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regulations could stop tl\e introduction of articles so costly and so little bulky. Themanner of smuggling watches was to sew from one hundred and twenty to one hundredand sixty in the smuggler’s waistcoat, and a (ji/ct de montres so prepared was considered afair charge for the adventurer. The insurances varied from five to ten per cent., andperhaps the helplessness and carelessness of a protecting and prohibitory system wasnever more strikingly exhibited than in this attempt to shut out the Swiss watches fromthe Swiss markets. In France not a shadow of benefit resulted, not an additional watchwas manufactured in the country, neither producer nor consumer reaped the slightestadvantage. The smuggling trade was as regular and just as extensive as the legitimatetrade could become; but meanwhile the whole frontier had become infested with bands ofrevenue defrauders, bold and reckless spirits, whose habit and profession are the violationof the laws, and whose existence is both opprobrium to legislation, and a warning to theframers of foolish, pernicious, and impracticable statutes.
The Jura mountains have been the cradle of much celebrity in the mechanical arts,particularly in those more exquisite productions of which a minute complication is thepeculiar character. During the winter, which lasts from six to seven months, theinhabitants are, as it were, imprisoned in their dwellings, and occupied in those workswhich require the utmost development of skilful ingenuity. Nearly 120,000 watches areproduced annually in the elevated regions of Neuchatel . In Switzerland , the mostremarkable of the French makers, and among them one who has lately obtained thegold medal at Paris for his beautiful watch movements, had their birth and education ;and a sort of honourable distinction attaches to the watchmaking trade. The liorologersconsider themselves as belonging to a nobler profession than ordinary mechanics, and donot willingly allow their children to marry into what they consider the inferior classes.
Scarcely a century has elapsed since a few merchants began to collect together smallparcels of watches, in order to sell them in foreign markets. The success which attendedthese speculations induced and encouraged the population of these countries to devotethemselves still more to the production of articles of ready sale ; so much so, that verynearly the whole population of this part has, with a very few exceptions, embraced thewatch-making trade. Meanwhile, the population has increased threefold, independentlyof the great number of workmen who are established in almost all the towns of Europe ,in the United States of America , and even in the East Indies and China . It is from thisperiod also that dates the change that has taken place in the country of Neuchatel , where,notwithstanding the barrenness of the soil, and the severity of the climate, beautiful andwell-built villages are everywhere to be seen, connected by easy communications,together with a very considerable and industrious population, in the enjoyment, if not ofgreat fortunes, at least of a happy and easy independence.
Thus, in defiance of the difficulties which it was necessary to overcome, In spite of theobstacles which were opposed to the introduction of the produce of their industry intoother countries, and, notwithstanding the prohibitions which enfeebled its development,it has at length attained a prodigious extension. It may be further remarked, that,from the upper valleys of Neuchatel , where it first originated, it has spread from east towest into the valleys of the Jura, and into the cantons of Derne and Yaud ; and, further,that all these populations form at present a single and united manufactory, 'whose centreand principal focus is in the mountains of Neuchatel .
This species of industry has had to contend against the various vicissitudes which havefrom time to time assailed other branches of human occupation. One of these, affectinga particular class of workmen, happened some fifty years ago, and was owing to theinvention of machinery, by which the movements, or separate pieces of watch machinery,were produced. The workmen, who were accustomed to make these articles, could notsustain the competition which was entailed upon them by the manufacture of the same