States for $15 or even $10 per tun? Consider that Flax has been
extensively grown for years, even in our own State, for the seed only,
the straw being thrown out to rot and being a positive nuisance to the
grower. Now the seed is morally certain to command, for two or three
years at least, a higher price than hitherto, because of the increased
growth and extended use of the fiber. Let no farmer who has Flax growing
be tempted to sell the seed by contract or otherwise for the present;
let none be given over to the tender mercies of oil-mills. We shall need
all that is grown this year for sowing next Spring, and it is morally
certain to bear a high price even this Fall. The sagacious should
caution their less watchful neighbors on this point. I shall be
disappointed if a bushel of Flax-seed be not worth two bushels of Wheat
in most parts of our Country next May.
Our ensuing Agricultural Fairs, State and local, should be improved for
the diffusion of knowledge and the attainment of concert and mutual
understanding with regard to the Flax-Culture. For the present, at any
rate, few farmers can afford or will choose to incur the expense of the
heavy machinery required to break and roughly dress their flax, so as to
divest it of four-fifths of its bulk and leave the fiber in a state for
easy transportation to the central points at which Flax-Cotton machinery
may be put in operation. If the Flax-straw has to be hauled fifty or
sixty miles over country roads to find a purchaser or breaking-machine,
the cost of such transportation will nearly eat up the proceeds. If the
farmers of any township can be assured beforehand that suitable
machinery will next Summer be put up within a few miles of them, and a
market there created for their Flax, its growth will be greatly
extended. And if intelligent, energetic, responsible men will now turn
their thoughts toward the procuring and setting up of the best
Flax-breaking machinery (not for fully dressing but merely for
separating the fibre from the bulk of the woody substance it incloses)
they may proceed to make contracts with their neighboring farmers for
Flax-straw to be delivered in the Autumn of next year on terms highly
advantageous to both parties. The Flax thus roughly dressed may be
transported even a hundred miles to market at a moderate cost, and there
can be no reasonable doubt of its commanding a good price. M. Claussen
assures me that he could now buy and profitably use almost any quantity
of such Flax if it were to be had. The only reason (he says) why there
are not now any number of spindles and looms running on Flax-Cotton is
the want of the raw material. (His patent is hardly yet three mouths
old.) Taking dressed and hetcheled Flax, worth seven to nine cents per
pound, and transforming it into Flax-Cotton while Cotton is no higher
than at present, would not pay.
Of course, there will be disappointments, mistakes, unforeseen
difficulties, disasters, in Flax-growing and the consequent fabrications
hereafter as heretofore. I do not presume that every man who now rushes
into Flax will make his fortune; I presume many will incur losses. I
counsel and urge the fullest inquiry, the most careful calculations,
preliminary to any decisive action. But that such inquiry will lead to
very extensive Flax-sowing next year,--to the erection of Flax-breaking
machinery at a thousand points where none such have ever yet
existed--and ultimately to the firm establishment of new and most
important branches of industry, I cannot doubt. Our own country is
better situated than any other to take the lead in the Flax-business;
her abundance of cheap, fertile soil and of cheap seed, the intelligence
of her producers, the general diffusion of water or steam power, and our
present superiority in Flax-breaking machinery, all point to this
result. It will be unfortunate alike for our credit and our prosperity
if we indolently or heedlessly suffer other nations to take the lead in
it.
_P. S._--M. Claussen has also a Circular Loom in the Exhibition, wherein
Bagging, Hosiery, &c., may be woven without a seam or anything like one.
This loom may be operated by a very light hand-power (of course, steam
or water is cheaper), and it does its work rapidly and faultlessly. I
mention this only as proof of his inventive genius, and to corroborate
the favorable impression he made on me. I have seen nothing more
ingenious in the immense department devoted to British Machinery than
this loom.
I understand that overtures have been made to M. Claussen for the
purchase of his American patent, but as yet without definite result.
