MR. JELINGER SYMONS ON ARTS AND ARTISANS ABROAD AND AT

DOME.

Ms. SYMONS was an Assistant to the Commission appointed to inquire into the state of the Hand-loom Weavers and WAS sub- sequently employed on a "mission of inquiry. into the relative circumstances of the artisans of' France, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland." The volume before us consists of the facts which he collected in the course of his labours, and of the conclusions he drew from his statistics : and he has judiciously put them forth in a book, as an official report would have fettered his mode of stating fitcts, and stifled freedom of judgment,--or, as Mr. Symoss snore softly phrases it, his "field of observation has . afforded fruits which" he is "neither able to comprise nor willing to con- fine within the limits of a Parliamentary Report." The subjects of the volume are of three kinds. The first treats of pure statistics, and comprises an account of the wages of labour at home and abroad, especially in the great branches of manufacture —silk, cotton, and iron ; together with the prices of provisions in the countries the author visited, the number of manufactures esta- blished, and sometimes the rate of profit. The second class of topics also deals with facts, but of a more general and animating nature,— such as manufacturing economics, the general condition of the artisans, and their mode of life, with a comparison between their real comforts and those of our English workmen irrespective of nominal wages and prices. The third subject involves the poli- tical economy of Mr. &nu -s,—chiefly dealing with the general questions of free trade and extended suffrage, (for which Ile is a de- cided advocate,) and with the particular instances of "combina- tion" amongst operatives and the Corn-laws, (whose repeal he con- siders essential to the wellbeing of the country.) The general conclusions to which Mr. SYMONS has come may be indicated briefly ; referring those who wish for fuller information to the volume itself. He considers that the rate of wages abroad is more equal amongst different classes of labourers; which he attri- butes to the absence of combinations,—though we suspect it origi- nates in the nature of the social system, combination being only a secondary cause. Hand-weaving is carried on abroad, but no class is in the distressed state of the hand-loom weavers at home ; because, when men employ themselves in an occupation which only requires the "skill of children and the strength of women," they work only in the intervals of other labour. Except in Switzerland, and in parts of Belgium perhaps, the mass of English artisans appear on the whole to be better off than those of other countries ; those of France' hedged round with protections of all kinds, being decidedly the lowest in the scale—worst clothed, worst fed, worst educated. Switzerland, without any valuable product of' any kind except water-power, Mr. Symoxs paints as an artisan's paradise, where every man almost realizes the millennium of the prophet; but it is a paradise which our social system, with its dif- ferent classes and primogenitural feelings, would not allow to exist

or to be relished in England. In some parts of France the condi- tion of the artisan is quite as bad as that of the most -.7:::..tehed hand-loom weaver in Scotland ; with this difference, however, that the poverty of the French seems the long-established poverty of the district—all faring alike—and not the sudden depression of a par- ticular class of workmen, who see themselves surrounded by their more prosperous fellows. Belgium appears to approach the nearest to Great Britain. In South Prussia, the workmen are very pros- perous ; in North Prussia and the Austrian dominions, we infer that money's worth is in favour of the British artisans—content with that of the German.

So far as regards the increase of foreign manufactures, and the consequent competition with those of England, the report of Mr. &moss is gloomy. English machinery is smuggled abroad ; Eng- lish engineers are exported to teach the foreigner to fabricate it for himself; and English artisans are extensively employed to super- intend factories or execute the more difficult processes. Switzer- land, Prussia, and Belgium are, more or less, dispossessing us of their home supply, meeting us in third markets, and in some arti- cles beating us. Of the two, we suspect Belgium is likely to be our great rival. A population in the main agricultural, like that of Switzerland and Austria, and pursuing manufactures only inci- dentally, must, as business is now conducted, be confined within limits of no very great extent ; for regularity in the supply can scarcely be relied on. This principle peeps out in a communica- tion from a Swiss manufacturer.

"M. Gaspard de J. J. Wegermann told me, that when in Scotland, he con- vinced himself that he could manufacture more cheaply than the manufacturers there ; and that he could now have large orders from thence, but that it was necessary, always to complete them in so short a time, that he was not able to undertake them."

