7 JANUARY 1871, Page 2

Is there not a shoemaker of genius in the world

who can give the world a shoe which will stand a month or two of hard work ? Are we really limited to leather for our feet.? It is quite clear that one of the main difficulties-cf the French Government is to provide their soldiers with boots for bad weather. The shoes they provide now fill with mud, and wear out in a week, and the number required is therefore excessive, something like half-a- million pairs a week. Without shoes the men cannot move, and a great deal of the bad marching of the French troops is attribu- table to this cause. Any shoemaker with brains who could in- vent a shoe that would serve as well as a leather one, stand three months' hard usage, and cost ten shillings, would make a fortune at a stroke.