FRENCH WORKMEN ON THE LONDON EXHIBITION, ETC. 539 
The subscription fee is 2s. 6d. per annum. The indoor meetings will he 
held fortnightly, in addition to the outdoor excursions. The system of 
granting prizes to successful collectors will be adopted by this Society ; 
and the first prize, offered for competition by the President, Mr. M. C. 
Cooke, is “ Berkeley’s British Mosses.” 
We hope that those amongst our metropolitan readers who are anxious 
to promote the spread of botanical knowledge will give their support to 
this Society, which is established for the special study of this branch of 
science. 
FRENCH WORKMEN ON THE LONDON EXHIBITION AND 
ENGLISH MANUFACTURES AND WORKMEN. 
BY G. W. YAPP (PARIS). 
HE commission of French ouvriers appointed to examine and report 
on the products of various countries to be seen at the International 
Exhibition, and to inquire into the manufactures pursued in our own 
country, has just commenced the publication of its reports. They are 
short, pithy documents, the longest of them only occupying thirty odd 
pages of small size. 
It is not at all surprising that the tone of these reports is very diffei'ent 
from that of many which have appeared on the late and other Great Exhi- 
bitions : the French workmen had a deep interest in their labour ; they 
set about it in a plain, straightforward, and practical spirit — very different 
from that dainty dilettante manner which unfortunately characterizes many 
documents on such subjects, and which makes them unacceptable to prac- 
tical men. The delegated workmen knew well the weak points in their 
own case, and of course measured English products and English workmen 
by their owm standard and by the light of their own grievances. 
The series of reports which will record the impressions made on the 
minds of men, selected by their fellow workmen in each class of industry 
at home, not only by the products seen in the Exhibition at South Ken- 
sington, but by an examination of factories and workshops of London, and 
by visits to the homes of our own industrious producers, cannot fail to be 
deeply interesting to all classes of enlightened and practical Englishmen ; 
nor will the effect produced in the minds of the reporters by their reception 
here, be without interest for all who desire to see the prejudices swept away 
and the grand industrial contest pursued boldly but generously between 
us and our rivals. 
1. Report of the Tanners , Curriers, and Morocco Leather Workers . — This 
and other reports are preceded by a short historical notice, after which the 
ouvriers give the general result of their observations in a few paragraphs. 
They say they are convinced that, on the whole, France excels her 
rivals in the preparation of leather and skins, and that although England, 
Germany, and Switzerland are superior on certain points, the French 
manufacturers have nothing to fear, and that the materials and processes 
employed in England are inferior to those of France. At the same time 