As a contribution to statistical knowledge, this work is entitled to high praise. The pure facts are numerous, important, and as complete as could be expected from any single labourer, besides possessing very great use as a repository for reference. Perhaps a better arrangement might have facilitated their utility for the pur- poses of deduction : the reader, who would form conclusions, must often draw the materials together himself. 'rho general views of the condition of artisans at home and abroad, and the comparisons instituted between them, are the most interesting, and, except to statists, the most valuable portion of the work. The political economy, though in the main sound, has perhaps more of zeal than is altogether becoming in science. The scheme for an educa- tional suffrage is out of place, and, in our judgment, a crotchet.

Having thus far spoken of the book in general, we must let it speak for itself in particulars.

EXTENT 01' VEGETABLE DIET.

The fird of the working classes, not only of Belgium but of all the countries of the Continent, consists of vegetables ; meat is not the food of the working classes either of Belgium or of any other country. It is the relish WA with food. The Italian eats macearoni; the staple Moo of' French and Germans is bread or cabbage ; of the Irish, potatoes, (and the consumption of potatoes, as a main article of sustenance, is by no means confined to the United King- dom, but is rapidly spreading over the Continent.) It is a beautiful fiction to describe John Bull as eating beef. If "John Bull" means two-third.s of the population, John Bull is living on vegetable diet ; and not above one-third of him is nourished by meat. The Indians eat rice; the West Indians yams and bread-tree ; the Africans dates ; in fact a fraction, and that a very small one, of mankind are carnivorous.

110W THE BELGIAN ARTISANS LIVE.

The workmen employed in the iron-works of the Ilninault, Liege, and the machine-making factories both of Seraiug, Bruxelles, Ghent, &c. live on pota- toes and vegetables, with a piece of meat among them, for dinner regularly ; coffee of chicory ; and on the Sundays, spirits in moderate quantity. These are the best paid.

The workmen who come under the second class arc the masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, 8:c. of the towns, the woollen factory and domestic weavers, who live nearly in the same manner, but consume either a less portion of meat, or take it only three or four times a week. The cotton weavers and factory workmen live less well. Potatoes and vege- table soup form their chief food, with bread half rye and half wheat; coflee, and occasionally a glass of spirits, and commonly brown beer, are their beverage. This beer is particularly nasty; but, I believe, wholly free from coeulus &c. &c.—pure malt, hops, water, and salt, ill proportioned, and execrably The linen weavers and the common labourers are identified, and consume potatoes and rye bread, which is a common article of consumption in Belgium, and indeed generally on the Continent among the poorest classes, vegetable soup, rarely flavoured with meat, coffee of chicory, beer, tke.

However coarse the food may be on which the Belgian artisan subsists, the abundance of their meals is most striking. I was constantly in the habit of entering their dwellings at meal times, and I uniformly found the contents of the table even greater than the capacity of their appetites.

Agricultural labourers are well fed : they have bread and coffee in the morn- ing, vegetable soup for dinner, with meat three times a week, with beer. The poorest of all cat rye bread and potatoes with coffee. With regard to the prices of food, an ablebodied man will support himself comfortably on sevenpence per day in Belgium, in the country. tread, such as labourers cat, is about a penny farthing per pound in the country ; other food in proportion.

FRENCII AND SCOTTISH MODES OF WORKING.

It may be safely assumed that a town weaver nets on the average thirty sous per day, and the country weaver twenty-five for fourteen hours' work.. They appear to use to work as hard as the Scottish weavers, though scarcely in the same manner; the latter will work desperately for three or four hours, in order that he may loiter and stand at his door an hour; the Tarare weaver, (and the remark holds good elsewhere in France,) keeps continually shuffling along, if I may so express it, and completes as much in fourteen hours' slug- gish work, as the Scottish weaver by broken portions of quicker work extended over the same period.

EMIGRATING LABOURERS.

The Voralberg, containing about 90,000 inhabitants, sends out masons and house-builders to nearly the whole of Switzerland and the neighbouring pro- vinces of France. They leave early in spring, and live very sparingly during the summer ; cooking for themselves a kind of pudding or soup of flour ails Indian corn, which, with bread, and now and then a glass of wine, suffice for

their nourishmen i

t. They return home n autumn, Where they have little to during winter ; excepting to fell tilted, &c. the forests, unil other clam e

Th

work. e children leave the country at the same time in thousands, to herd cattle in Suabitt and Bavaria: they get perhaps one pound, besides boars and lodgings, for their services, a suit of home-spun linen clothes, and two pair of shoes, and perhaps a bag of flour, which they manage to cook for themselves on the way, and return with nearly the whole of their earnings. The women who remain, and the elder men, cultivate the land, and the girls and ninny of the young men weave, and are employed in the manufactures.

