DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3004#0050
intended to cramp and cripple the industrial energies of each
other when they -were sworn foes, still ride triumphant over the
common sense which has at last shown them that two peoples
so closely placed by nature, should be one in interests, in pursuits,
in position, and in power for good. Looking steadily then at this
state of things, is it too much to hope that one of the greatest and
most extensively useful results of the Universal Exhibition will
be the gradual relaxation of the absurd commercial restrictions
existing between France and England ? Is it possible that the
governments and peoples of both countries can any longer conceal
from themselves that their greatest security for the continuation
of the relations at present existing between them,—the theme of
so much congratulation, the basis of so much hope for the future,—
will be found in the extension of that social compact which arises
most distinctly and is continued most surely out of that industrial
and commercial intercourse which has ever been the most certain
harbinger of peace between nations, inasmuch as by them every-
day interests become identical. Meu do not care to be placed in
political and national antagonism to those with whom they
have been in the habit of meeting as friends upon change or in the
market. Two nations actively engaged in industrial and com-
mercial pursuits, exchanging products, making bargains, and
studying each other's wants as customers, are not likely to be
easily terrified into a course which would involve the shooting of
each other. Both would consider the bargain a bad one, and
agree that the time occupied in an interchange of bullets and
cannon-balla, and the expenditure of gunpowder, might be better
employed in the exchange of more agreeable commodities, and in
an investment resulting in a more profitable return than smoke,
wounds and bloodshed. That peoples knowing little of each other
and perhaps caring less, may go to war, is to be expected : but to
render misunderstandings as improbable as may be, unrestricted
intercourse, and an identity of interests will now be the aim of
wise governments. Enlightened peoples will at all times embrace
any opportunity which may be afforded them for the cultivation
of those higher amenities of social and intellectual life which bring
their refining influences to bear upon nations as upon individuals,
and thus render impossible those ruder acts which lead to an
antagonism, too often resulting in open contest and fierce
retaliation.
It will be then at once a pleasant and a profitable task to
examine as carefully as our time and space will permit, into the
relative position of the industrial products of the nations brought
together in the Universal Exposition of 1855, more especially in
those departments of human skill, in which Art and Science unite
with handicraft for the production of articles of manufacture. In
this examination, the main object will be to indicate past progress
and present position as an earnest of the future ; to illustrate the
value of sound principles when intelligently and faithfully applied ;
and, though by no means so agreeable a duty, to point out in what
respect a systematic or ignorant defiance of those principles, in-
volves a violation of the laws of common sense as applied to the
arts, and result in rampant absurdities, and costly failures.
In this age of ratiocinative power, when people are not disposed
to take anything upon mere tradition or authority, he who attempts
to teach others must not content himself with mere dietat ion. The
vague ipse dixit of the merely theoretic artist or man of science is
too frequently only to be paralleled in absurdity by the " can't be
done" of the stereotyped manufacturer ; and certainly the tradi-
tionary modes of the latter are quite as likely to be true, as the
oracular platitudes of the former, especially as they have one
advantage at least, which is, that they can be worked, however
clumsy and unsatisfactory the result may be. Hence your ultra-
practical man embeds himself and his opinions in the wise saw,—
" an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory ;" and with this
verbal bludgeon he is prepared to meet all comers, and to drive off all
artistic and scientific trespassers, for such he considers them to be,
upon his industrial domain.
