PARIS EXHIBITION REPORTS.
Parts II. and III. of the Reports made to the President of the Board of Trade upon the Paris Universal Exhibition have lately been presented to Parliament. One question which they take up is that of the progress made by England in the various branches of production since the Exhibition of 1851. On this point they furnish generally an encouraging answer ; and they constitute a valuable body of information upon their respective subjects. The reporters are Mr. Warington Smyth on Mining and Metallurgical Products, Mr. Fairbaim on Machinery in General, the Reverend Mr. Willis on Machinery for Woven Fabrics, Mr. Tyler on General Metal Work, Sir David Brewster on certain Optical and other Instruments, Dr. Arnett on Warming and Ventilation, Captain Fowko on Naval and Civil Construction, M. Arnoux on Cerullo Manufactures, M. Bontemps on Glass, Sir W. Hooker on Vegetable Products, Dr. Royle on certain Indian and Colonial Products, Mr. Redgrave on Design as applied to Manufactures, and Mr. Cole on the Public Cost of the British Department. We dip into the Reports for a few particulars bearing more particularly on industrial or decorative art. M. Arnoux, who speaks in the tone rather of an Englishman than of a Frenchman, delivers a gratifying judgment on our ceramics manufacture. "England is well known to be the seat of the largest manufacture " ; and not of the largest alone : "we may say without fear of contradiction that it is only in England that a wealthy man and a man of taste can
obtain what is suitable for the use and adornment of his table "—in the way, that is, of useable dinner and tea services, not of such objets de luxe as vases, which are more artistic from the Sevres factory. As to cheapness of pottery, however, we arc mistaken in imagining that we beat the French ; the prices are much the same for similar qualities. M. Bontemps holds that Britain was not adequately rewarded for her glass : the prizes given allowed her nothing higher than fourth rank. The best English glass is of unequalled whiteness and brilliancy, but the average is inferior in these respects to the French average. "The Exhibition does not show any remarkable improvement in the general manufacture of glass as compared with that of 1851." As to painted glass, a significant fact is cited, showing that the real inferiority of the modern to the medireval workman is not in processes, but in invention and design. In the competition for restoring the Sainte Chapelle, each manufacturer had to send in two specimens—an imitation of an old window, and a window of his own. The imitation could hardly be known from the original, but the new windows were vastly inferior.
Mr. Redgrave's report is a paper of considerable theoretic elaboration, enforcing high principles of decorative design, which he embodies in the following five propositions : that there is a generic character in style, implying some dominating influence of its period ; that design must have regard to construction ; that utility takes precedence of decoration ; that each decorative material has a proper style of its own ; and that decoration of houses, furniture, &c., should form a consistent whole, with due subordination of one member to another. He is very unceremoniously severe upon French ornamental design—its want of principle, its inaptitude to purpose, and its anarchic redundancy : indeed, though we have no doubt Mr. Redgrave writes for truth, and tells a number of home-truths, it is not improbable that his plain-speaking will lay him open across the water to a charge of unfriendliness. He afterwards proceeds to compare the lavish opportunities of education supplied to the French art-workman with their almost total deficiency in Great Britain till within late years ; he points out that this defect is now in course of remedy ; and he pronounces "a belief that the Paris Exhibition showed evidence of a great general progress in English manufactures towards good taste, and that, if we are still behind Franco in this respect, we are behind no other European nation." The report is cornprehensive, and worthy of careful study. The statement furnished by Mr. Cole shows a satisfactory economy n the application of the Government grant of 50,000/. for the representation of this country at the Paris Exhibition. The total expenditure, allowing for repayments and gain in exchange, did not exceed 39,259/. 198. 8c/.; the estimates for freight and expenses of the Jurors in particular having been much more than the actual outlay. We also show favourably in comparison with the expenses of the French department in the London Exhibition. Making the needful deduction on account of the Fine Arts section, which pertained to Paris alone, our expenses would be under 34,0004 against (as it is reputed) 88,000/. disbursed by the French ; although our exhibitors were 2826 against 1710, and the space occupied 75,489 superficial feet horizontal against 44,993.
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