DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1310#0295
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 239
The great value of this portion of the English. Exhibition is, that it is impossible to
find it elsewhere, either on a large or small scale. The greater portions of the Indian
articles, not being in conformity with. European taste, very few are generally imported
into Europe, and we cannot adapt to our rise all which, would be applicable to it by
means of some unimportant modifications. Yesterday, for instance, I was admiring
several oriental fabrics brocaded with gold and silver, which the slightest change would
suffice to transform in the most original fashion, and render them appropriate to the
refined and elegant taste of our ladies. A thread of white silk substituted for the silver,
a thread of yellow silk for the gold, and all would be accomplished. Once more, send us
workmen by hundreds. Preach this crusade. I dare to assert that not a single good
workman can spend a fortnight here without trebling what we political economists call
his moral capital—the capital that belongs to him, his intrinsic value, that is to say,
without becoming richer. The Indian exposition has likewise its philosophical and
political point of view for me. I may inform yon of a discovery which is connected,
through Calcutta, with the Indian exhibition, although the discovery is carried out in
Scotland. It is the introduction of a new textile product, which is called here jute,
which holds a medium between flax and hemp. Jute is a species of hemp, which grows
abundantly in the plains of Bengal, and which, strange to say, possesses along with the
properties of flax, those of cotton, that is to say, of being combed in parallel staple, and
of being carded. A distinguished manufacturer, the Chevalier Clausen, has succeeded in
bleaching it so perfectly, that there is no silk more glossy than jute, after being bleached
by a new process, which constitutes the most curious application of chemistry which has
ever been made to manufacture—a process, which might be called bleaching by means
of distension. The jute can be made into parallel threads, like silk, or in wool, like
cotton. It mixes equally well with silk, wool, yarn, and cotton. Its mixtures are as
curious as its use is isolated. The English exhibit flannels, hosiery, and cloth of various
kinds iu which it has been introduced. I have found all competent persons much
impressed with these important experiments upon a new textile fabric.
LETTER, V.
I cannot refrain from bringing your readers back to the exhibition of the products of
British India. This is an entire industrial world, new to us even from its antiquity,
carrying us back to the heroic ages, and which, from its perfectly original character,
resembles no other. The East India Company has expended upwards of £80,000 to
appear worthily at this great federation of nations. It desired that its empire of fifty
millions of subjects should be fittingly represented, and it has admirably succeeded in so
doing. Since the commencement of the Exhibition new products have been added
almost daily. Some of these are even more beautiful than those which have gone before,
and attract in the highest degree the attention of visitors. Indian art, in truth, is
deserving of this preference—it resembles no other. It has not the whimsicalness of
Chinese taste, nor Grecian or Roman regularity, nor modern vulgarity : it is a special
art, more simple than is generally believed, even in its digressions, and which never
appears to have varied nor borrowed anything elsewhere. Applied to ceramic man-
ufacture, it is full of grace and simplicity. The curves are of an undulated kind, supple
and flexible, like the forms of the serpent; and as rich and varied in the coarser as
in the finer descriptions of earthenware. There are thousands of specimens in the
Exhibition which cannot fail to be imitated in France, for the eyes of all manufac-
turers are upon India. The art of weaving cloth has evidently attained a high degree
of perfection in that country. "Without mentioning the Cashmere shawls, which have
become the beau-ideals of their kind, everything exhibited by the East India Company
The great value of this portion of the English. Exhibition is, that it is impossible to
find it elsewhere, either on a large or small scale. The greater portions of the Indian
articles, not being in conformity with. European taste, very few are generally imported
into Europe, and we cannot adapt to our rise all which, would be applicable to it by
means of some unimportant modifications. Yesterday, for instance, I was admiring
several oriental fabrics brocaded with gold and silver, which the slightest change would
suffice to transform in the most original fashion, and render them appropriate to the
refined and elegant taste of our ladies. A thread of white silk substituted for the silver,
a thread of yellow silk for the gold, and all would be accomplished. Once more, send us
workmen by hundreds. Preach this crusade. I dare to assert that not a single good
workman can spend a fortnight here without trebling what we political economists call
his moral capital—the capital that belongs to him, his intrinsic value, that is to say,
without becoming richer. The Indian exposition has likewise its philosophical and
political point of view for me. I may inform yon of a discovery which is connected,
through Calcutta, with the Indian exhibition, although the discovery is carried out in
Scotland. It is the introduction of a new textile product, which is called here jute,
which holds a medium between flax and hemp. Jute is a species of hemp, which grows
abundantly in the plains of Bengal, and which, strange to say, possesses along with the
properties of flax, those of cotton, that is to say, of being combed in parallel staple, and
of being carded. A distinguished manufacturer, the Chevalier Clausen, has succeeded in
bleaching it so perfectly, that there is no silk more glossy than jute, after being bleached
by a new process, which constitutes the most curious application of chemistry which has
ever been made to manufacture—a process, which might be called bleaching by means
of distension. The jute can be made into parallel threads, like silk, or in wool, like
cotton. It mixes equally well with silk, wool, yarn, and cotton. Its mixtures are as
curious as its use is isolated. The English exhibit flannels, hosiery, and cloth of various
kinds iu which it has been introduced. I have found all competent persons much
impressed with these important experiments upon a new textile fabric.
LETTER, V.
I cannot refrain from bringing your readers back to the exhibition of the products of
British India. This is an entire industrial world, new to us even from its antiquity,
carrying us back to the heroic ages, and which, from its perfectly original character,
resembles no other. The East India Company has expended upwards of £80,000 to
appear worthily at this great federation of nations. It desired that its empire of fifty
millions of subjects should be fittingly represented, and it has admirably succeeded in so
doing. Since the commencement of the Exhibition new products have been added
almost daily. Some of these are even more beautiful than those which have gone before,
and attract in the highest degree the attention of visitors. Indian art, in truth, is
deserving of this preference—it resembles no other. It has not the whimsicalness of
Chinese taste, nor Grecian or Roman regularity, nor modern vulgarity : it is a special
art, more simple than is generally believed, even in its digressions, and which never
appears to have varied nor borrowed anything elsewhere. Applied to ceramic man-
ufacture, it is full of grace and simplicity. The curves are of an undulated kind, supple
and flexible, like the forms of the serpent; and as rich and varied in the coarser as
in the finer descriptions of earthenware. There are thousands of specimens in the
Exhibition which cannot fail to be imitated in France, for the eyes of all manufac-
turers are upon India. The art of weaving cloth has evidently attained a high degree
of perfection in that country. "Without mentioning the Cashmere shawls, which have
become the beau-ideals of their kind, everything exhibited by the East India Company