young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

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the man, his afiiflant, and his wife, two days, which earnings may be divided into 40 f. aday for the weaver, 20 f. for his afliflant, and 10 f. for his wife, whofe bufinefs was onlyto adjuft the chain ; the breadth | of an auln ; the workmanfhip of this filk is thereforebetween 4 and 4. of the grofs value. I faw others working plain filks, in which the wo-men weavers earned 1 8 to 24/! a day, and men 3 cf. They have alfo a fabric o; ribbons,of which I bought fpecimens, but they are beyond comparifon dearer than the ribbonsof Coventry. We were told that filkat Tours employed two thoufand people, but I be-lieve the number is much exaggerated.

They have fome woollen fabrics of no great account.

They have alfo, as at Chateaurault, many cutlers, who make knives and feiffars of ahigher price and much better; the fpecimens I bought appear to be cheap. Nails arean article alfo which gives employment here ; I found that a middling hand would makeabout one thoufand per diem, for which number he was paid ik/ It is to be noted,that a day’s work in all fabrics means fifteen or fixteen hours (except the time taken formeals) common labourer 1 "f. and food.

The woollen manufacture of common fluffs is, by fome accounts given us, more con-fiderable than that of filk.

Amboise . —There is a fabric of fleel eftablifhed here by the Duke de Choifeul; init are made axes, hoes, files, &c. They fay that two hundred men are employed, but Ifaw no figns of more than one hundred ; they work with charcoal, and alfo with coalsfrom the vicinity of Nantes . They have alfo a fmall manufacture of buttons, another ofwoollen cloth for cloathing the troops, which, however, did not take root; there is atprefent one of coarfe woollen fluffs, for the ufe of the lower people : thefe fabrics fhewhowfofiering and powerful is the hand of a prime minifler, in fixing what without himwould never be fixed at all ; had this Duke continued in power, Amboife would loonhave become a confiderable city.

Bi.ois.—A fabric of very beautiful gloves, which employs about twenty-five hands ;here is alfo the fame cutlery as at Tours and Chateaurault; and they make liquoricecakes for coughs, &c. as at Pontefract.

Beauvais. —This is one of the manufacturing towns of France that feems the modbrifk and aCtive in bufinefs. I viewed the tapeftry fabric, of which I had feen fome finefpecimens in the palace at Fontainbleau; their fineft works are in lilk as well as inworded ; they employ one hundred and fifty hands, and have another fabric connectedwith this in La Marche.

I viewed the calico printing-houfe of Meffrs. Garnierdans and Co. wbich is upon fucha fcale as to employ fix hundred hands conftantly ; there is no difference between thisfabric and fimilar ones in England, and all the patterns I faw were very common, feem-ing not to aim fo much at elegance or nicety of execution, as at the difpatch of a largeundertaking, yet Paris is their principal demand ; they print a great quantity of Indiancalicoes; their madder is from Alface . There are three other manufactures in the town,,and all four employ about one thoufand 4 ight hundred hands; but the chief fabric isthe woollen, which employs feven or eight thoufand hands in the town and the adjacentcountry. They make, under various denominations, coarfe fluffs for the cloathing of *the country people, for men’s jackets and women’s petticoats, &c. a truly ufeful and im-portant fabric, which works only French wool, and in general that of the country. Thereare alfo (tocking engines at work.

St.Gobin. —The fabric of plate glafs here is by far the greatefl and mofl celebrated inEurope ; the inclofure is great, and the buildings are on a vaft fcale; one thoufandeight hundred men are employed on the works, and in the provifion, &c. of wood.

10 I was