This, however, is not material. Whether the patent is sold or held,
there will next year be parties ready to buy roughly dressed Flax to
work up under it, and it is preparation to grow such Flax that I am
urging. I believe nothing more important or more auspicious to our
Farming Interest has occurred for years than this discovery by M.
Claussen. He made it in Brazil, while engaged in the growth of Cotton.
It will not supersede Cotton, but it will render it no longer
indispensable by providing a substitute equally cheap, equally
serviceable, and which may be grown almost everywhere. This cannot be
realized too soon.
XIII.
LEAVING THE EXHIBITION.
LONDON, Friday, June 6, 1851.
The great "Exposition" (as the French more accurately term it) has now
been more than five weeks open, and is nearly complete. You may wander
for miles through its richly fringed avenues without hearing the sound
of saw or hammer, except in the space allotted to Russia, which is now
boarded up on all sides, and in which some twenty or thirty men are at
work erecting stands, unpacking and arranging fabrics, &c. I visited it
yesterday, and inferred that the work is pushed night and day, since a
part of the workmen were asleep (under canvas) at 2 o'clock. This
apartment promises to be most attractive when opened to the public. Its
contents will not be numerous, but among them are very large and showy
manufactures of Porcelain, Bronze, &c., and tables of the finest
Malachite, a single piece weighing (I think) nearly or quite half a ton.
Not half the wares are yet displayed, but "Russia" will be the center of
attraction for some days after it is thrown open.
The Exhibition has become a steady, business-like concern. The four
"shilling days" of each week are improved and enjoyed by the common
people, who quietly put to shame the speculation of the Aristocratic
oracles as to their probable behavior in such a magazine of wealth and
splendor--whether they might not make a general rush on the precious
stones, plate and other valuables here staring them in the face, with
often but a single policeman in sight--whether they might not refuse to
leave at the hour of closing, &c., &c. The gates are surrounded a little
before ten in the morning by a gathering, deepening crowd, but all
friendly and peaceable; and when they open at the stroke of the clock, a
dense column pours in through each aperture, each paying his shilling as
he passes (no tickets being used and no change given--the holders of
season, jurors' and exhibitors' tickets have separate entrances), and
all proceeding as smoothly as swiftly. Within half an hour, ten thousand
shillings will have thus been taken: within the next hour, ten thousand
more; thence the admissions fall off; but the number ranges pretty
regularly from Forty to Fifty Thousand per day, making the daily
receipts from $10,000 to $12,000. Yesterday was a great Race Day at
Ascot, attended by the Queen and Royal Family, as also by most of the
habitual idlers, with a multitude beside (and a miserably raw, rainy,
chilly day they had of it, with very poor racing), yet I should say that
the attendance at the Exhibition was greater than ever before. Certainly
not less than fifty thousand shillings, or $12,000, can have been taken.
For hours, the Grand Avenue, which is nearly or quite half a mile long
and at least thirty feet wide, was so filled with the moving mass that
no vacant spaces could be seen from any position commanding an extensive
prospect, though small ones were occasionally discoverable while
threading the mazes of the throng. The visiters were constantly turning
off into one or another department according to their several tastes;
but their places were as constantly supplied either by new-comers or by
those who, having completed their examinations in one department, were
hastening to another, or looking for one especially attractive. Turn
into whatever corner you might, there were clusters of deeply interested
gazers, intent on making the most of their day and their shilling, while
in the quieter nooks from 1 to 3 o'clock might be seen families or
parties eating the lunch which, with a prophetic foresight of the
miserable quality and exorbitant price of the viands served to you in
the spacious Refreshment Saloons, they had wisely brought from home. But
these saloons were also crowded from an early to a late hour, as they
are almost every day, and I presume the concern which paid a high price
for the exclusive privilege of ministering to the physical appetites
within the Crystal Palace will make a fortune by it, though the
interdiction of Wines and Liquors must prove a serious drawback. It must
try the patience of some of the visiters to do without their beer or ale
from morning to night; and if you leave the building on any pretext,
your shilling is gone. Every actual need of the day is provided for
inside, even to the washing of face and hands (price 2d.). But Night
falls, and the gigantic hive is deserted and closed, leaving its fairy
halls, its infinite wealth, its wondrous achievements, whether of Nature
or of Art, to darkness and silence. Of course, a watch is kept, and,
under pressing and peculiar circumstances, work has been permitted; but
the treasures here collected must be guarded with scrupulous vigilance.