ESTIMATE OF THE CONTINENTAL VALVE OF A SHILLING,

As a general proportion, (subject, however, to large variations,) we may per- haps assume that in Switzerland is. will go as far for a working man as Is. 34. here; in France, Belgium, Rhenish Prussia, as far as Is: 4d. here; in Austria and many parts of Prussia, as far as Is. 5d. here; and in Wurtemberg, pots of Austria, some of the Duchies, and Bohemia, as far as Is. 8d. or 18.10d. here ; always comparing towns with towns, and country with country; ay. cultural with agricultural districts, and manufacturing with manufacturmg districts. Hereafter, of course, in using-the term wages, I mean real wages, that is, amount olcommodities purchaseable with the money.

TABULAR VIEW OF WAGES ABROAD AND AT HOME.

Difference in Classes of Labourers.

In France and Belgium, average Weekly In England, average Weekly

favour of Eng. land, after adding one

Wages. Wages.

third forgreater cost of food,

fr. cent. s. d. s. d. s. d.

lot Class of Mechanics... 15 = 12 6 20 0 3 4 2d ditto ditto 10 80 ss.s 9 0 14 0 2 0 Farm Labourers 7 80 = 6 6 10 0 1 4 Spinning Factory ditto, men, women, and chil- dren 7 50 = 6 3 10 6 2 2

PROTECTION versus FREE TRADE, If we look to Switzerland, we shall see the far more potent influence of free trade in spite of territorial sterility. Look again at France. France, in spite of her great skill in some of the arts—in spite of her fertile soil, produei more food than her population can consume—and in spite of her miatur facilities in many branches of production, is by many degrees less forward in manuflictures, and is, in proportion to her population, at least one-third less wealthy than Switzerland, which possesses not one-half the food necessary for her population, which is placed under every topographical disadvantage, and whose soil furnishes the raw material of hardly one single manufacture in which she excels. I know of no country so flourishing as Switzerland, and there are few in Europe less so than France ; and that while she possesses abundant facilities for commercial wealth. I trace the cause of this signal difference to the fact, that whilst the shores and frontiers of France bristle with custom- houses, and she possesses the highest protective tariff in Europe, Switzerland has not a single customhouse, levies not a single duty, and has not one pro- tection to commerce among her laws. The result is, that capital and industry flow solely in the most productive channels. Skill and enterprise seek the field in which they have the greatest natural capacity to excel ; and not being weakened by having to furnish protective props for trades which cannot sup- poet themselves, they realize a far greater amount of exchangeable produce than could possibly be eff(AAvfl w1r0 they ohliged, first, to purchase the othee commodities of life at a protected price ; and secondly, to have their foreign market cramped by the customhouses which bar out the foreign purchaser.

WORKING or PROTECTION.

In France almost every trade robs the other and the consumer to boot, by way of making everybody richer; and France, nevertheless—wonderful to re- late—is getting poorer. Take the cotton-spinning as an example. In order that the cotton-spinners may be protected, our yarns under No. 170, are pro- hibited, and all above that number are admitted at a protecting duty. The weavers have got similar protection ; and of course nearly all cotton goods in France are sold at a high price. This, one would imagine, must be at least highly profitable to the fortunate monopolists : no such thing; no class com- plained more bitterly to me ot'theirwofimliy distressed condition. They had, it is true, their paws in their neighbour's platter ; and everybody in France pays dear for their calicoes and muslins ; hut their right to protection being of course no greater than other people's, there are other monkey monopolists who claim a similar immunity to pilli!ring. The iron -masters have got their pro- tecting duty of 25 per cent. on all foreign iron, and force the cotton-splinters in their turn to buy their bad iron at high prices for spinning machinery. It was certainly an edifying spectacle to see the cotton-spumer, with his leh. hand in the pocket of all the consumers of cottons, lifting up his right hand in the

fervour of virtuous indignation at the atrocious pilfering of the unprincipled iron-master. The iron-master in his turn proved to be an equally injured

individual, and assured time that if' the horrible rascality of that protecting duty on coals was to be continued, and the thievish coal-masters protected by that iniquitous duty on cheap foreign coal, he firmly believed that the destruction of commerce was inevitable.

In selecting our extracts, we have had recourse to such as pos i - sess a general interest : the manufacturer will find many pasEages

of a similar nature, and to him of greater importance as they respect the applied statistics of his business.