1849."! 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



355 



In the year 1806 we meet with the first attempt at arrangement 

 by M. Costaz, who edited the Report of the jury on the Evpositioii 

 of that year. He proceeded on a fffographical analysis, and 

 treiited his examination of all the ohjects exhihited, under the 

 heads of the depai'tments of France from which they emanated. 



In the year 1819 he again edited the llei)ort, and on that occa- 

 sion adopted an entirely material or natural system, dividing all 

 the arts into thirty-nine heads. The consequence was, of course, 

 great confusion. 



In the year 1827, M. Payen took up a purely scientific arrange- 

 ment into five great divisions, namely — 



Arts. — 1, Chemical; 2, Mechanical; 3, Physical; 4, Economical; 5, Mis- 

 cellaneous. 



This was deemed almost too artificial and ahstract; and, ac- 

 cordingly, in 18:51 we find M. Diipin very wisely estahlishing his 

 system of division on the basis of the relation of the arts to man. 

 Thus— 



Anihropic Arts — 1, Alimentary ; 2, Sanitiry; 3,Vi'stiary; t. Dnmioiliary ; 

 5, Locomutive; 6, Sensitive; 7, Intellectual; 8, Preparative; 9, Soi-ial. 



In 1839 M. Dupin's analysis was adhered to, and found to work 

 very well. 



In 184t the jury adopted a more material classification, uniting 

 something of the spirit of each of the three former systems. 

 They divided the Manufacturing Arts into — 



Arts oil the Accidental or Natural Si/stem. — 1, Woven ; 2, Mineral ; 3, Me- 

 chanical; 4, Mathematical; 5, Chemica! ; G. Fine; 7y Ceramic; 8, Miscella- 

 neous. 



This arrangement led rather to confusion, and unfortunately, as 

 may be seen by a reference to the plan of the building of the pre- 

 sent E.xposition, in vvliich this system (if any) has been followed, 

 it is sufficiently complicated to render it extremely difficult to 

 refer to any particular object, from its proximity to others having 

 any analogy with it. 



Perhaps some of the elements of Mr. Fergusson's excellent 

 analysis of the Anthropic Arts might be advantageously adopted, 

 or some classification referring to modifications of material in the 

 raw state, in the manufactured state, in the ornamented state — 

 treating tltem as representatives of the science of production, of 

 manufacture, of decoration, might be found available in default of 

 other better arr;ingements. 



No. 3. — The Nature and Character of the Products. 



It was a matter of common complaint among all connected with, 

 or interested in, the present exhibition, that, owing to the com- 

 mercial 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 charac- 

 terised by some feature peculiarly it sovvn. 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 specilic 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 he 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, e.xliihits a dazzling array of 

 pretty and tasteful objects. Evidence is exhibited on all hands of 

 the extent to which the education of her workmen have been car- 

 ried. Scarcely e\er do we recognise a piece of bad ornamental 

 modelling; where the human figure is introduced, it is rarely igno- 

 rantly drawn. In the departments of manufacture requiring ten- 

 der 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 pro- 

 duced, to a certain extent, con atnore; and on conversing with 

 every tradesman he will he found to take an immediate pride in 

 his occui)ation, 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 ])rodactions constantly exhibit. If a piece of 

 furniture he well and artistically carved, tlie ordinary eye cares 

 little whether it be or be not well fitted or well seasoned. A beau- 

 tiful silver-gilt ornament is at once preferred to an ugly gold one, 

 and a paper-hanging printed in two tints vvhich 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, PVance seems de- 

 cidedly 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, antl japanning 

 on papier-mache, and generally, perhaps, in her immediate adapta- 

 tion 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 

 terracotta, and of riband and silk-weaving and dyeing, she ap- 

 pears as decidedly in advance. In such a Report as the present it 

 would he 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 

 exiiibition in France is the manifestation of her power to get up 

 those machines on the possession of vvhich our facility in produc- 

 tion has long depended, and that if once she attain in this depart- 

 ment 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 con- 

 tinued 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 

 Transactium, and encourages us to hope that ere long this im- 

 portant 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. 



No. 4. — General Excellencies and Defects of the present Exposition. 



Perhaps the chief excellencies of the arrangements may be 

 deemed the extreme liberality with which the building has been 

 constructed, and the noble style in which the whole affair has been 

 managed as regards the unlimited supply of public money, the 

 number and civility of the keepers and attendants, and the ease 

 with which the enormous masses of visitors vvere enabled to circu- 

 late by the width and uninterrupted lines of tlie gangways. 

 There was considerable benefit in the opening of numerous outlets, 

 though the public were generally admitted by one entrance only. 

 The advantage afl'orded by this was, that if any pei-sons were 

 inconvenienced by heat or pressure, they co\ild readily find an 

 exit; while limiting the points of entry secured a tolerably unani- 

 mous movement, without driving those on whose inclination led 

 them to dwell especially upon one particular spot. It also con- 

 siderably simplified the "overlooking and checking the receipts on 

 entry. The placing at all these doorways, ladies, who benevo- 

 lently devoted themselves to the collection of funds to be dedi- 

 cated to the service of the poor, and more particularly to relieve 

 those suffering from the cholera, has been productive of very great . 

 good, and by their means large sums of money have been raised 

 for the purposes of charity. 



The system which has been heretofore adopted of grouping 

 together goods of a similar kind — affording great facilities for 

 comparison and study — and increasing the ease with which par- 

 ticular classes of manufacture may be separately examined, without 

 confusing the memory with the labour of recalling the exact position 

 of kindred objects scattered about, it was found impossible to fully 

 carry out, owing to the feverish political excitement, which, up to 

 a late period, rendered the existence, even of this year's Exposi- 

 tion, quite problematical. A mode of arrangement of products of 

 manufacture so topoyraphicnl as to exhibit together all the energy 

 and relative power of production, of different districts, has been 

 suggested, but never tried to any great extent; the general opinion 

 being that it would not convey as much practical infiu-mation, or 

 in half so agreeable a form, as if effected by the usual practice. 

 Classified indices to the Catalogues would probably unite the 

 advantages of both systems, and to a slight extent they have been 

 adopted in France. 



The Catalogue as at present arranged consists of tv.'o parts. 

 The first, containing the numerical series in the order in which the 



40* 