If a fire should consume the Crystal Palace, the inevitable loss must
exceed One Hundred Millions of Dollars, even supposing that a few of the
most precious articles should be snatched from the swift destruction.
Ten minutes without wind, or five with it, would suffice to wrap the
whole immense magazine in flames, and not a hundredth part of the value
of building and contents would remain at the close of another hour.
POPULAR EDUCATION.
The Exhibition is destined to contribute immensely to the Industrial and
Practical Education of the British People. The cheap Excursion Trains
from the Country have hardly commenced running yet; but it is certain
that a large proportion of the mechanics, artisans and apprentices of
the manufacturing towns and districts will spend one or two days each in
the Palace before it closes. Superficial as such a view of its contents
must be, it will have important results. Each artisan will naturally be
led to compare the products of his own trade with those in the same line
from other Nations, especially the most successful, and will be
stimulated to discern and master the point wherein his own and his
neighbor's efforts have hitherto comparatively failed. Of a million who
come to gaze, only an hundred thousand may come with any clear idea of
profiting by the show, and but half of those succeed in carrying back
more wisdom than they brought here; yet even those are quite an army;
and fifty thousand skilled artisans or sharp-eyed apprentices viewing
such an Exposition aright and going home to ponder and dream upon it,
cannot fail of working out great triumphs. The British mind is more
fertile in improvement than in absolute invention, as is here
demonstrated, especially in the department of Machinery; and the simple
adaptation of the forces now attained, the principles established, the
machines already invented, to all the beneficent uses of which they are
capable, would speedily transform the Industrial and Social condition of
mankind. I am perfectly satisfied, for example, that Boots and Shoes may
be cut out and made up by machinery with less than one-fourth the labor
now required--that this would require no absolutely new inventions, but
only an adaptation of those already well known. So in other departments
of Industry. There is no reason for continuing to sew plain seams on
thick cloth by hand, when machinery can do the work even better and
twenty times as fast. I shall be disappointed if this Exhibition be not
speedily followed by immense advances in Labor-Saving Machinery,
especially in this country.
But out of the domain of Industry, British Progress in Popular Education
is halting and partial. And the chief obstacle is not a want of means,
nor even niggardliness; for the Nation is wealthy, sagacious and
public-spirited. I think the influential classes generally, or at least
very extensively, realize that a well managed system of Common Schools,
supported by taxation on Property, would save more in diminishing the
burthen of Pauperism than it would cost. I believe the Ministry feel
this. And yet Mr. Fox's motion looking to such a system was voted down
in the House of Commons by some three to one, the Ministry and their
reliable supporters vieing with the Tories in opposing it! So the Nation
is thrown back on the wretched shift of Voluntaryism, or Instruction for
the poor and ignorant children to be provided, directed and paid for by
their poor, ignorant and often vicious parents, with such help and
guidance as self-constituted casual associations may see fit to give
them. The result is and will be what it ever has been and must be--the
virtual denial of Education to a great share of the rising generation.
For this suicidal crime, I hold the Episcopal and Roman Catholic
Priesthoods mainly responsible, but especially the former. If they would
only stand out of the way, a system of efficient Common Schools for the
whole Nation might be speedily established. But they will not permit it.
