The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-16 00:00:00

COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

OF SWITZERLAND.

Statistical science has at length been more directed
in the Helvetic federation to the investigation and classifica-
tion of positive industrial facts. To the depressed state of
some branches of Swiss industry we owe the report of a com-
mission of practical men, appointed for the purpose of inves-
tigating the causes of depression, and, if possible, of suggesting
the means of remedy or of prevention for the future. With
an intelligent impartiality the protectionist party was
admitted by its representatives into the commission. We
find that a minority of members dissented from the free trade
laissez faire report laid before the diet by the majority.
That report, however, was fully affirmed in its conclusions
and principles by the Diet. As a well written, ably reasoned
document it is highly creditable to M. de Gonzeubach,
Secretary of State to the Confederation, and a distinguished
economist, to whom was committed the task of preparing it.
Although in some respects not so complete in its statistical
details and information as might be wished, the returns
embodied in it will establish, for the first tune, a basis from
which the Industrial statistics of Switzerland may start,
and hereafter be gradually perfected, like those of other
neighbouring or advanced countries. We proceed briefly to
notice some of the chief points and figures relating to textile
industry.
Of the various manufactures, that of cotton ranks first in
the order of importance. The first spinning factories date,
it is said, from the continental system of Bonaparte. We
are rather inclined to question the accuracy of this state-
ment, for we have heard, on competent authority. in Lan-
cashire, that some, if but few, spinneries were established in
Switzerland before that period. One of the oldest cotton-
spinners, if not the oldest, yet living in Lancashire, a con-
temporary of Sir Richard Arkwrights, Sir Robert Peels,
&c., who was largely concerned in the supply of cotton yarn
to the Swiss markets, assured us some short time since that
he had an offer made, about the year 1795 or 1796, as
nearly as we can recollect—say ten years or more before the
continental system—to undertake the establishment of a
large cotton mill, to be built, filled with the best machinery,
and conducted under his own superintendence, with a largo
allowance for management, in addition to one half-share of
the profits, for which a capital of 100,0001. was to be sup-
plied by, or under the guarantee of, the government of the
Canton of, we believe, St. Gall. From patriotic motives, and
himself largely embarked in spinning and mercantile con-
cerns, with the interests of which it might have interfered,
he declined the offer. But he had the means of
knowing, through his travellers and agents, that factories,
though certainly on a much smaller scale, then existed in
Switzerland. the continental system communicated, doubt-
less, a powerful impulse to the spread of the factory system.
There were, according to the report of the commission, in
Switzerland, in 1844, 131 spinnenes, of which 70 were in the
canton of Zurich, turning 630,000 spindles, and producing
160,000 quintals of cotton yarn. The imports of raw cotton
for their supply had for several years been in constant pro-
gression ; in 1842, the last year cited, the quantity was
228,000 quintals. The number of factory operatives
employed was upwards of 10,000. Of power-loom factories
there were 18, in which yarn was worked up into 100,000
pieces yearly. But the far larger portion of the fabrics was
still woven by hand, in common looms, of which there were
not far from 100,000. The canton of Zurich alone reckoned
from IS,OOO to 20,000 hand.loom weavers, who wove each
year nearly 1,000,000 of pieces of all kinds.
The situation of the hand-loom weavers was, however,
becoming very precarious, in consequence of the fearful com-
petition of the power-loom. Their wages had fallen to 16
batzen per week, or less than 2s. On sues a miserable pittance
it was not possible long to exist. The remedy looked to was
in the extension of power-loom works, and their gradual
absorption of the destitute hand-loom labour, or the exclu-
sive transference of the labour to the fabrication of fancy
tissues, which could not be so easily executed by'power-
looms. Jacquard looms had recently been introduced into
several cantons, and it was hoped that the operative crisis in
the cotton manufacture might thus by degrees be alleviated
and pass away.
Next after cotton ranks the silk manufacture. It employs
about 40,000 werkpeople. Silk-worms are cultivated in the
cantons of the Grimm and the Tessin, which yield • pro- ,

