DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0094
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 67
CHAPTER X.
EUROPEAN WOBKMEN JUDGED BY THETB WORKS IN THE GBEAT EXHIBITION—NATIONAL CHA-
BACTEB DISPLAYED—A CONGBESS OP WOBKHEN SUGGESTED—THE ENGLISH WOBKMAN—THE
FBENCH WOBKMAN—THE GEBMAN WOBKMAN—THE SPANISH WOEKMAN—INDIAN HANDICBAET9.
As in our preceding chapter several references are made to the workmen whose various
labours adorned the numerous departments of the Great Exhibition, we shall sum up
the notices of our Parisian Mentor with the following article from his talented pen, on
the comparative merits, peculiarities, condition, and mode of thinking and living of the
different workmen of Europe. Amidst the marvels of the Universal Exhibition, says our
author, the idea has frequently suggested itself to me, to cast a glance at the condition
and the habits of the workpeople who, in reality, have done the honours of it, and to
endeavour to seek out if some mysterious relations did not exist between them and their
works. In what consist these relations? Why has each country a distinctive character-
istic of national originality, to such a degree that furniture, arms, lace, and woven
fabrics, but seldom resemble each other in Paris, in London, in Vienna, and in Madrid?
Why are Spanish workmen so gay, so lively, and so sober, and those of England so pro-
foundly serious, silent, and voracious ? Has not French petulancy some connexion with
the boldness of good taste of the French artisan, and Germanic coldness with the con-
scientious but heavy work of the German one ? By means of what inexplicable prodigy
do the workmen of India manufacture shawls more beautiful than those of Paris, and
what is the unknown source of that school of designers which in the East seems every
day to outstrip the limits of fancy ?
I have greatly regretted that advantage has not been taken of the Exhibition to unite
in a congress, in the midst of their works, workmen of all nations. They might have
interchanged amongst each other, to their mutual instruction, a host of practical ideas
and ingenious processes, which would have become the inheritance of the general
industry of the world. In default of this cosmopolitan gathering, it will not be
without interest to sketch the peculiar characteristics of the principal labouring families,
whose productions have been displayed at the Exhibition, and to bestow a rapid and
impartial glance upon their present condition. These large masses of men have, since
the commencement of the present century, acquired an importance, and in some parts of
Europe an influence so considerable, that it becomes imperatively necessary to study, in
the closest manner, everything connected with their economic and social condition. The
abolished system of guilds maintains still greater sway than is generally imagined
amongst the emancipated branches of industry. Traditions have survived laws, and the
labouring classes continue to live isolated, in a world apart, too often a sealed book to
those most interested in being acquainted with it. This characteristic line of demarcation
is nowhere more profoundly traced than in England. The English workman is a being
apart, having his manners, his habits, his vices, his virtues, his pride, his modes of work-
ing, and his amusements peculiar to himself. His mirth and his gloom resemble no
other. The miners, the spinners, the weavers, the builders, the stokers, all the workmen
engaged in manufacture, have almost nothing in common with those employed in agri-
culture. The workmen engaged in manufacture all eventually identify themselves with
the regularity of their machines, under the influence, I had almost said the despotism,
of the division of labour. They are compelled to go and to come, forward and backward,
like the machines which employ them: the machine commands and they obev. Their
CHAPTER X.
EUROPEAN WOBKMEN JUDGED BY THETB WORKS IN THE GBEAT EXHIBITION—NATIONAL CHA-
BACTEB DISPLAYED—A CONGBESS OP WOBKHEN SUGGESTED—THE ENGLISH WOBKMAN—THE
FBENCH WOBKMAN—THE GEBMAN WOBKMAN—THE SPANISH WOEKMAN—INDIAN HANDICBAET9.
As in our preceding chapter several references are made to the workmen whose various
labours adorned the numerous departments of the Great Exhibition, we shall sum up
the notices of our Parisian Mentor with the following article from his talented pen, on
the comparative merits, peculiarities, condition, and mode of thinking and living of the
different workmen of Europe. Amidst the marvels of the Universal Exhibition, says our
author, the idea has frequently suggested itself to me, to cast a glance at the condition
and the habits of the workpeople who, in reality, have done the honours of it, and to
endeavour to seek out if some mysterious relations did not exist between them and their
works. In what consist these relations? Why has each country a distinctive character-
istic of national originality, to such a degree that furniture, arms, lace, and woven
fabrics, but seldom resemble each other in Paris, in London, in Vienna, and in Madrid?
Why are Spanish workmen so gay, so lively, and so sober, and those of England so pro-
foundly serious, silent, and voracious ? Has not French petulancy some connexion with
the boldness of good taste of the French artisan, and Germanic coldness with the con-
scientious but heavy work of the German one ? By means of what inexplicable prodigy
do the workmen of India manufacture shawls more beautiful than those of Paris, and
what is the unknown source of that school of designers which in the East seems every
day to outstrip the limits of fancy ?
I have greatly regretted that advantage has not been taken of the Exhibition to unite
in a congress, in the midst of their works, workmen of all nations. They might have
interchanged amongst each other, to their mutual instruction, a host of practical ideas
and ingenious processes, which would have become the inheritance of the general
industry of the world. In default of this cosmopolitan gathering, it will not be
without interest to sketch the peculiar characteristics of the principal labouring families,
whose productions have been displayed at the Exhibition, and to bestow a rapid and
impartial glance upon their present condition. These large masses of men have, since
the commencement of the present century, acquired an importance, and in some parts of
Europe an influence so considerable, that it becomes imperatively necessary to study, in
the closest manner, everything connected with their economic and social condition. The
abolished system of guilds maintains still greater sway than is generally imagined
amongst the emancipated branches of industry. Traditions have survived laws, and the
labouring classes continue to live isolated, in a world apart, too often a sealed book to
those most interested in being acquainted with it. This characteristic line of demarcation
is nowhere more profoundly traced than in England. The English workman is a being
apart, having his manners, his habits, his vices, his virtues, his pride, his modes of work-
ing, and his amusements peculiar to himself. His mirth and his gloom resemble no
other. The miners, the spinners, the weavers, the builders, the stokers, all the workmen
engaged in manufacture, have almost nothing in common with those employed in agri-
culture. The workmen engaged in manufacture all eventually identify themselves with
the regularity of their machines, under the influence, I had almost said the despotism,
of the division of labour. They are compelled to go and to come, forward and backward,
like the machines which employ them: the machine commands and they obev. Their