By insisting that no Nationally directed and supported system shall be
put in operation which does not recognize and affirm the tenets of their
respective creeds, they render the adoption of any such system
impossible. They see this; they know it; they _mean_ it. And nothing
moves me to indignation quicker than their stereotyped cant of "Godless
education," "teaching infidelity," "knowledge worthless or dangerous
without Religion," &c. &c. Why, Sirs, it is very true that the People
need Religious as well as purely Intellectual culture, but the former
has been already provided for. You clergymen of the Established Church
have been richly endowed and beneficed expressly for this work--_why
don't you_ DO _it?_ Why do you stand here darkening and
stopping the gateway of secular instruction with a self-condemning
assumption that your own duties have been and are criminally neglected,
and that therefore others shall likewise remain unperformed? Teach the
children as much Religion as you can; very few of you ever lack pupils
when you give your hearts to the work; and if they prove less apt or
less capable learners because they have been taught reading, writing,
grammar, geography and arithmetic in secular schools, it argues some
defect in your theology or its teachers. If you really wanted the
children taught Religious truth, you would be right glad to have them
taught letters and other rudimental lessons elsewhere, so as to be
fitted to apprehend and retain your inculcations. It should suffice for
the condemnation of all Established Churches ever more, that the
State-paid Priesthood of Great Britain is to-day the chief impediment to
a system of Common Schools throughout the British Isles.
The Catholic Clergy have more excuse. They, too unite in the
impracticable requirement that the dogmas of their Church shall be
taught in the schools attended by Catholic children, when they ought to
teach them these dogmas out of School-hours, and be content that no
antagonist dogmas are taught in the secular Schools. But _they_ receive
nothing from the State, and have good reason to regard it as hostile to
their faith, therefore to suspect its purposes and watch narrowly its
movements. If they would only take care to have a good system of Common
School Education established and efficiently sustained in Spain,
Portugal, Italy, Mexico, and other Countries wherein they are the
conscience-keepers of the great majority and practically omnipotent in
the sphere of moral and social effort, I could better excuse their
unfortunate attitude here. As it is, the difference between them and
their State-paid rivals here seems one of position rather than of
principle. And, in spite of either or both, this generation will yet see
Common Schools free and universal throughout this realm. But even a year
seems long to wait for it.
TOWN GOSSIP.
Preparations are on foot for a grand banquet at Birmingham to the Royal
Commissioners, the Foreign Commissioners and the Jurors at the
Exhibition, to take place on or about the 16th. This is to be followed
by one still more magnificent given by the Mayor and Council of London,
which the Queen is expected to attend. The East India Company give one
to-morrow evening, but I hope then to be in France, as I intend to leave
for Paris to-morrow. The advertisements promise to put us "through in
eleven hours" by the quickest and dearest route. Others take twice as
many.
Miss CATHARINE HAYES, a Vocalist of European reputation, who sang the
last winter mainly in Rome, means to visit America in September. She is
here ranked very high in her profession, and profoundly esteemed and
respected in private life. I have heard her but once, having had but two
evenings' leisure for public entertainments since I came here. There is
but one Jenny Lind, but Miss Hayes need not shrink from a comparison with
any other singer. She is very highly commended by the best Musical critics
of London. I cannot doubt that America will ratify their judgment.
We have had tolerably fair, pleasant weather for some time until the
last two days, when clouds, chilly winds and occasional rain have
returned. The "oldest inhabitant" don't remember just such weather at
this season--as he probably observed last June. I shall gladly leave it
for dryer air and brighter skies.
XIV.
LONDON TO PARIS.
PARIS, Monday, June 9, 1851.
