THE TECHNOLOGIST. [July 1, 1864. 



532 MANUFACTURE OF PAPER-HANGINGS. 



peacocks upon them, grown over with tropical plants of no particular 

 regard to geographical propriety, mixed up with shells and all kinds of 

 conceits, were among the riotous extravagances of fancy, which, while 

 it revolted the artistic taste, captivated the fancy of the uncultivated. 

 Our imports of foreign paper-hangings in 1862 amounted to 4,210 cwts.; 

 the computed value of this was 17,680Z. Of this total 3,926 cwts. came 

 from France, and 284 cwts. from other parts. Besides this, we 

 imported of French papers for transhipment for the same year 2,000 

 cwts. 



Up till within these few years the paper-hangings produced in 

 Britain were altogether manufactured in the southern portion of the 

 United Kingdom. It was reserved for the firm of Messrs. Wylie and 

 Lochead to take the lead in domesticating this beautiful industry in 

 Scotland and in Glasgow. This they have done upon a liberal and ex- 

 panding scale of business, and with an artistic excellence and courage of 

 treatment in their finer patterns, which bid fair to rival either London 

 or Parisian makers in a field that for more than a century has been held 

 almost exclusively in possession by one or other of these. "We are aware 

 that paper-hangings are also manufactured in Edinburgh, and we are 

 far from desiring to disparage the very creditable efforts that are made 

 in our Scottish capital in this path of industry, but, on the contrary, 

 would gladly hail any proofs of persevering enterprise and of successful 

 skill wherever shown. In England for many years up to 1825 the manu- 

 facture of paper-hangings was protected by the absolute prohibition of 

 foreign papers of the same general kind ; but at the same time the 

 home-made papers were subjected to a tax so vexatiously and onerously 

 applied, that before the introduction of web-paper each piece composed 

 of twenty-four sheets received on its back twenty-four stamps, with two 

 more stamps to mark the ends. This duty amounted to Is. 4d. per 

 piece. In 1825, Mr. Huskisson removed the prohibition, and replaced 

 it by a duty on foreign products of Is. per yard square, which, taking a 

 piece of French measurement, amounted to the enormous sum of 5s. 6d. 

 per piece. Yet, notwithstanding this restriction, French papers entered 

 the British market readily and at a profit. The English makers con- 

 fessed that neither absolute prohibition nor a heavy duty had been of 

 service to them in improving their products up to the level of the 

 French. The consequences that came of this change were that the 

 English makers were driven, in self-defence, to improve their work, and 

 the Government reduced their customs duty, and took off at the same 

 time the stamp duty on English-made paper-hangings. In 1846, Sir 

 Bobert Peel reduced still further the import duty, and that by two- 

 thirds of its former amount, or to about 2d. per yard, or a franc a piece. 

 The French manufacture now entered in full inundation, and a depres- 

 sion of English production was the immediate consequence. The im- 

 ports were soon doubled under the new regulations ; but the tide was 

 soon arrested, by-and-by in some degree reversed. To the French we 