There can be no doubt that much of this antagonism arises
from an utter neglect on the part of those who seek, and very
earnestly too, to guide the manufacturer to more correct principles
of action alike in design as in modes of fabrication, of the peculiar
position in which he stands in relation to the markets it is his pro-
vince to supply. Nothing offends a man more than to tell him
that you understand his business better than he understands it
himself. Yet this is the course which is too often pursued. On
the contrary, if a principle is suggested, and its general truth
enforced by some very palpable illustration, the difficulty of its
immediate and absolute adoption in practice acknowledged, but
intelligent modifications of current methods suggested as arising
therefrom, we think it is not too much to affirm, that nine out of
ten manufacturers who now regard all propositions emanating from
an artistic or scientific source, much as a country bumpkin in
a metropolitan mob regards the ominous cry of " Take care of your
pockets," would be led to consider in what respect they could
improve the character of their productions, in a degree at least,
without endangering their position in the market, by, as they be-
lieve, shooting over the heads of their customers. " It won't sell,"
is a potent argument, if true, to which " It may sell," is but an in-
different reply. " It will sell," being a sheer impertinence on the
part of those who cannot possibly know much about the matter,
commercially at least, and, when once in the market, it is the com-
mercial question which has to be settled. Bearing in mind these
points in the question before us, it is to be hoped that, without
presuming too much upon the value of abstract artistic or scientific
principles as applied to manufacture on the one hand, or yielding
to mere conventional notions, hap-hazard traditions, or ignorant
prejudices on the other, the present great occasion may be so im-
proved by a quiet and earnest consideration of the materials
brought together in the Industrial Congress of the Universal
Exposition of 1855, as to enable us to deduce therefrom such in-
struction, encouragement, or warning, as may be useful to all
parties engaged in the various industries represented, more espe-
cially in those to which Art administers as an embellishment, but in
which it too often manifests itself as an excrescence.
In examining in detail the various departments of Art-manufac-
ture so abundantly illustrated in the Palais de l'Industrie and its
Annexes, it is not intended that the official classification shall be
followed, since to us it appears a series of elaborate contradictions ;
so far at least as any thoroughly useful purpose is concerned. In
one particular it certainly has its advantages, which consists in
its peculiar adaptability for catching any stray industry or portion
thereof, at some point or other of its grand circuit of human em-
ployments or natural products. The difficulty, however, is to
detect the precise point to which the missing industry or product
has gravitated, when its absence from its supposed proper position
has been discovered.
On this question of classification there is quite as little on which
to congratulate the directors, professors, &c, of the Conservatoire
des Arts et M6tiers, as there was on the early administration of
the arrangements of the building, and the admission of goods;
and it is scarcely possible to conceive a more decided illustration
of the possible presence of great scientific acquirements, with the
utter absence of everything like practical administrative ability
and tact. The classification adopted on paper has resulted in a
most glorious defiance of almost everything like classification in
the actual arrangements. Not content with a singh intelligible
principle, its authors adopted two. In one, objects are classified
according to use, in the other according to the nature of the mate-
rial, or mode of manufacture. Thus paper is classed with printing
in its use, and with chemicals in its manufacture, where it forms a
section of a class, side by side with leather, soap, candles, oils, and
eau de Cologne. Money and medals, too, which people of ordinary
capacity usually consider works of Art, are classed with products
in metallurgy. Now, however scientifically true this mode may
be, the practical result is a considerable amount of confusion, and
a wide-spread separation of analogous industries, which, when
grouped according to a less refined but really more truthful system,
are calculated to convey a much larger amount of instruction
and more definite ideas of the relative position of each distinct
department.
Having passed through the ordeal resulting from this classifica-
tion sans arrangement, we shall present the results in such groups
as we conceive will be be3t calculated to convey to those interested
in special industries a distinct idea of the extent to which they are
represented in the Exposition, and, without any affectation of pre-
cision, seek to record the broader and more intelligible, and, it is
hoped, the more useful portions of each branch of Art-manufacture.
Nor will special efforts as illustrating the progress of civilisation
and refinement be neglected, although they may not come precisely
within the category thus laid down. Eor we hold that all things
which conduce to the development of human ingenuity and skill,
and which tend to lift man from the level of " the beast which
perisheth," is worthy of a record side by side with those greater
triumphs of Art and Science which have resulted in the progress
of mankind through the earlier phases of the rude industries, on
which, practically, all later refinements are based. The exceedingly
useful and valuable expositions of the products of the British
colonies in their relation to the established industries of Europe,
come more especially under this head, since it is not so much in
what respect their manufactured productions compete, or bear
comparison with those of the mother country, or the states of
Europe, as to how far their natural products, for the first time
fairly illustrated, are calculated to aid in the further development
of those manufactures to which the new material aids thus displayed
can be best applied.
