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powers. Germany, however, certainly is the native country both of clocks and watches.

In 1544 a corporation of clock-makers was established in Paris, who secured to themselves a complete monopoly. They effected little indeed toward the improvement of their instruments; neither did any important change take place until Hooke, an Englishman, and Huyghens, a Dutchman, about the year 1658, introduced some valuable innovations. Since that time the art has been approaching to its present accuracy, as well in France as in England; and the encouragement held out by the governments of both countries excited a laudable emulation.

The exact measure of time is the object of horology. This it is which constitutes the chief utility of the art in civil life, and still more for the purposes of science. Now this is the branch to which the attention of the English has been particularly turned ever since they engaged in it; and as we really have not time to prosecute the inquiry now, we must throw back the onus probandi upon the person who first put forward the assertion of the superiority of one nation to the other fifty years ago. We wish to be understood by M. Dupin. We do not deny the merit of the French in their attempts to determine the longitude by chrono-, meters. We value highly the artists who flourished in their country before 1770. But we assert, that the merit of the English during the same period, their efforts, their success have been four times as great in quality, and in quantity forty times; and that the number and value of our artists exceeds, in a like proportion, all that they could adduce to refute us. We defy M. Dupin to prove the contrary.

Two remarks, however, we must make as characteristic. The mode of reckoning time in which the French persist, that is to say, of admitting into its exact computation the daily variations. arising from the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the eccentricity of the orbit of the earth-must render superfluous a very steady march of the machines which measure it. A chronometer adjusted to apparent time on November 2, would, if rigorously invariable, appear to have lost 30° 50′′, February 11; whereas in England the variations of the great luminary which separates day from night are reckoned once for all. In this case the accuracy of the instrument is immediately perceived and valued; while, in the former method, it is useless, as the thing to be measured has no settled dimensions.

To correct the apparent errors of a chronometer supposed invariable, two methods exist; the one is to do as the English have done, to correct the errors of time; that is to say, to suppose a mean sun which shall be invariable. The other is to make the machine

SETON HALL UNIVERSITY
MCLAUGHLIN LIBRARY
SO. ORANGE, N.J.

machine follow the errors of time; but this method complicates and loads the works, and is never perfect. Equation watches, showing the difference between mean and apparent time, were originally made in England, but were soon abandoned as inadequate to the end proposed. But the French have persisted in the worst method of correcting the error; and some of their most eminent artists, as the Le Roys, Le Bon, Enderlin, Passemant, and Berthoud have squandered away as much talent in devising methods of marking both mean and apparent time by the same instrument, as if the ends of navigation or the perfection of chronometry could be promoted by success. The utmost that could be gained would be to save to those who can pay for such machines, the trouble of calculating the daily apparent variations of an instrument too accurate always to be true.

The second remark is: in the year 1676, Barlow of London astonished the amateurs of that city by his invention for making clocks and watches repeat the hour at pleasure; and some of his countrymen improved it. But, when the novelty had subsided, few British artists of eminence occupied themselves about it; while, in France, it became a study among the most ingenious and philosophical watch-makers; and they who have excelled in chronometry are they who have done the most to improve repeaters. Hence, then, two English inventions in horology, the one useless, the other luxurious, were soon abandoned in their native country as not congenial with the demands of society, and were seized upon with avidity in France; while here, the philosophic branch of the art has been most unremittingly and successfully cultivated.

In treating of telescopes and chronometers, we have perhaps stept a little out of the circle in which M. Dupin intended to tread; and have been led by the nature of our subject from what is generally termed industry to science. But by extending our limits we only give him a better chance of extricating himself. Hitherto, indeed, his case does not seem to be a very strong one, even in the scientific manufactures, and we shall now return into the proper sphere of general industry. It is impossible, in the limits of a review, to sift the subject to the very bottom; but as we contrasted wool, cotton, linen, and silk, as examples of necessary and luxurious industry, in the arts which clothe mankind; in metallurgy, iron with gold and silver; in the works of the glasshouse, achromatic telescopes with mirrors; in horology, chronometers with equation and repeating watches; so shall we now select two cases which we think bear more directly upon our subject than all that we have yet stated; and which indeed constitute the very pith and marrow of our whole discussion.

Of

Of all the indirect estimates of national prosperity, the rapidity and convenience of communication afford the most satisfactory. The most general mode of keeping up an interchange of thoughtfor that is the ultimate purpose of all civilized communication-is by letter; and any documents which declare the extent of epistolary intercourse are most instructive upon the subject before us. The revenues of the post-office then are, next to the direct returns of national income, the surest measure of social improvement and opulence.

Like most things known in modern times, the establishment of posts claims a very ancient origin; but, as it is nearly impossible to know what the word meant formerly, all dates and facts respecting those old posts must be doubtful. They are ascribed variously to Cyrus, to Xerxes, to Charlemagne; but there can be no question as to their establishment, in France, under Lewis XI. in 1464. It was not, however, for any enlightened purpose, that so suspicious a prince desired to facilitate communication between the various parts of his kingdom; but in order to be himself the more speedily informed of all that was passing there. His posts too were of a very limited nature, and merely for the use of the court; for it appears that a general letter-office was not founded till the year 1619. Germany, it seems, had the priority in this matter by a few years; for the Emperor Mathias, in acknowledgment of the service which the Count de Taxis had rendered to his country by forming such an establishment there at his own expense, erected the office of post-master into an hereditary feof for his family in 1616. Charles I. of England established posts in 1635; and it is remarkable that, so far back as then, the regulated speed between London and Edinburgh was six days to go and to return. In 1660 parliament authorized the same monarch to appoint a governor to this establishment. But posts were, in fact, a much earlier institution here; for, in 1548, under Edward VI. the price of post-horses was fixed at one penny per mile. Under Queen Elizabeth, in 1581, the office of chief post-master of England is mentioned; and it would be extraordinary if, so near to the epocha when the first English gazette was printed, rapid communication had not been facilitated. In 1631 also, a post-master for foreign countries is mentioned, and the office seems not then to have been quite new. The Foedera attribute it to James I. who died 1625. From all these documents it appears that an establishment for the conveyance of letters for public use was earlier in England than in France.

