introduced. The greater part of the spinning-mills, too, are worked by water, or by horses. In Elbœuf and its vicinity several are situated on the small streams: upwards of twenty are turned by horses; there were here in 1825 eleven steamengines.

The greatest woollen manufacturer, in 1825 in France, was M. Ternaux, late deputy of Paris. He had twenty-two different manufactories, situated in different towns: four at Rheims, two at Sedan, two at Louviers, at Liege, &c. &c. Yet although possessed of the abundant capital which such manufactories must require, he had not thought fit, at that period, to concentrate his establishments, nor even at any one to erect a steamengine. He employed nearly 6,000 men in that year; twenty years ago he had upwards of 12,000 in his pay; the 6,000 now producing probably as much as the 12,000 then, owing to the use of improved machinery. Besides his general trade as a clothier, M. Ternaux has pursued with great eagerness one particular branch which, till this time, was quite unknown in Europe, the making of Cashmere shawls. He imported with great difficulty, and at considerable expense, a certain number of the Thibet, Angola, and other oriental goats, from whose duvet these celebrated shawls are made. They have bred in France, and he has been very successful in increasing the number

of his flock. The climate seems to suit them, and as their food is, for the most part, what other animals reject, such as horse-chestnuts, of which they are particularly fond, weeds, &c., the expense of keeping them is but small. He has a flock of upwards of 100 at his country-house at St. Ouen, near Paris; another somewhat larger in the Pyrenees; and one or two more of less extent in different parts of France. 'He sells besides from seventy to eighty goats annually. As the quantity of duvet which each animal produces is not above three ounces and a half, he is trying whether, by a cross between the Thibet and Angola goats, he may not be able to obtain a greater quantity, as at present he is, of course, unable to make many shawls of the pure duvet. Nor would the speculation have succeeded, if indeed it has succeeded in a pecuniary point of view, were it not for the reputation his shawls enjoy; as it is an idea generally received that they are made precisely of the same materials as the Cashmere shawls, which bear so high a price, and are so much esteemed in France.' Quarterly Review, No. 62.

It is calculated that in the whole of France wool, value £4,000,000 sterling, becomes converted into a manufactured value of £9,000,000, of which about a tenth is exported.

The cotton manufacture has been carried on in France about half a century. Forty years ago the system of spinning by machinery was almost entirely unknown. The cotton was then spun, by hand, principally in those mountainous districts where the price of labor was low; but the greater part was imported from England and Switzerland. In the three years ending 1789, the average value of cotton goods imported was 25,831,233 francs (£1,033,500), of which a very large proportion was of the finer kinds; as the French manufactures of that day were for the most part confined to the coarser goods, such as the handkerchiefs furnished by Rouen and Montpelier, principally for the use of the lower classes. Since that time the English improvements in machinery have been slowly adopted in France. New manufactories have sprung up; and the long war, which cut off all communication with Great Britain, compelled them to exert themselves in order to supply, in some degree, the demand for those cotton goods for which formerly they had recourse to our markets. Buonaparte, pursuing a system which, in his own view of it, promised at once to ruin his great enemy, and to add éclat to his reign, attempted, by prohibitions and premiums, to give new activity to the manufactures. He so far succeeded, that machinery of an imperfect description is now generally used, and the French manufacturers are able to supply to their countrymen most of the articles of which they stand in need. There are some, however, which they have found themselves incapable of making. India nankeens for instance, have (since 1816) been admitted as an import on paying a duty of five francs per kilo (equal to 2lb. 3oz. 5dr. 13grs. 755 avoirdupois weight). And the consequence has been that the departments de l'Ain, de la Seine Inférieure, de la Somme, and du Nord,

which formerly made about 1,500,000 pieces annually, have almost abandoned the manufacture. Other branches of this manufacture are carried on to a very considerable extent, in the departments du Nord, Pas de Calais, Aisne, Somme, Seine and Oise, Seine Inférieure, Seine, Calvados, in the north: Haut Rhin, Bas Rhin, Aube, in the north-east: Rhone, Loire, and other places in the south-east: and Gard and Herault in the south.

The most extensive manufactories are those at and near St. Quentin and Lisle. In 1812 de l'Aisne and du Nord produced more than half the cotton yarn spun in France; and, though the same proportion no longer exists, still Lisle and the neighbouring villages of Roubaix and Tourcoing are among the most important manufacturing districts of France. Neither at St. Quentin, nor at Lisle, however, is much of the cotton yarn woven into goods. From St. Quentin it is sent to the neighbouring peasantry, as it is also from Lisle, Aubenton, St. Michel, and other towns in the departments de l'Aisne, and du Pas de Calais. There is a loom in almost every cottage; and the peasantry, when prevented by the severity of the weather or any other reason from pursuing their agricultural labors, weave those coarse stuffs which are the principal products of that department. At Lisle part is woven in the town, and part, the finest, is sent to Tarare, near Lyons, for the manufacture of muslins.