It perhaps might be thought that an analysis of the Exposition
under the head of each nation would be a more satisfactory
method of comparing results than the consideration of the question
by the process of technical groupings. As a summary it is proposed
to consider how far nationalities are adequately represented on
this occasion, in order to a complete view of the whole ; but we
II
other when they -were sworn foes, still ride triumphant over the
common sense which has at last shown them that two peoples
so closely placed by nature, should be one in interests, in pursuits,
in position, and in power for good. Looking steadily then at this
state of things, is it too much to hope that one of the greatest and
most extensively useful results of the Universal Exhibition will
be the gradual relaxation of the absurd commercial restrictions
existing between France and England ? Is it possible that the
governments and peoples of both countries can any longer conceal
from themselves that their greatest security for the continuation
of the relations at present existing between them,—the theme of
so much congratulation, the basis of so much hope for the future,—
will be found in the extension of that social compact which arises
most distinctly and is continued most surely out of that industrial
and commercial intercourse which has ever been the most certain
harbinger of peace between nations, inasmuch as by them every-
day interests become identical. Meu do not care to be placed in
political and national antagonism to those with whom they
have been in the habit of meeting as friends upon change or in the
market. Two nations actively engaged in industrial and com-
mercial pursuits, exchanging products, making bargains, and
studying each other's wants as customers, are not likely to be
easily terrified into a course which would involve the shooting of
each other. Both would consider the bargain a bad one, and
agree that the time occupied in an interchange of bullets and
cannon-balla, and the expenditure of gunpowder, might be better
employed in the exchange of more agreeable commodities, and in
an investment resulting in a more profitable return than smoke,
wounds and bloodshed. That peoples knowing little of each other
and perhaps caring less, may go to war, is to be expected : but to
render misunderstandings as improbable as may be, unrestricted
intercourse, and an identity of interests will now be the aim of
wise governments. Enlightened peoples will at all times embrace
any opportunity which may be afforded them for the cultivation
of those higher amenities of social and intellectual life which bring
their refining influences to bear upon nations as upon individuals,
and thus render impossible those ruder acts which lead to an
antagonism, too often resulting in open contest and fierce
retaliation.
It will be then at once a pleasant and a profitable task to
examine as carefully as our time and space will permit, into the
relative position of the industrial products of the nations brought
together in the Universal Exposition of 1855, more especially in
those departments of human skill, in which Art and Science unite
with handicraft for the production of articles of manufacture. In
this examination, the main object will be to indicate past progress
and present position as an earnest of the future ; to illustrate the
value of sound principles when intelligently and faithfully applied ;
and, though by no means so agreeable a duty, to point out in what
respect a systematic or ignorant defiance of those principles, in-
volves a violation of the laws of common sense as applied to the
arts, and result in rampant absurdities, and costly failures.
In this age of ratiocinative power, when people are not disposed
to take anything upon mere tradition or authority, he who attempts
to teach others must not content himself with mere dietat ion. The
vague ipse dixit of the merely theoretic artist or man of science is
too frequently only to be paralleled in absurdity by the " can't be
done" of the stereotyped manufacturer ; and certainly the tradi-
tionary modes of the latter are quite as likely to be true, as the
oracular platitudes of the former, especially as they have one
advantage at least, which is, that they can be worked, however
clumsy and unsatisfactory the result may be. Hence your ultra-
practical man embeds himself and his opinions in the wise saw,—
" an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory ;" and with this
verbal bludgeon he is prepared to meet all comers, and to drive off all
artistic and scientific trespassers, for such he considers them to be,
upon his industrial domain.
