Page 80

80     Original Papers: Modern Manufactures at the Society of Arts. 
the competition maintained by Scotch houses working at a lower rate of wages,
and employing women in this department. 
The general character of the workmen is good, and they are distinguished
for steadiness, industry, and discipline ; many for their intelligence and
cultiva- 
tion of mind. It is satisfactory to see several individuals that have been
employed from fifty and sixty years, still at their occupations in vigorous
health; and not less so to find every child on the ground can read, and at
the 
age of thirteen write also, understand something of arithmetic and geography,
so great is the benefit of having a good school on the premises, where the
attendance is compulsory, in compliance with a humane Act of Parliament which
requires the children's presence at school at least one hundred and fifty
hours 
each half-year. Marked eminence has not been attained, that we are aware
of, 
by any either now or formerly in the service of this concern, but wealth
has; and 
what belongs to a higher destiny, the good reputation rewarding all who,
through 
many long years of honest, honourable toil, have done their duty. Little
do lea 
dames d la mode of our country imagine the pains and study given to gratify
their taste in this business of unceasing change: a business truly sensitive
and precarious, from its dependence, in a great degree, on the state of the
atmosphere, which in a hygrometric and electrical point of view materially
affects the results desired, causing the most practical printer difficulties
which 
all his skill cannot always overcome. However extensive the sciences, chemi-
cal, artistical, and mechanical, brought to bear on the various processes
and 
productions, there is room for them, and as much scope as the most inventive
mind can desire. The mine of knowledge from which, most frequently in 
minute portions, novelties and discoveries are extracted, is, doubtless,
deeply 
explored; but the depths are yet unapproached; and great as have been the
advancements within the last forty years, who can prognosticate what others
will be made ere this century is passed, and more enlightened faculties have
succeeded those of the present generation? 
[We are sure our readers will concur with us in thanking the author of this
interesting and 
practical account, not only of a very eminent manufactory, but generally
of one of the most 
important manufactures of the country-Mr. Benjamin Hargreaves, for the good
taste and skill with 
which, as an individual, he has treated of the works of Messrs. Hargreaves.&-d.
. of . and M.] 
EXHIBITION OF MODERN MANUFACTURES AT THE SOCIETy OF ARTS, ADELPHI. 
WITHIN the same walls and in the compass of the same exhibition we have here
arranged the skilled works of olden and of modern times. Here in the room
appro- 
priated to mediwval works we are enabled to see how largely art entered into
the 
wants, and was a source of gratification to our forefathers, even in those
so-called 
dark ages, whilst the "specimens of recent British manufactures"
will enable us to 
judge of the state of ornamental art in our own times. Severe, indeed, is
the ordeal 
by contrast which the manufactures of the present day have to undergo, and
many, no 
doubt, will turn away and complain of the injury done by such juxtaposition.
But let us weigh the matter fairly, and we shall perhaps come to a different
con- 
elusion, and be led to value highly the effort which has been so successfully
made by 
the Society to provide a proper stimulus to exertion ere the coming national
and 
universal Exhibition of 1851, to prepare our designers, our manufacturers,
and our 
workmen, for a struggle against the world in skill and excellence. And, first,
let us set 
this present modern exhibition in the right light, that its due meed of praise
may be 
awarded to it. We must bear in mind certain considerations, while viewing
the 
medivval portion of the Exhibition, which separate it widely from the part
now under 
review. The first of these is the different conditions under which the works
were 
executed, whereby the very term manufacture properly applied to the skill
of our fore- 
fathers is, in almost every case, improperly applied to ours. Each of the
beautiful 
works in the upper room has been designed and wrought out for itself alone;
has been 
the work of the hand truly, often of the hand of the very artist who designed
it; it was a 
tour deforce for the occasion, and as such has been preserved and come down
to us. 
But the modern works are rarely of hafidicraft, and still more rarely the
handicraft of 
the designer: they are the produce of the machine, which, instead of working
for one, 
spreads the same amount of art, small even if it be, to thousands; instead
of the 
hammer and chisel we have here the die; instead of the needle, the power-loom
or the 
embroidering machine; and even where handicraft is still used, such are the
numbers 
to be supplied, that the designer is forced to consider rather how numbers
can be