The cotton trade carried on in Paris and its vicinity has of late much diminished, except at Jouy, where the manufactory of printed goods is still flourishing. It was originally established by M. Oberkamf, who was almost the first individual in France who pursued this particular line. Of later years M. Widmer has greatly increased the sale of these articles, by his chemical discoveries in dyes. The elegance of the patterns, and the beauty of the colors, have rendered them in appearance second only to the cottons of Alsace, while in price they are considerably lower. In Paris itself the diminution both of spinning mills and of looms has been very considerable within these few years.

The exports of cotton goods from Paris were in value in

1819. 708,108 francs, of which in
printed goods

1820. 476,987. 1821. 255,830.

489,701

306,226 173,200

In Alsace, however, the manufacturers are highly prosperous, and though the trade, perhaps is no longer increasing so rapidly as formerly, yet it is progressive. Nor is this surprising when the excellence of the goods is taken into consideration. In some points indeed, especially in the dyes, they surpass those of British manufacture.

Round Lyons, the cotton trade has of late fallen off, being injured by the progress of the silk manufactories. At Tarare, however, from peculiar circumstances, one branch, the weaving of fine muslins, prospers; and it is almost the only place in France where that particular article is made. The principal product of the cotton factories in the south of France is hosiery, of

which Nismes and Montpelier used formerly to export a very large quantity. Beside the departments just enumerated, in which the greater part of the cotton manufactories of France are situated, there are many others in which the inhabitants make part of what is wanted for their own consumption. M. Chaptal mentions fortyfive departments in which there are spinning mills, besides much cotton-spinning in the cottages of the peasantry. To what extent this is carried, it would be very difficult to ascertain, as no official returns can be procured of the quantity so consumed.

Steam is comparatively but little used anywhere; water-wheels, wherever currents can be obtained, are established; in level districts horses are constantly employed, and occasionally even manual labor. In the department de la Seine Inférieure there are 109 spinning-mills situated on small. streams. The country round Lisle is flat, and here recourse is had to horse-power, or the more uncertain action of wind: sixty wind-mills, principally used for expressing oil from poppies, rape, and trefoil, may be seen at one time on leaving Lisle by one gate; but there are not above ten or twelve steam-engines in the town. St. Quentin is almost the only considerable manufacturing town in France in which the steam-engines bear any proportion to the number of mills. There are here twenty-four in the whole, of which all but two or three are used in the cotton mills. In the department de la Seine there are— In Paris Arrondissement de Sceaux.

de St. Denis

35

8

8

51

Of these several are used at Charenton and the other iron manufactories; some for raising water, and one of less than half horse power for grinding chocolate. This unwillingness to employ steam, which not only adds to the expense of spinning, but prevents the thread from being so regular from a want of uniformity in the motion, may be attributed partly to the high price of the machines, partly to the badness of the iron and the workmanship, whence accidents repeatedly occur, which naturally tend to deter others from setting them up. The low rate of wages also renders manufacturers less attentive to that economy of manual labor which has so much concontributed to the prosperity of the English manufacturer. Yet, indifferent as the machinery is, it was in a far worse state when M. Chaptal came into office under the imperial govern

ment.

In the linen manufacture, flax to the value of 20,000,000 francs (19,000,000 home and 1,000,000 foreign) is said to be given out to the weavers; which sells manufactured for about 75,000,000; and goods to the value of about 25,000,000 more are worked up in their cottages by the peasantry. They estimate that about 390,000 quintals of hemp are grown in France, valued at 30,000,000 francs. Five millions more in value are imported; and, when manufactured, the whole is estimated at 110,000,000 francs; to which must again be added the cottage products, which are 35,000,000 francs more.

The principal manufactures for these two articles are in Normandy, Brittany, Dauphiny, Mayenne, and also in Picardy-departments de l'Aisne and du Nord. Since 1790 fine linen has in France, as in England, been in a great measure displaced by cotton: the two together employ, at St. Quentin (in Picardy) and the neighbourhood, no fewer than 40,000 workmen. a very different part of the kingdom, the province of Dauphiny, there are also carried on linen manufactures of various qualities.