There can be no doubt that much of this antagonism arises
from an utter neglect on the part of those who seek, and very
earnestly too, to guide the manufacturer to more correct principles
of action alike in design as in modes of fabrication, of the peculiar
position in which he stands in relation to the markets it is his pro-
vince to supply. Nothing offends a man more than to tell him
that you understand his business better than he understands it
himself. Yet this is the course which is too often pursued. On
the contrary, if a principle is suggested, and its general truth
enforced by some very palpable illustration, the difficulty of its
immediate and absolute adoption in practice acknowledged, but
intelligent modifications of current methods suggested as arising
therefrom, we think it is not too much to affirm, that nine out of
ten manufacturers who now regard all propositions emanating from
an artistic or scientific source, much as a country bumpkin in
a metropolitan mob regards the ominous cry of " Take care of your
pockets," would be led to consider in what respect they could
improve the character of their productions, in a degree at least,
without endangering their position in the market, by, as they be-
lieve, shooting over the heads of their customers. " It won't sell,"
is a potent argument, if true, to which " It may sell," is but an in-
different reply. " It will sell," being a sheer impertinence on the
part of those who cannot possibly know much about the matter,
commercially at least, and, when once in the market, it is the com-
mercial question which has to be settled. Bearing in mind these
points in the question before us, it is to be hoped that, without
presuming too much upon the value of abstract artistic or scientific
principles as applied to manufacture on the one hand, or yielding
to mere conventional notions, hap-hazard traditions, or ignorant
prejudices on the other, the present great occasion may be so im-
proved by a quiet and earnest consideration of the materials
brought together in the Industrial Congress of the Universal
Exposition of 1855, as to enable us to deduce therefrom such in-
struction, encouragement, or warning, as may be useful to all
parties engaged in the various industries represented, more espe-
cially in those to which Art administers as an embellishment, but in
which it too often manifests itself as an excrescence.
In examining in detail the various departments of Art-manufac-
ture so abundantly illustrated in the Palais de l'Industrie and its
Annexes, it is not intended that the official classification shall be
followed, since to us it appears a series of elaborate contradictions ;
so far at least as any thoroughly useful purpose is concerned. In
one particular it certainly has its advantages, which consists in
its peculiar adaptability for catching any stray industry or portion
thereof, at some point or other of its grand circuit of human em-
ployments or natural products. The difficulty, however, is to
detect the precise point to which the missing industry or product
has gravitated, when its absence from its supposed proper position
has been discovered.
On this question of classification there is quite as little on which
to congratulate the directors, professors, &c, of the Conservatoire
des Arts et M6tiers, as there was on the early administration of
the arrangements of the building, and the admission of goods;
and it is scarcely possible to conceive a more decided illustration
of the possible presence of great scientific acquirements, with the
utter absence of everything like practical administrative ability
and tact. The classification adopted on paper has resulted in a
most glorious defiance of almost everything like classification in
the actual arrangements. Not content with a singh intelligible
principle, its authors adopted two. In one, objects are classified
according to use, in the other according to the nature of the mate-
rial, or mode of manufacture. Thus paper is classed with printing
in its use, and with chemicals in its manufacture, where it forms a
section of a class, side by side with leather, soap, candles, oils, and
eau de Cologne. Money and medals, too, which people of ordinary
capacity usually consider works of Art, are classed with products
in metallurgy. Now, however scientifically true this mode may
be, the practical result is a considerable amount of confusion, and
a wide-spread separation of analogous industries, which, when
grouped according to a less refined but really more truthful system,
are calculated to convey a much larger amount of instruction
and more definite ideas of the relative position of each distinct
department.
Having passed through the ordeal resulting from this classifica-
tion sans arrangement, we shall present the results in such groups
as we conceive will be be3t calculated to convey to those interested
in special industries a distinct idea of the extent to which they are
represented in the Exposition, and, without any affectation of pre-
cision, seek to record the broader and more intelligible, and, it is
hoped, the more useful portions of each branch of Art-manufacture.
Nor will special efforts as illustrating the progress of civilisation
and refinement be neglected, although they may not come precisely
within the category thus laid down. Eor we hold that all things
which conduce to the development of human ingenuity and skill,
and which tend to lift man from the level of " the beast which
perisheth," is worthy of a record side by side with those greater
triumphs of Art and Science which have resulted in the progress
of mankind through the earlier phases of the rude industries, on
which, practically, all later refinements are based. The exceedingly
useful and valuable expositions of the products of the British
colonies in their relation to the established industries of Europe,
come more especially under this head, since it is not so much in
what respect their manufactured productions compete, or bear
comparison with those of the mother country, or the states of
Europe, as to how far their natural products, for the first time
fairly illustrated, are calculated to aid in the further development
of those manufactures to which the new material aids thus displayed
can be best applied.
It perhaps might be thought that an analysis of the Exposition
under the head of each nation would be a more satisfactory
method of comparing results than the consideration of the question
by the process of technical groupings. As a summary it is proposed
to consider how far nationalities are adequately represented on
this occasion, in order to a complete view of the whole ; but we
II