Mr Sang on the Carpet Manufacture. 255 



the royalty of England was contented with that fare which we 

 now confine to our stables, and lands were granted for the ser- 

 vitude of providing clean straw for the royal chambers. Well 

 scoured deals and good Kidderminsters have now displaced 

 that vehicle of infection, and that not merely in the houses of 

 the wealthy, but even in the dwellings of the industrious ar- 

 tizan. To some, the introduction of such luxuries may appear 

 to savour of effeminacy ; those who admire nations only when 

 formidable in war, who glory in bloodshed and devastation, 

 may fear that, when each peasant treads upon a well-made car- 

 pet, when the cot boasts of luxuries unknown two centuries ago, 

 even in the palace, nations will lift but feeble hands in encroach- 

 ments upon each other. But he is much mistaken who regards 

 such comforts as marks of effeminacy. Were they the results 

 of Roman spoliation,— were our furniture, our china, and our 

 carpets, torn from the industrious of conquered provinces,— 

 had we our silks for tribute and our cottons for booty, then in- 

 ^ deed would we be effeminate and vicious. But those comforts 

 which we so richly enjoy are the results of industrious and up- 

 right toil. Every luxury that surrounds us is the fruit of skill 

 and energy : the procuring of it has exercised our patience and 

 improved our strength, while the enjoyment of it restrains us 

 from wanton aggressions on our neighbours, and nerves us in 

 our own defence. The spread of comforts among every rank, 

 guards us against tumult on the one hand and oppression on 

 the other ; and every improvement on our manufactures, every 

 cheapening of our commodities, is a step forward in the path to 

 happiness and security. 



It is not merely by its existence that the carpet -manufacture 

 bears testimony to the advanced state of society ; the eleo-ance 

 »)f its processes, and the beauty of its products, speak a language 

 no less distinct. 



In the superficial texture of the common carpet, nothing ap- 

 pears to distinguish it from an ordinary web ; and a first ob- 

 server is at a loss to imagine by what means its variety of co- 

 lours can be produced. On examining the figure more nar- 

 rowly, it appears that the designer has laboured under con- 

 siderable difficulties; for in many places where purity of colour 

 would have been advantageous, a mixed colour only is to be 



sS 



