France and other countries, as well as medals at three successive exhibitions. Under the empire, Chevallier was often honoured with Napoleon's praise of his philosophical instruments. He was at that epoch contractor for instruments for the imperial crown, and in that capacity sent many of his inventions and improvements to the palace at Rome. Under the restoration, his merit gained him the place of optician to the king and princes, and engineer to the pages of the bed-chamber. Louis XVIII., who esteemed him highly, gave him several private audiences. To conclude, he is at the present day royal optician, and continues the study of the science which has made him so celebrated.

We will add a few last words upon the character of Chevallier. Endowed with a noble and disinterested heart, he delights in encouraging and rewarding zeal and talent among those of his own profession; far different from those egotistical artists, who, overlooking everything except their own profit, are not ashamed to enrich themselves by oppressing those in their employ. M. Chevallier is, like Sebastian Erard, the model of a good master; his treatment of those about him being always mild, affable, and conciliating. This course of conduct produces a spirit of emulation among the workmen, each one endeavouring to attain the degree of excellence aimed at by him. in every thing made under his direction. One has but to enter his shops and workrooms to see how much he is beloved and respected by his workmen. It seems like one extensive and laborious family, where all are happy if they can but fulfil the wishes of him who is at their head, and thus prove their affection for him.

CHAPTER XLIX.

MANUFACTURES-RICHARD LENOIR.

bourg Saint Antoine.

MONG the names which rank high for having, in a great degree, contributed to the commercial prosperity of France, is that of the celebrated Richard Lenoir: one equal to that of Oberkampf, and which will always be mentioned with respectful gratititude in all the workshops of the Fau

François-Richard (known as Richard) Lenoir, born on the 16th of April, 1765, at Trélat, a little village of Calvados, belonged to a family of poor farmers. Endowed with an active and inventive imagination, he manifested, from his earliest childhood, a decided inclination for trade. At the age of twelve, he undertook the care of a number of pigeons, and earned a small sum of money by selling them. The lord of the district put a stop to this commerce,-but not until Richard had sold all his pigeons; and, with the forty-two francs they brought him, had procured himself a pair of hob-nailed shoes. Hitherto he had worn wooden ones, like those of his playfellows.

To the trade in pigeons succeeded that of a handsome race of dogs; and Richard's gains were evinced in the striking difference between his costume and that of the other boys in the school. Having learned to read and write well, he was intrusted with the keeping of the register of the cattle-market, which was held every Wednesday, at Villiers le Bocage.

Actuated by a love of traffic, and a desire to enrich himself, he left his father's residence at the age of seventeen, well provided with clothes, but having only twelve francs in his pocket. He remained at Rouen for a short time, in the employ of a dealer

in printed cottons; but, by some unfortunate chance, instead of being allowed an advantageous share in the business, Richard found himself obliged to perform various servile offices for his employer. Finally, disappointed in this, he hastily left the situation for that of a lemonade-seller, hoping thereby to amass a sufficient sum to enable him to go to Paris.

A year afterwards we behold him in that city, struggling against the numerous difficulties which a beginner always encounters. He served as a waiter in a coffee-house in the Rue Saint Dénis, for a year. He there made a capital of one thousand francs, and resolved to go into trade. Hiring a room in a sixth story, in the Rue Saint Honoré, in the neighbourhood of the Piazza, he purchased several pieces of English dimity, then very rare in France, and to insure a sale, carried them from house to house. Six months had hardly passed before Richard was in possession of 25,000 livres.

The revolution broke out; but if we except a few unimportant accidents, it had no effect whatever upon Richard's ever active spirit. He took a commodious shop in the Rue Française, and was so fortunate in his speculations as to be soon able to become the possessor of the fine estate of Fayt, near Némours. At the earliest intimations of the approach of the period so justly termed that of terror, he had the good sense to suspend his commercial operations, which would rather tend to endanger him than otherwise. Summing up his gains with his partner, he left Paris to pay a visit to his relations, then residing in the village of Epinay.

Richard's arrival at home seemed a sort of providential circumstance. Hardly had he crossed his father's threshold, when bailiffs presented themselves for the arrest of the old man. He had gone bail for a tax-gatherer, who had absconded with the funds in his own possession. The son satisfied their demands, and proved thereby that the twelve francs he had carried away with him ten years before had not lain idle.

After passing two months with his family, Richard returned

to Paris, and to his former trade now added that of a lapidary, which he found extremely profitable. Chance brought him into contact with a young merchant named Lenoir Dufresne. Both had resolved to buy the same piece of English cloth. Being pleased with each other, they bought it together, and soon after entered into a partnership, which was only dissolved by the death of Lenoir Dufresne. Their establishment attracted such crowds of purchasers, that at the end of six months their sales amounted to fifteen hundred francs a day, and at the expiration of a year, their daily receipts rose to the sum of 4,000 francs. Finally, when they made their inventory in fourteen months, they ascertained that the 6,000 francs they had invested in the business had produced a revenue of 112,000 francs. Their great profit was upon English goods.

"The time had now come," says a well-informed biographer, "for Richard to become himself the manufacturer of the cotton stuffs, in which he had so long speculated and with so much. success. The longer he pursued this branch of trade, the more anxious he became to discover the secret of their fabrication. Chance revealed it to him. One day, during his partner's absence, he amused himself with ravelling the threads of some English goods: he weighed these threads, and ascertained that a piece of eight yards in length, and worth eighty francs, only weighed eight pounds, and could only have been valued at twelve francs in its original state; consequently, sixty-eight francs remained for the working up. This was a new light upon the subject. But the question now was, how to procure the raw material; for England was the great cotton mart: it was there that this substance was received, spun, and manufactured. The difficulty was a serious one, but commercial enterprise was able to surmount it.

From that time, Richard entertained the patriotic idea of setting France free from the sort of tax now imposed upon her by England. Animated by this noble ambition, he triumphed over the doubts and fears of his partner, and set himself to work.

His first two looms were set up in a public house in the Rue de Bellefond, and dimity, similar to the English, was woven. Lenoir discovered the method of figuring it. A spinning-factory was now necessary to the prosperity of the new art. Richard had twenty-two mull jennies constructed at a great expense, with carding-machines and trundles. These he established in a large house in the Rue de Thorigny, in the Marais. The stuffs sold well and rapidly; for they were believed to be of English manufacture. In want of space for his rapidly-increasing machines, and under the daily necessity of procuring new workmen, Richard, trusting to the protection of the First Consul, Bonaparte, took a sort of military possession of the deserted buildings formerly known as the Convent of Bon Secours.

Causing the vast apartments to be repaired with the rapidity of enchantment, he filled them with his workmen. Napoleon, hearing of this invasion, paid a visit to the establishment, and expressed his approbation of the activity so conspicuous in every department; he witnessed with much pleasure the process of bleaching the cotton, and testified his high opinion of the two manufacturers, by giving them permission to occupy the former Convent of Trênelle, situated opposite to that of Bon Secours,

It was then that this new branch of trade underwent the immense developement which distinguished it above all others; and then were reaped the enormous profits amounting to 40,000 francs a month.

Nevertheless, encouraged by their extraordinary success, Richard and Lenoir redoubled their activity in extending their labours. Before long, three hundred looms were established in various villages of Picardy; forty in Alençon; one hundred mull jennies, and more than two hundred weaver's looms, in the Abbey of Saint Martin, near Luzarches. An arrangement was made by them for giving employment to all the women who were in jail at Alençon. The Abbey of the Benedictines was used for this purpose, and the Abbey of Aulnay was opened to six hundred workmen.