I left London Bridge at 11 1/2 on Saturday for this City, via South-Eastern
Railway to Dover, Steamboat to Calais and Railroad again to Paris. This
is the dearest and quickest route between the two capitals, and its
advertisements promised for $13 1/2 to take us "Through in Eleven Hours,"
which was a lie, as is quite usual with such promises. We came on quite
rapidly to Dover--a very mean, old town--but there lost about an hour in
the transfer of our baggage to the steamboat, which was one of those
long, black, narrow scow contrivances, about equal to a buttonwood
"dug-out," which England appears to delight in. They would not be
tolerated as ferry-boats on any of our Western rivers, yet they are made
to answer for the conveyance of Mails and Passengers across an arm of
the sea on the most important route in Europe. In this wretched concern,
which was too insignificant to be slow, we went cobbling and wriggling
across the Channel (27 miles) in something less than two hours, often
one gunwale nearly under water and the other ten or twelve feet above
it, with no room under deck for half our passengers, and the spray
frequently dashing over those above it, three fourths of the whole
number deadly sick (this individual of course included), when with a
decent boat the passage might be regularly made, in spite of such a
smartish breeze as we encountered, in comparative comfort. Perhaps we
felt glad enough on reaching the shore to pay for this needless misery,
and I readily believe that an hour or two of sea-sickness may be harshly
wholesome, yet I do think that a good boat on such a route might well be
afforded and cannot reputably be withheld. That part of England through
which we passed on this route is much like that I have already described
on the other side of London. The face of the country is very moderately
undulating; there is a fair proportion of trees and shrubbery, though no
considerable forest that I noticed; perhaps an eighth of the land may be
sowed with Wheat, but Grass is the general staple. I should say three
fourths of all the land in sight from this railway is covered with it,
while very little is planted or devoted to gardening after the few miles
next to London. Hops engross considerable attention, and I presume pay
well, being demanded by the national addiction to beer drinking. Still,
Grass, Cattle and Sheep are the Staples; and these require so much less
human labor per acre than Grain and Vegetables that I cannot see how the
rural, laboring population can find adequate employment or subsistence.
It looks as though the gradual substitution of Grass for Grain since the
repeal of the Corn-laws must deprive a large portion of the best British
peasantry of work, compelling them to emigrate to America or Australia
for a subsistence. Such emigration is already very active, and must
increase if the present low prices of Breadstuffs prove permanent.
I was again disappointed in seeing so little attention to Fruit Culture.
I know this is not the Fruit region of England, but the destitution of
fruit trees is quite universal. Since it is plain that an acre of choice
Apple trees will yield at least a hundred bushels of palatable food,
with little labor, and grass enough beside to pay for all the care it
requires, I cannot see why Fruit is so neglected. The peach, I hear,
does poorly throughout the kingdoms, requiring extra shelter and
sunshine, yet yielding indifferent fruit in return, which is reason
enough for neglecting it; but the Apple is hardier, and does well in
other localities no more genial than this. I think it has been unwisely
slighted.
An important and profitable business, I think, might be built up in our
country in the production of Dried Fruits, especially peaches, and their
exportation to Europe, or at any rate to England. I was among those who
"sat at good men's feasts," both rich and poor (the men, not the
feasts), during the six weeks I was in England, yet I cannot remember
that Dried Apples or Peaches were ever an element of the repast, though
Gooseberries, Rhubarb, Raisins, Currants, &c., are abundantly resorted
to. If some American of adequate capital and capacity would embark in
the growth and curing of Apples, Peaches, &c., expressly for the English
market, drying them perfectly, preparing them with scrupulous neatness,
and putting them up in clean wooden boxes of twenty-five, fifty and one
hundred pounds, I think he might do well by it. For such a purpose,
cheap lands and cheap labor (that of aged persons and young children)
might be made available, while in years of bountiful Peach harvests,
like the last, even New-Jersey and Delaware could be drawn upon for an
extra supply. The miscellaneous exportation of any Dried Fruits that
might happen to be on the market would probably involve loss, because
time and expenditure are required to make these products known to the
great majority of British consumers, and assure them that the article
offered them has been prepared with scrupulous cleanliness. With proper
exertion and outlay, I believe an advantageous market might thus be
opened for several Millions' worth of American products of which little
or nothing is now known in Europe.
We were detained a long hour in Calais--a queer old town, with little
trade and only a historical importance--although our baggage was not
examined there, but sealed up for custom-house scrutiny at Paris. They
made a few dollars out of us by charging for extra baggage, one of them
out of me, though my trunk contained only clothing and three or four
books. Small business this for a Railroad, though it will do in stage
transportation. Our passports were scrutinized--mine not very
thoroughly--we (the green ones) obtained an execrable dinner for 37 1/2
cents, and changed some sovereigns for French silver at a shave which
was not atrocious. Finally, we were all let go.