LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. 



303 



boundless. The first night is passed about 

 the region of wood, and the second night is 

 spent at the same place ; on the third Mais 

 is regained. This was the route pursued 

 by the party who ascended in 1826. Previ- 

 ously a less arduous way through the vale of 

 the Schuld has been sought out. From this 

 stream, as well as that of Tnufers, the cha- 

 pel of St. Gertrude had been gained, and 

 two nights passed under the Black Head, 

 an overhanging rock about the region of 

 wood. The mountain is of the mica forma- 

 tion, or gneiss. Professor Thurmwieser, 

 who ascended it in 1834, beheld the peak 

 of Mont Blanc from its summit. The di- 

 rect distance of Mont Blanc is at least 170 

 miles. To those who have travelled in 

 the south west of France, or in other moun- 

 tainous countries, and who can make pro- 

 per allowance for refraction and other phy- 

 sical aids and appliances, this will not ap- 

 pear to be improbable, considering the 

 heights of the two points of observation. 



Newspapers in British America. The 

 first .English newspaper in Canada was 

 the Quebec Gazette, established in 1765. 

 The Montreal Gazette was set on foot in 

 1775. In 1810 there were ten papers in 

 Lower, one in Upper Canada, and three in 

 Nova Scotia. There are now (1835) thirty- 

 four papers in Canada ; and in the whole 

 of British America there are no less than 

 fifty -seven newspapers. 



French Cotton Manufactures. Our 

 own greatness, as cotton manufacturers, is 

 apt to blind us to the increasing success 

 of our neighbours. A few well-authen- 

 ticated facts respecting the French cotton 

 works will, perhaps, not be unacceptable 

 to our readers. French cotton-spinning 

 is chiefly carried on in the departments of 

 the Upper and Lower Rhine, and in the 

 adjacent parts of theVosges,UpperSaone, 

 and Doubs, in which much calico is made 

 from the spun cotton of Mulhausen, a 

 town of rising population, and manufac- 

 turing importance. These departments, 

 the inhabitants of which are employed in 

 the manufacture of one article only, form 

 together a compact district, containing 

 fifty-six factories ; forty of them are in 

 the department of the Upper Rhine, but 

 four in that of the Lower Rhine, and 

 twelve in the adjoining departments. 

 These factories have 700,000 spindles at 

 work ; and, at the present moment, not 

 less than 120,000 more are in course of 

 construction. When they are all con- 

 structed and at work, the quantity of cot- 

 ton spun may be stated at about 148,000 

 cwt., obtained from about 180,360 cwt. of 

 the raw material. The latter consists of 

 American cotton, and the sort of Egyptian 



cotton called " cotton jaumet," in the pro - 

 portion of 15,000 bales from Egypt, and 

 10,000 bales from America. In the dis- 

 trict above designated there are but five 

 or six establishments which have large 

 power-loam mills, but a great number of 

 single hand -looms are dispersed through- 

 out it. The result of some experience 

 has shown that a hand -loom cannot fur- 

 nish much more than 2101bs. of cotton, or 

 about twenty-five pieces per annum, and, 

 as the looms are laid aside by the work- 

 men during harvest-time for the labours 

 of the field, the number that are in action 

 may be roughly stated at about [60,000, 

 inculuding 3,000 impelled by machinery. 

 The number of persons employed in this 

 part of Alsace, on every branch of cotton 

 manufacture, is probably about 105,000 or 

 110,000 of both sexes and all ages, of 

 whom about 18,500 are spinners, 72,000 

 are weavers, 14,000 printers, and about 

 1100 are bleachers. This amount of labour 

 produces annually from 1,800,000 to 

 2,000,000 of pieces of coarse and fine ca- 

 lico, muslins, and tissues of various co- 

 lours. 



Eng-lisli Silks as estimated by the 

 French. The English are, we own, our 

 rivals as to plain silks, and sell^their Gros 

 de Naples and Levantines at a lower price 

 than ourselves in the American* markets. 

 It will, however, appear, upon examina- 

 tion, that in the first and chief place 

 they are inferior both in dye and finish, 

 particularly the black kinds; in the se- 

 cond, that they are less uniform in their 

 texture, and readily fray and unravel; and 

 in the third, that the slightest drop of rain 

 draws up the material in a most^extraordi- 

 nary manner. The Spitalfields* goods are 

 better manufactured than the Lancashire, 

 but a better price is paid for them. With 

 respect to ribands, it must be allowed that 

 Coventry has made rapid strides of late 

 years; and St. Etienne- must redouble its 

 exertions, unless its manufacturers be in- 

 clined to suffer their rivals to get the start 

 of them. The latter are still incontestably 

 superior to them in point of design; but 

 their rivals are taking the best course, by 

 instituting schools for the education of 

 better artists, to place themselves on equal 

 footing with them. What might we not 

 hope for, if all the injudicious taxes on the 

 English silk-weavers were repealed, and 

 we could compete with the foreigner on 

 equal terms ? 



Expenses of Military Establishments.- 

 The nations of Europe, in the calm of re- 

 flection that has necessarily followed the 

 bustle 'of war, have begun to understand 

 the folly of involving the whole continent 