In

Cambrics, thread, gauze, lawn,-made at St. Quentin, Valenciennes, Cambray, Douay, Chauney, and Guise,-rank among the leading manufactures of the north-east part of France. Lace is still more general, being made in great quantities at Valenciennes, Dieppe, Alençon, Caen, Bayeux, Argentan. Machinery has as yet been very little applied to this manufacture in France, and the number of women employed in it is very great. In general the French is thicker and stiffer than Irish linen; while, in whiteness, it is inferior to that of the Netherlands. It is, however, a very serviceable article.

The silk manufactures of France are more confined to particular districts than either the cotton or the woollen trade. They originated at Tours in the fifteenth century, and gradually spread thence over the south of France. Henri IV. encouraged by every means in his power the cultivation of the mulberry tree in Provence, and his exertions were finally so successful that to this day a large part of the population of the ten departments on the banks of the Rhone, and of de l'Herault, de l'Indre, and Loire, in different proportions, are occupied in this manufacture. There are, on an average of many years, about 5,150,000 kilos of coccoons produced in the eleven first-mentioned departments, and about 30,000 in that of the Indre and Loire, making altogether something under 5,200,000, valued at 15,600,000, francs. This produces, when washed and spun, about 280,000 kilos of raw silk, 160,000 kilos of organised silk, valued at 23,600,000 francs. About an equal value is imported from foreign countries, making about 47,000,000 francs (in value) of silk, in thread, furnished to the manufactories.

The most important of these are at Lyons, where almost every species of silk goods is made. That town, however, is more particularly celebrated for its étoffes, especially those intended for furniture. In its neighbourhood however, at the villages of St. Etienne and St. Chumand, and the vicinity, almost all the silk ribands consumed in France are woven. At Avignon they make principally satins, Levantines, and taffetas; at Nismes, stockings, gauzes, crapes, mixed goods, &c.; and at Gauges, and the other towns in the Cevennes, they are principally occupied with hosiery. The manufacture of Tours, where, as we have already mentioned, the silk trade began, is confined to stuffs for furniture, and some few other articles of little importance.

Next to Lyons, the greatest variety of silk goods is made at Paris. Out of about 18,600,000 francs worth of silk annually exported from Paris nearly 8,000,000 come under the class of objets de luxe. The total value of the silk goods mada

in France does not exceed 110,000,000 francs (£4,200,000), of which about 30,000,000 (£1,200,000) is exported-the trade having, if there is any variation, rather diminished.

'The French,' says an able writer in the Quarterly Review, No. 62, to which we have been much indebted on the subject of the French manufactures generally, 'have long been supposed to be unrivalled in the silk manufacture. Obvious causes have contributed to give them a superiority in this respect over England; for, besides the other disadvantages under which the English manufacturer labors, of a high rate of wages and high taxation, he has to import the raw material, much of it either from France itself or from its immediate neighbourhood-the north of Italy; while the duty imposed upon silk, 5s. 8d. per lb. upon raw, and 13s. 8d. upon organzined, was so heavy as to put the price of manufactured articles beyond the reach of that class of persons who, in France, are the principal consumers. Yet, even under these disadvantages, by our superior skill and superior machinery, our manufacturers contrived to produce articles which, in appearance, were equal to the French goods, though inferior in quality; thus in some measure compensating for the larger quantity of silk which the French manufacturer could afford

to put into his goods. And, those heavy duties being now removed, there cannot be a doubt but that we shall be able in this, as in every other trade, to drive the foreign manufacturer out of the market.'

The French, it is well known, have long excelled in jewellery, as well as watch and clock making. These are carried to a considerable extent at Paris: the number of new watches made annually in the kingdom is calculated at 300,000; and the value of these different kinds of workmanship altogethnr at £1,500,000, of which more than the half is made in the capital. The works in bronze, also belonging almost exclusively to Paris, are taken at a farther annual value of £1,500,000 sterling.

The porcelain of Sevres near St. Cloud, and the beautiful tapestry of the Gobelins, are also peculiar to this vicinity. The materials of the latter are silk and fine woollen thread; the subjects woven into the work being taken from paintings executed on purpose. Both the establishments have been long conducted by the government at a sacrifice.

The inferior manufactories, common to every country in the high state of civilisation which France is, we need not particularise. The following is

The war of 1793 compelled the French to desist from exporting a number of articles, and to raise or fabricate others, for which they had hitherto depended on their neighbours: and the interruption of intercourse continued, either by sea or land, for more than twenty years. Since the peace of 1815 the relations of the commercial world have been almost equally unsettled at present, the imports and exports of France are supposed to be less than before the revolution, and afford a remarkable contrast to the rapid extension of foreign trade in a country like our own possessing the command of the sea.

