58 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



centre of similar institutions throughout France. It began simply 

 by offering four prizes amounting to the limited sum of $750, Its 

 annual prizes now amount to $20,000. 



Since 1798 France has had thirteen of these great industrial 

 displays, including the international exhibition of 1855, and is now 

 preparing for another, to be held next year. They have usually 

 been given at intervals of four or five years, in every instance 

 under the direction and at the expense of the government, each of 

 the ordinary ones excelling that which preceded it in extent, varie- 

 ty and interest. When the government took the matter in hand, 

 in 1798, the original projector, the Marquis d'Aveze, disappeared 

 from view, not to reappear until 1844, nearly half a century after- 

 wards, and after nine exhibitions had taken place, when he modestly 

 came forth a very old man, to claim, by a reference to official docu- 

 ments, from a nation that had forgotten him, that it was to him 

 and not to Neufchateau, the minister of the Interior, that they 

 were indebted for an idea which had been productive of such enor- 

 mous benefit to France. 



Of course, I could not go through the details of these various 

 exhibitions. To do so would require a volume. I can give only the 

 result which half a century produced. In 1798 the number of ex- 

 Libitors Avas 110, and there were 23 prizes. In 1849 the number 

 of exhibitors was 4,494, the awards, 333 medals of gold, 722 of 

 silver, 974 of bronze, and 32 decorations of the Legion of Honor. 



Equally impossible would it be to give the effects which these 

 great industrial spectacles have had upon the industry of France, 

 one striking fact must serve to illustrate it. In 1812 the manufac- 

 ture of merinoes was scarcely known. The exhibitions of 1819 

 and 1823 brouglit them into general notice, and in 1827 the amount 

 of merinoes disposed of yearly exceeded fifteen million of francs. 



In 1798 a gold medal was offered (I use the words of the circu- 

 lar) for that whicli would prove the deadliest blow to the industry 

 of Great Britain, England, then being far in advance of France, 

 in manufactures and in the mechanic arts. In 1844, even British 

 writers acknowledged that the industrial display at the exhibition 

 of that year, in Paris, was such as no other nation but France 

 could have made. 



The French v.n-iters attribute the wonderful progress of French 

 industry to four causes, the diffusion of knowledge, scientific and 

 practical, among the working classes, through the establishment of 

 free local libraries, museums, drawing schools, and other means of 

 practical instruction. Secondly, inventions and discoveries. Third- 

 ly, the repeal of restrictive laws — and lastly, the effect of the 