In the year 1644 the revenue of this branch was £5,000. In 1653 it was farmed for £10,000. In 1660, at the Restoration, it had more than doubled, being then £21,500. In 1674 it had

increased

increased to £43,000. In 1685 it was estimated at £65,000. In 1697 it was worth £90,504: 10s. 6d. In 1711, when the former laws respecting the carriage of letters were repealed, and one general post-office was established, the gross revenue of the preceding year was stated to be £111,461: 17s. 10d.; and Davenant makes the net produce of the three preceding years, 1708, 9, 10, to average at £56,664 : 19s. 10дd. The increase of postage laid on this year (1711) made the net revenue for the five years (1711, 12, 13, 14, 15) average at £90,223.. But as this increase was one-third, this sum represents about £60,000 at the former rate. Hence then, the real quantity of letters carried by post, at this time, was about three times as great as at the Restoration half a century earlier. In 1715 the gross amount of the inland postage was £198,226. In 1722 it was £201,804: 1s. 8d. from which deducting £33,397: 12s. 3d. for letters franked, and £70,396: 1s. 5d. for the expenses of management, the net revenue is £98,010: 8s. Od. In 1744 the gross produce of the inland and foreign office was £235,492; and twenty years afterwards it was £432,048. Thus then, in one century, the extent of letter-carriage had multiplied exactly twenty times. It is true that the rate of postage had been augmented; but if the wants of the people had not been as great as they were in respect to epistolary communication, and if their wealth had not increased, they would neither have demanded nor supported such an establishment. It is difficult to conceive a greater proof of the progress of civilization, commerce, and prosperity, than such an increase. We cannot help adding-though not in reference to M. Dupin-that, in half a century after the last-mentioned estimate, the gross amount of the English, Scotch, Irish, and foreign postage was £1,789,640; that is to say that, in one century and a half, the postage of the empire had increased ninety fold, fractions neglected. We have not in our hands any minute documents respecting the progress of epistolary communication in France, neither do we know whether any such existed, publicly, till very lately. But, by a comparison of what the revenues of the post-office now are in each country, and taking into account the various other circumstances of their prosperity, we shall be enabled to draw some conclusions concerning its state in France. In England, the net produce of all the post-offices, for the year ending July 5, 1825, was £1,497,000. Now, taking the proportions found above between the gross and the net produce, this sum represents about three millions sterling. In France the presumed gross revenue of the posts was stated, in the budget of 1824, to be about twenty millions and a half of francs, or a little less than one million sterling; consequently about one third of the gross

revenue

revenue of the English posts. But, as the three of England are paid by a population which is only two thirds of that of France, it follows that each British subject pays, in the year, four times and a half as much postage as a Frenchman does. It is true that the rate of postage is higher in this wealthy and enlightened nation than in France; but, as the territory is only half as great, the distances are smaller, and the points of communication less numerous. Definitively, however, the epistolary necessities of England are four times and a half as great as those of France; and this is a stupendous intellectual balance in her favour.

But we can hardly expect that the political economists of France should immediately perceive inductions which flash conviction upon the mind of every educated Englishman; or require the same conclusions to be drawn by persons who set out from very different premises, and pursue opposite modes of reasoning. It would be a difficult thing to convince the generality of French financiers that a piece of folded paper with a seal to it, can, by its multiplication, represent the knowledge, commerce, wealth, and power of a nation; while our economists would be very much puzzled to find those things in extreme splendour, accompanied by extreme misery. We conceive that prosperity consists in the wide and happy mean betwixt Tyrian purple and rags; they see it more in gold and silver tissues. We must then adopt a more direct mode of convincing M. Dupin, if that be possible, that the superiority of England is of older date than he is inclined to allow. This may be found in the commerce of Britain.

We need not trace back the trade of this country to its origin, to be convinced of its comparative importance and extent even in early times. A record in the exchequer, for 1354, states the exports of England for that year to be £294,184: 17s. 2d. and the imports £38,970: 3s. 6d. ; leaving a balance of £255,214:13s. 8d. which, reduced to the present denomination and value, is a very large sum. The æra corresponds pretty nearly with the time when France, unable to pay the ransom of King John, was under the necessity of applying to the Jews, and of issuing a leather currency, with a little stud of silver in the middle; no very great symptom of her superiority. In 1381 was passed our first navigation act; which showed that the attention of government was much turned to trade and shipping. The turbulent reign of Henry IV. was unfavourable to our commerce, though some foreign merchants residing among us amassed great riches. In 1421 the revenue of England amounted to £55,754: 10s. 10 d. and some curious details are given in the Fodera of its sources and its application. In 1458 the company of staplers is said to have paid to the crown £68,000 sterling, for the customs of staple

VOL. XXXIV. NO. LXVII.

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wares,

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