ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 57 



of the republic to that river, advantageous alliances had been 

 formed with Spain, Sardinia and the two Sicilies, preliminaries of 

 peace had been signed with Austria, and a conference opened for a 

 settlement of peace with England. The Minister of the Interior, 

 Nenfchateau, in connection with the Directory, determined to 

 seize upon this happy moment of returning peace to direct the at- 

 tention of the people to the important subject of their national 

 industry by getting up an exhibition under the direction and at 

 the expense of the government, of the products of French manu- 

 facture, and that a proper spirit of emulation might be awakened, 

 it was concluded to offer prizes for the best productions, in imita- 

 tion of a practice adopted at the agricultural fairs in the last days 

 of the monarchy. To enlist the patriotic feeling of the people it 

 was determined that this display should take place in the Champ 

 de Mars, where but a short time before a national fete had been 

 given to celebrate the victories in Italy, and also that the exhibi- 

 tion should be inaugurated in the following September, upon the 

 anniversary of the day of the foundation of the republic. In a 

 space of time so short, that it seemed like the work of enchant- 

 ment, a building was erected, having 60 porticos, to which the 

 title was given of the Temple of Industry. In the brief space of 

 six weeks it was opened gratuitously to the public with great 

 pomp, but the time was so short that the exhibition embraced only 

 the manufactures of the department of the Seine and the adjoining 

 prefectures ; the other parts of France contributing nothing. But 

 limited and local as it was, it excited the greatest enthusiasm. 

 "It was," says the celebrated Chaptal, (on(3 of the judges,) " the 

 first knowledge that France had of her manufactures, and the 

 effect of it was a great movement in every department of the use- 

 ful arts.-' And another contemporary writer triumphantly referred 

 to it as a proof that the revolution had created a new France. The 

 next exhibition took place after an interval of three years, the 

 third in 1800, when G3 departments of the nation were represented 

 by 540 exhibitors, presenting such a spectacle as to draw from 

 Napoleon the remark that France by that display had achieved 

 the finest of her victories, {la plus belle de ses victoires.) This ex- 

 hibition led to the establishment in Paris of the society for the en- 

 couragement of National Industry, which has this year issued the 

 62d vol. of its transactions. Its object was to collect and dissemi- 

 nate knowledge of all useful machines, and discoveries connected 

 with the progress of the useful arts. To offer prizes of money or 

 medals for valuable discoveries or inventions, to succor dis- 

 tinguished artisans who were unfortunate, and lastly to be the 