The same causes that almost destroyed, the commerce nearly annihilated the fisheries of France, which are now carried on chiefly for herrings, mackerel, sardine, anchovy, tunny, and other species, on her own coasts. One branch of the French fishery is that for coral, in the Mediterranean, for which a company has long been established at Marseilles. In the middle of the last century the French fisheries in America employed annually about 5000 seamen; but the unsuccessful contest with England in 1756 reduced them greatly, and deprived them of Cape Breton, their principal station. The peace of 1783, renewed their right to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, a right subsequently acknowledged by the treaties of 1802 and 1814; and though their only permanent possessions for this purpose are the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, they have not been backward to avail themselves of their advantages.

Since 1814 various efforts have been made by the ship-owners of Havre, Bourdeaux, Marseilles, &c., to re-establish the shipping interest, but this at present has been attended with but limited

success.

The roads of France are managed by government Bureaux or Boards, the chief of which are at Paris. The extent of roads, under their direction, is estimated at 30,000 miles; and the annual expenditure at from £1,300,000 to £1,500,000, the whole being defrayed without a single toll or turnpike. The great roads are, in general, paved and in tolerable condition; but the cross roads in almost every department are most wretched; and receive hardly any repair.

The chief bridges in France are those of stone, over the Loire at Orleans, Tours, and Nantes; those on a smaller scale over the Seine at Paris, and those over the Saone and Rhone at Lyons. The Pont du St. Esprit above Orange, over the Rhone, is a long structure of sixteen arches. At no great distance from it is the Pont du Gard, one of the most entire existing monuments of Roman architecture. It is composed of a triple fer of arches, erected for the purpose of con. ducting an aqueduct over the river Gardon. This magnificent structure is 157 feet in height, 530 feet in length at the bottom, and 872 at the top. Of bridges lately erected in France, the most remarkable are those over the Seine at Neuilly near Paris, and over the Oise at St. Maixent, along with two of larger dimensions, viz. one ever the Garonne at Bourdeaux, the other over the Seine at Rouen

GOVERNMENT.-The constitution of France since 1814 greatly resembles that of England, the king being a limited monarch, and the responsibility of all the public measures resting with his ministers. The royal title is 'king of France and Navarre.'

The French cabinet consists of a Keeper of the seals (corresponding to our chancellor), the ministers of Foreign affairs, of Finance, of Police, of War, of the Navy and Colonies, of the Home Department, and finally of the Head of the Royal Household. Each minister is independent in his department, but general measures proceed from the premier. The king has also as with us a privy council, which is convened only on particular occasions: but his Council of State is an efficient body, divided into five committees appropriated respectively to legislation, finance, home affairs, the navy, and the colonies. Each committee is in connexion with the minister of the department to which its labors are directed, and receives from him the materials of its deliberation. The members of these committees are called conseillers d'etat en activité; as the title of conseiller d'etat is in the case of many persons merely honorary; and, what is more remarkable, the appellation of ministre d'etat is given to about thirty public men, exclusive of the cabinet ministers. It implies in that case no participation in ministerial business; but is accompanied with a pension, and is accounted one of the highest marks of royal favor.

The king exclusively has the right of bringing in bills into the Chambers. The opposition act there as in Britain, except that they are denied this important privilege--a denial founded on the supposed agitation which might be produced by the proposition of popular measures in a country where the constitution is as yet unsettled. The chamber of Peers comprises upwards of 200 members, who possess privileges similar to those of the peerage of Great Britain; their number, as with us, is unlimited; the grant of titles being vested in the king, and the dignity hereditary. But no clerical dignitaries have seats as such in the legislature: a few cardinals, who are members, owe it altogether to their titles as temporal peers. The peers take cognizance, as in England, of charges of high treason, and of public misdemeanours. Their discussions are not made public.

The house of Commons, or chamber of Deputies, are elected by the people: the number returned may in some measure be altered at the will of the king; the smallest number allowed is 256. The election is vested in the voters at once, the only qualification required for a voter being the payment of £12 of annual taxes. For a deputy the requisites are, that he shall be of the age of forty, and pay taxes to the amount of £40 a year. One-fifth of the chamber of deputies is re-elected annually.

By the charter, appealed to by all parties as the safeguard of the French constitution, all ranks are equally admissible to public employments, whether civil or military. (The object of this clause is to do away any claim for preference on the part of the noblesse). The catholic is the state religion, but all other religions may