DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0229
191 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
CHAPTER XXVII.
ALLIANCE OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
DR. LYON PLAYFAIR—FAVOURABLE BESULT8 OF THE GEEAT EXHIBITION—COMPARISON BE-
TWEEN ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL MANUFACTURES—OUB NATIONAL DEFICIENCIES CON-
SIDEEED----CLASSICAL LITEEATTJEE----INFINITY OE SCIENCE ----TRUE CAUSE OF BRITISH
SUPEEIOEITY—SCIENCE THE NATURAL DESIRE OE THE HUMAN MIND—OPINIONS OE EOTHEN—
CENTRAL COLLEGE OE AETS AND MANUEACTUEES IN PARIS—INDUSTBIAL UNIVERSITY PRO-
POSED—THE THEEE LEAENED PROFESSIONS----INDUSTEY A PEOEESSION—SIE H. DAYY ON
SCIENCE AND PATRONAGE—QUOTATION FROM LORD BACON—COMPETITION—EUTUEE PROG-
NOSTICS—THE EXHIBITION A SCHOOL OE INDUSTRY, ETC., ETC.
It was a wise and useful suggestion of Prince Albert's, that our most eminent philoso-
phers should be engaged to deliver a series of lectures on the subject of the Great
Industrial Exhibition, before the Society of Arts. We have already given copious
extracts from the admirable Inaugural Discourse by Dr. Whewell, and we now propose,
in the present chapter, to offer a few of equal importance from the no less admirable
lecture of Dr. Lyon Playfair. " A rapid transition/' observes the learned doctor, " is
taking place in industry; the raw material, formerly our capital advantage over other
nations, is gradually being equalised in price, and made available to all by the im-
provements in locomotion : industry must in future be supported, not by a competition
of local advantages, but by a competition of intellect. All European nations, except
England, have recognised this fact; their thinking men have proclaimed it; their govern-
ments have adopted it as a principle of state ; and every town has now its schools, in
which are taught the scientific principles involved in manufactures, while each metro-
polis rejoices in an industrial university, teaching how to use the alphabet of science in
reading manufactures aright. Were there any effects observed in the Exhibition from
this intellectual training of their industrial populations ? The official reserve, necessarily
imposed upon me as the commissioner appointed to aid the juries, need exist no longer,
and from my personal conviction, I answer, without qualification, in the affirmative. The
result of the Exhibition was one that England may well be startled at. Wherever—
and that implies in almost every manufacture—science or art was involved as an element
of progress, we saw, as an inevitable law, that the nation which most cultivated them
was in the ascendant. Our manufacturers were justly astonished at seeing most of the
foreign countries rapidly approaching and sometimes excelling us in manufactures, our
own by hereditary and traditional right. Though certainly very superior in our common
cutlery, we could not claim decided superiority in that applied to surgical instruments ;
and were beaten in some kind of edge-tools. Neither our swords nor our guns were
left with an unquestioned victory. In our plate-glass, my own opinion—and I am sure
that of many others—is, that if we were not beaten by Belgium, we certainly were by
France. In flint-glass, our ancient prestige was left very doubtful, and the only impor-
tant discoveries in this manufacture were not those shown on the English side. Belgium,
which has deprived us of so much of our American trade in woollen manufactures, found
herself approached by competitors hitherto almost unknown; for Kussia had risen to
eminence in this branch, and the German woollens did not shame their birth-place.
In silversmith work we had introduced a large number of foreign workmen as modellers
and designers, bat, nevertheless, we met with worthy competitors. In calico-printing
and paper-staining our designs looked wonderfully French; whilst our colours, though
generally as brilliant in themselves, did not appear to nearly so much advantage, from a
CHAPTER XXVII.
ALLIANCE OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
DR. LYON PLAYFAIR—FAVOURABLE BESULT8 OF THE GEEAT EXHIBITION—COMPARISON BE-
TWEEN ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL MANUFACTURES—OUB NATIONAL DEFICIENCIES CON-
SIDEEED----CLASSICAL LITEEATTJEE----INFINITY OE SCIENCE ----TRUE CAUSE OF BRITISH
SUPEEIOEITY—SCIENCE THE NATURAL DESIRE OE THE HUMAN MIND—OPINIONS OE EOTHEN—
CENTRAL COLLEGE OE AETS AND MANUEACTUEES IN PARIS—INDUSTBIAL UNIVERSITY PRO-
POSED—THE THEEE LEAENED PROFESSIONS----INDUSTEY A PEOEESSION—SIE H. DAYY ON
SCIENCE AND PATRONAGE—QUOTATION FROM LORD BACON—COMPETITION—EUTUEE PROG-
NOSTICS—THE EXHIBITION A SCHOOL OE INDUSTRY, ETC., ETC.
It was a wise and useful suggestion of Prince Albert's, that our most eminent philoso-
phers should be engaged to deliver a series of lectures on the subject of the Great
Industrial Exhibition, before the Society of Arts. We have already given copious
extracts from the admirable Inaugural Discourse by Dr. Whewell, and we now propose,
in the present chapter, to offer a few of equal importance from the no less admirable
lecture of Dr. Lyon Playfair. " A rapid transition/' observes the learned doctor, " is
taking place in industry; the raw material, formerly our capital advantage over other
nations, is gradually being equalised in price, and made available to all by the im-
provements in locomotion : industry must in future be supported, not by a competition
of local advantages, but by a competition of intellect. All European nations, except
England, have recognised this fact; their thinking men have proclaimed it; their govern-
ments have adopted it as a principle of state ; and every town has now its schools, in
which are taught the scientific principles involved in manufactures, while each metro-
polis rejoices in an industrial university, teaching how to use the alphabet of science in
reading manufactures aright. Were there any effects observed in the Exhibition from
this intellectual training of their industrial populations ? The official reserve, necessarily
imposed upon me as the commissioner appointed to aid the juries, need exist no longer,
and from my personal conviction, I answer, without qualification, in the affirmative. The
result of the Exhibition was one that England may well be startled at. Wherever—
and that implies in almost every manufacture—science or art was involved as an element
of progress, we saw, as an inevitable law, that the nation which most cultivated them
was in the ascendant. Our manufacturers were justly astonished at seeing most of the
foreign countries rapidly approaching and sometimes excelling us in manufactures, our
own by hereditary and traditional right. Though certainly very superior in our common
cutlery, we could not claim decided superiority in that applied to surgical instruments ;
and were beaten in some kind of edge-tools. Neither our swords nor our guns were
left with an unquestioned victory. In our plate-glass, my own opinion—and I am sure
that of many others—is, that if we were not beaten by Belgium, we certainly were by
France. In flint-glass, our ancient prestige was left very doubtful, and the only impor-
tant discoveries in this manufacture were not those shown on the English side. Belgium,
which has deprived us of so much of our American trade in woollen manufactures, found
herself approached by competitors hitherto almost unknown; for Kussia had risen to
eminence in this branch, and the German woollens did not shame their birth-place.
In silversmith work we had introduced a large number of foreign workmen as modellers
and designers, bat, nevertheless, we met with worthy competitors. In calico-printing
and paper-staining our designs looked wonderfully French; whilst our colours, though
generally as brilliant in themselves, did not appear to nearly so much advantage, from a