THE ravages of the Revolution completely laid waste the whole
of France intellectually, as well as morally, and the labours of
eminent artists and inventors were either suspended or transferred to
foreign countries.
The murderers of Lavoisier could scarcely be expected to patronise
either arts or useful sciences.
In the short space of ten years more injury has been done to the useful
arts in France than by all the Alarics and Omars of antiquity.
However, the Revolutionists had not proceeded very far in the route of
devastation, when a few enlightened men, who perceived the extent of
the mischief threatened to be entailed upon posterity, courageously
opposed their further progress, and adopted the most provident
precautions to stop the fury of the evil.
Through the indefatigable exertions of Bishop Grégoire the National
Convention on October 11, 1794, decreed the establishment of a
Conservatory of Arts, whose object was to collect machines, utensils,
designs, descriptions and experiments, relating to the improvement
of industry, so as to diffuse some knowledge of them throughout the
Republic.
But it was one thing to decree and another to execute. By a studied
remissness the law was suspended for three years. National edifices
were granted by dint of favour to useless projectors, but the
Conservatory of Arts could find no place to display its riches and
means of instruction. At length a decree, passed on May 7, appropriated
a portion of the former Abbey of St. Martin des Champs to this object,
and the inadequate sum of 56,000 livres, or £2240 sterling, was voted
for the reparations of the building, the purchase of the land and the
indemnity accorded to the renter.
[Sidenote: CONSERVATOIRE D’ARTS]
Thus finally organised, the Conservatory of Arts presents a splendid
accumulation of useful machines, always open for the inspection and
improvement of the public. The machines, which Pajot d’Ozemberg gave to
the ancient Academy of Sciences, and the greater part of the beautiful
models which composed the celebrated gallery of mechanical arts
belonging to the late Duke of Orleans, are now in this Conservatory.
Also the 500 machines bequeathed to the Government by the celebrated
Vaucouson, to whom the French nation is as much indebted as to Olivier
des Serres and Bernard Palissy.
In addition to these collections there is an infinite number of
machines relative to agricultural labours, such as draining,
irrigation, preparation of oil, &c.
The Conservatory also contains machines for twisting tobacco, taken
from on board an English vessel, as well as a very important chart of
North America, executed by order of our Government. It has been greatly
enriched by the “_discoveries_” of certain French savans, those
learned robbers of the National Institute who followed the victorious
march of the Republican armies in Holland and Italy. Whole waggon loads
of instruments of science have been filched from their proprietors
and transmitted to this National reservoir by those industrious,
indefatigable and erudite thieves, Citizens Thonin, Fanjos, Leblond,
Bertholet, Barthélémy, Monge, Moitte and De Wailly.
The object of the Conservatory is not only to secure to the public the
knowledge of those inventions for which the Government has conferred
rewards or granted patents, but also to become the common depot of
all inventions. Thus it is for the useful arts what the Louvre is for
sculpture or painting.
Upon the whole this Conservatoire d’Arts is one of the most beneficial
and laudable establishments in France. It has a direct tendency to
encourage industry and stimulate genius. Some persons who have not
sufficiently examined the matter object to it on the plea, that by
rendering handicrafts more simple by mechanical force, a multitude of
workmen will be deprived of the means of subsistence.
Such arguments were used by the watermen of London when Westminster
Bridge was built.
But the world possesses more scope for labour than it possesses hands,
and the powers of mechanism by simplifying the process of manufacture
also diminish the price of the article, bringing it thereby into
general circulation and opening a more lucrative commerce to a nation
by underselling the produce of foreign countries and so putting an end
to all competition.
The true principle of public economy begins to be studied in every part
of Europe, and we are making a slow but certain progress in improvement.
But if the rash spirit of innovation takes possession of the minds of
those who govern mankind, if they will insist on bringing all things
within a punctilious system of rules, they must not be surprised if
their fondness for precision should terminate in a similar anarchy to
that which has oppressed and ruined France.