COLUMN IN THE PLACE VENDOME.

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This column has undergone many political revolutions since its erection. A monument to victory, it experienced in 1814 the outrages of defeat. The troops of the allied powers which invaded France, tore down the colossal statue of Napoleon with violence; a statue which, from the summit of its triumphal pillar, seemed to rule over the whole world. By insulting the image of our hero, these barbarous soldiers hoped in some sort to pull the living man from his pedestal as easily as they had torn him from his throne; but posterity has undertaken to prove the folly of such an attempt. Time, which destroys all things, not only respects legitimate glory, but sanctions it, strengthens it, and transmits it from one generation to another.

It was impossible to ask at the hands of government the restoration of the statue of a man looked upon as a usurper. But after the revolution of July, government considered it a duty, and every one knows with how good a grace it was accomplished. The statue of the modern Charlemagne again stands upon its column. But he is no longer as at first, a half-naked warrior crowned with laurels, his right hand leaning on his sword, his left bearing a globe surmounted by victory. Now, Napoleon, the man of the age, is represented in a manner conformable to historical truth. In accordance with true good taste, the hero is clothed in his favourite costume, in which he won so many battles, and which has become so celebrated since Béranger has made it the subject of one of his most popular songs. "Now," as remarks the author of a recently published work (Etudes physiologiques sur les grandes Metropoles de l'Europe occidentale), Gaeton Niepoiré, "the Napoleon of the Place Vendôme is the same Napoleon in the cocked hat and gray cloak, who is so well known to all men, of all ranks and all capacities. It is he, in his dress, in his bearing, and even in his glance, which seems a continuation of one uninterrupted idea."

Let us now cast our eyes upon some of our manufactories; we shall find that they have not remained stationary during the empire.

Owing to the fortunate introduction of machinery at Sedan and Abbeville, great improvements were made in the articles. produced. Great advantages resulted in particular from the substitution of mechanism for the old system of hand-labour; besides increased beauty in the stuffs, economy was an important result gained.

Amiens, that fine city, watered by the Somme, and which is so justly proud of its magnificent cathedral, the most admirable religious monument in France, next deserves mention for her cassimeres, which bid defiance to those of other countries. Her cotton velvets merit equal praise. It was at Amiens, that M. Gensse Duminy introduced the fabrication of the patent cord, a material formerly entirely monopolized by England, and sold there at an exorbitant price.

After the establishment of the Jouy manufactory, other similar ones were erected in the department of the Upper Rhine, for printed cottons; thus spreading ease and comfort throughout the country, and insuring results of a most fortunate nature. In 1806, the committee foretold a brilliant career to M. Mulhausen's manufactures, and gave M. Dolfus Mieg the silver medal for beauty of colouring and design; adding: "All those employed in the fabrication of the Mulhausen stuffs may behold in this medal a proof of the high opinion entertained by the committee, who have examined their stuffs with care, and pronounced them beautiful, excellent, and worthy of admiration." Afterwards, five manufacturers in this same town obtained the gold medal.

With the re-establishment of luxury, lace of all kinds came again into favour, and gave rise to the celebrated manufactories at Alençon, Chantilly, and Brussels, which took the first rank; and Le Puy, Arras, Valenciennes, Douai, and various other towns. Elbeuf, from the very beginning, gained a great name for her productions, which were brought down to the level of moderate fortunes, and increased in beauty without a proportionate rise in price. Flanders and Courtrai maintained their

former renown, whilst the cities of Côtes du Nord, La Sarthe, and La Mayenne, were distinguished by the strength, durability, and low prices of their goods. Cambrai, Valenciennes, and Saint Quentin, so remarkable for its Hotel de Ville, continued to fabricate lawns and batistes in great perfection. This lastmentioned town receives a fortieth part of the cotton annually imported into France, and has established numerous workshops where the machinery is made, and now employs nearly seven hundred workmen.

We must not omit to mention the successful efforts to introduce into France the worm which produces white silk.

Formerly, the only silk-worm known in France was that which produces the yellow cocoon; but this could not be made into white silk, except by submitting it to operations by which its strength was materially diminished. Roard, a manufacturer and chemist, made great improvements in the art of bleaching yellow silk. But the white colour obtained by his process faded by degrees, and acquired a yellowish tint.

The only means of obviating this difficulty was to import the other species of worm from China; a worm which produces silk of a perfect whiteness, and which from its origin is called sina. Some attempts had been previously made to introduce this worm into France; but the troubles of the revolution had interrupted them, and the project was abandoned.

The imperial government, enlightened by the advice of the consulting committee of arts and manufactures, brought it again into notice, and offered rewards to those who would undertake the propagation of this precious species of silk-worm. About the same time (1808,) the society for the encouragement of the arts offered a prize of two thousand francs to the proprietor who would undertake this new office on the largest scale. The results were of the most advantageous kind. From that time, the cultivation of this valuable chrysalis extended more and more; the silk produced is sold at a higher price than that of the ordinary yellow cocoons, but is nevertheless much sought

after, and great encouragement is afforded to those who have undertaken the care of this new species of silk-worm.

It cannot be denied that silk-weaving owes its many modern improvements to the new machines invented in the beginning of this century. "Those in previous use," as the Baron Charles Dupin remarks, in his work entitled Progres de l'Industrie Francaise, "were inconvenient on account of their being so very complicated. They were provided with numerous strings and pedals; they required the labour of several individuals to keep them in motion. Those employed in this wearisome occupation were principally young women and children, who during the whole day were obliged to remain in painful attitudes, by which their limbs often became deformed. Indeed, some contracted mortal diseases."

All these dangerous effects disappeared upon the invention of Jacquard's mechanism; the name of which is at the present day so justly popular, as we have before had occasion to remark when we gave a description of the services of this eminently useful man.

Among the inventions of machinery useful in facilitating and perfecting the weaving of silk, we must mention that of the mechanician Briard, of Bouen, an ingenious machine, which received the name of Briarde, from that of its inventor.

BRONZE ORNAMENTS.

URING the first years of the empire, the art of casting and moulding bronze was of valuable assistance to luxury, by providing ornaments for rooms and table-services. It is not here necessary to speak of the great and bold labours, of which Jean Balthazar Keller possessed the se

cret, when, with metal weighing eighty thousand pounds, he made, in one single operation, the magnificent statue of Louis XIV., which was erected in the Place Vendôme, and the fine statue called the Knife-grinder, now to be seen in the garden. of the Tuileries.

The revolution, by dispersing and scattering all large fortunes, opened the way to new improvements in the art of making groups and situes of bronze. This substance, almost equal in

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