DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0025
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 15
of respect. Their exhibition in London is not on a very large scale. They have shown
themselves almost as indifferent here as they habitually are in their national exhibi-
tions, "where they have always appeared in very limited numbers,—whether it be that
these new festivals of the material world excite less their enthusiasm than those they
were wont to celebrate in their temples, or that the distance may have frightened them
in consequence of the bad state of their roads. I have already said that they had sent
more raw materials than manufactured goods; I am still of this opinion, and I may add
that they have done right. Spain is above all a land rich in natural products; and I
shall not be doing her any great injustice in stating that her mines, her marbles, her
metals, will in the long run tend more to her honour and profit than her woollen and
cotton manufactures. But, for all that, the efforts which she is making to enter upon
the path of manufacturing labour, at the keenest moment of the struggle which has
been entered upon between the European nations, are not the less worthy of honour.
The productions exhibited by Spain are of very good quality. We have particularly
noticed blue and black woollen cloths—especially black—which are manufactured from
the best wools of the country, and which can sustain the comparison with the correspond-
ing qualities of foreign manufacture. The silk goods of Valentia have likewise main-
tained their good name, but they leave a good deal to be desired in point of finish,
patterns, and even colours. A trial of black lace embroidered with colours has been
less happy: this may be an innovation destined to obtain some success in the colonies.
Pine and good samples of sail and cable cloths bear testimony to the resumption of the
spinning of yarn, which possesses great elements of prosperity in that country. The
Spaniards have exhibited few fire-arms, but what there are, are principally from the
manufactory at Toledo, the land of good daggers and flexible swords, which enter the
body with the pliancy of the serpent. Some pistol cases, and two cannons—one of
"bronze, the other of iron—the latter, it is said, forged with the hammer by the Carlists
during the civil war—complete their collection of destructive implements, which suffices
to show of what they are capable in this description of article. Pray to Heaven that
they may use their iron for other purposes ! This iron is really excellent, and may vie
with that of Sweden. There are also in the Spanish exhibition very fine samples of
their kid skins for gloves, which I consider to be the softest in the world, and the most
worthy to protect ladies' hands. "Why have we not likewise in the Spanish gallery some
of their admirable women—of those who excite the enthusiasm of great deeds? The
fair visitors of the North are so cold, so formal; they look as if they came out of a Pres-
byterian chapel! Pardon me this digression, Sir, for the ladies are here in the majority,
and one would almost believe that it is out of pure gallantry to them that Englishmen
nave got up the Exhibition. They are indefatigable. They eat like ogres, at all the
refreshment stalls. The detestable fashion of crinoline, and even of baskets, which has
seized upon them, gives them a really fantastic size, which every day diminishes the space
left to move about in. It is even something strange and curious to see this exhibition
within the Exhibition; but it proves at least that here the women, through their instruc-
tion, take a real share in the progress of industry, and that they seriously occupy them-
selves about the interests and labours of their husbands.
■- Thus we may see them eagerly grouped, like manufacturers or savans, around raw
materials arranged with much order and simplicity in the Spanish gallery. They
admire the wools of Estremadura, the silks of Valentia, the lead ores, the marbles, and,
above all, the preserved fruits of Malaga. This collection is exceedingly beautiful. It
is by means of her inexhaustible mineral wealth that Spain will regain her fortune.
She will find within her own bowels wherewithal to feed her children. Mineral wealth
is now-a-days the starting-point of all others. When a country possesses iron, lead,
of respect. Their exhibition in London is not on a very large scale. They have shown
themselves almost as indifferent here as they habitually are in their national exhibi-
tions, "where they have always appeared in very limited numbers,—whether it be that
these new festivals of the material world excite less their enthusiasm than those they
were wont to celebrate in their temples, or that the distance may have frightened them
in consequence of the bad state of their roads. I have already said that they had sent
more raw materials than manufactured goods; I am still of this opinion, and I may add
that they have done right. Spain is above all a land rich in natural products; and I
shall not be doing her any great injustice in stating that her mines, her marbles, her
metals, will in the long run tend more to her honour and profit than her woollen and
cotton manufactures. But, for all that, the efforts which she is making to enter upon
the path of manufacturing labour, at the keenest moment of the struggle which has
been entered upon between the European nations, are not the less worthy of honour.
The productions exhibited by Spain are of very good quality. We have particularly
noticed blue and black woollen cloths—especially black—which are manufactured from
the best wools of the country, and which can sustain the comparison with the correspond-
ing qualities of foreign manufacture. The silk goods of Valentia have likewise main-
tained their good name, but they leave a good deal to be desired in point of finish,
patterns, and even colours. A trial of black lace embroidered with colours has been
less happy: this may be an innovation destined to obtain some success in the colonies.
Pine and good samples of sail and cable cloths bear testimony to the resumption of the
spinning of yarn, which possesses great elements of prosperity in that country. The
Spaniards have exhibited few fire-arms, but what there are, are principally from the
manufactory at Toledo, the land of good daggers and flexible swords, which enter the
body with the pliancy of the serpent. Some pistol cases, and two cannons—one of
"bronze, the other of iron—the latter, it is said, forged with the hammer by the Carlists
during the civil war—complete their collection of destructive implements, which suffices
to show of what they are capable in this description of article. Pray to Heaven that
they may use their iron for other purposes ! This iron is really excellent, and may vie
with that of Sweden. There are also in the Spanish exhibition very fine samples of
their kid skins for gloves, which I consider to be the softest in the world, and the most
worthy to protect ladies' hands. "Why have we not likewise in the Spanish gallery some
of their admirable women—of those who excite the enthusiasm of great deeds? The
fair visitors of the North are so cold, so formal; they look as if they came out of a Pres-
byterian chapel! Pardon me this digression, Sir, for the ladies are here in the majority,
and one would almost believe that it is out of pure gallantry to them that Englishmen
nave got up the Exhibition. They are indefatigable. They eat like ogres, at all the
refreshment stalls. The detestable fashion of crinoline, and even of baskets, which has
seized upon them, gives them a really fantastic size, which every day diminishes the space
left to move about in. It is even something strange and curious to see this exhibition
within the Exhibition; but it proves at least that here the women, through their instruc-
tion, take a real share in the progress of industry, and that they seriously occupy them-
selves about the interests and labours of their husbands.
■- Thus we may see them eagerly grouped, like manufacturers or savans, around raw
materials arranged with much order and simplicity in the Spanish gallery. They
admire the wools of Estremadura, the silks of Valentia, the lead ores, the marbles, and,
above all, the preserved fruits of Malaga. This collection is exceedingly beautiful. It
is by means of her inexhaustible mineral wealth that Spain will regain her fortune.
She will find within her own bowels wherewithal to feed her children. Mineral wealth
is now-a-days the starting-point of all others. When a country possesses iron, lead,