i chiheichilliisainiaitplißiain id,sietoll:4llbetrhr:alrught):B94Bl44ha-Ple*wd ' i
duct of about 60sfinish.,000kuxedepo,
Apunrod:su:iactsth,erhoffluwissLlettrsonisuraslito4l64l
the English pound) of silk. The quanta 0r.,,..144f1ia
of silk, and half silk fabrics imported bamatiao..7' Ilikill,_ 28,800 ; and, in 1843, 29,900 quintals. la
fetas to the lightest fabric,. The ribband
hemanhoiwefe:seacrac,ttuthreoef principald,
asbranthcahahotaisilassfat•
rim
~f.
thrsaa
26:4
great repute. Exported to Paris, the rfialahic-".,41pa
poasoastiortnalioedintkeutßeontorsructeg,,heic:tzecuraiany,
places.
`llll,
The manufacture of flax and hemp, altheao
the same consideration as formerly, was
not, aa
„rt I
without importance. The raw material he
amply produced in the cantons ; flax is groin:, harfe i
Argoviu, and hemp everywhere. But flax-
nery was operating the same revolution in the Ilya illilka
been similarly accomplished through the sYme,
-70'„
cotton manufacture. Flux was no longer span 6 *eV'
female peasantry, except for household oat'. p.,"4
machine spun yarns were imported from all '''l
particularly from England. The import, of M h
hempen yarns and fabrics amounted, in 1842, to !at
quintals, and in 1843 to 14,000. The transition fres '''''
ning by hand to machine spinning was a great A. 21,
the way of the establishment and extension of flaa-2
mills, and, again, Swiss linen fabrics were repulselß
prohibitive duties of all the bordering states. Bat
spinning-mills had been established, and everyNwril
was felt that the linen manufacture would
prosper like that of cotton. tad
The woollen manufacture occupies the least;
place in the textile industry of Switzerland ; it a far ha
sufficine, indeed, for domestic eonsumption. }locks at thp
ovine race are extremely rare, and agnealtare furi,lo.
a small quantity of raw material, and that is workof an
the places where produced. The greater part of tilt ...,
consumed is imported from Hungary, Bohemia, Wirt,
and Italy. Each canton possesses cue or mural aa,714,
tories of wool. There are twelve in the canto.' tf bra
employing
1830043
‘or..6olo3,woooorkgmuienntai.
sTahepoqrtivanontiot)f c,,,fhitkiisahtZ
ported
ever, only enters the country in transit. But the mash
Lion of Switzerland still requires, in a idition to the Z.
manufactured products, a large importation of foranZ
woollen
well-being fabrics; in 1843, more than '28,000 euiataa,7
country, are always seen well clothed; ea
The report
workmen of the towns, hi a
proprietor of the most modest come%
peasantryu ato thus i
nunt setimported.
aiowealthhoimplies.fut a
nbe l c
°ad 1
has not, besides his holiday suit, good and W 32111 clotialk
work days, and who does not renew it often.
Such is the state and prospects of Swiss textile iseh
On another convenient occasion the report may be RN
to fur other branches of Swiss industry sal 'grimily&

THE MEXICAN PEOPLE.—The character ok
sinolthrnAMmeeziriransagoecen,n•roallye7tnhtrugbY differ
rinfrnr bythita,,4•l
circumstances, especially those which have occurred
relation to the country during the last twenty Yew
European influence, both for good and evil, haiken team
felt by all the younger men of education, and imolai;
produced all the corresponding effects upon the prole,
process of time, but for those wretched internal (imam
which have left no period of repose for the formai
character. The Mexicans may be subdivided into *
cla.se , each resembling the other in some local rep
and differing more or less in the stronger features, 1/46
inward and external character. There are, first, ties
woodman of the Aboriginal Mexicans, now termed *h
liana, or Paysanos ; secondly, those whom we *is
designate no Spanish Mexicans, or children of aleziouse
intermarried with natives of Old Spain • and elk
those whom we must term Mexican Spaniard,,; a a
children of old Spaniards, but born and permute
settled in Mexico. Among those classes it may resaii
conjectured that the largest will be the Indian's in the ha
rior, amidst the woods and along the borders of risme
lake.; while the Spanish Mexicans will be the moonset"
in all cities and seaports. All foreigners naturally kat
the more populous, orderly, and commercial cities and ma
rather than risk their lives, property, or sisteksen
among the wild and lawless portions of the inhabiter;
and thus the great majority of those who coed*
the native residents of the capital city, of Puebla, Lam
&c., and even the seaports of Vera Crux and Almelo,.
of the latter class. The number of the Indians, er may
people, is gradually but continually diminishing by ma
marriage with the townsfolk of their several vicinitien
intermarriage, also, of the Mexican Spaniard., he as
tiered their class the smallest; and the wee no
cumstance, as it regularly merges them into tit
others, will probably always keep it the maid.
The pure Indians, notwithstanding the vicissitude
strange admixtures to which their county has been niliee,
still retain very much of the aboriginal character. The yese
men and women are for the most part rather under the.
die height, of be:citifully regular teatures, with adeprtaat
of natural grace. The women often have an sir of mot
dignity and refinement, though how they should lime land
it in the wi'd woods, among men as barefooted a. the
selves, would puzzle the understanding of this sided 6
tropic of Cancer. Their voices are generally dual, ha
sweet-toned, persuasive, and often pathetic. They ands
vicar, delicate complexion of the rid :est copper colon;
their limbs rather slight, and more active the:, mac
Of a high enthusiastic spirit, th. y ore ready m
moment to throw their lives away in any cause slid
excites their passions. The sword or ite kode
drawn and used in an ordinary quarrel, with it
less hesitation than the hand is clenclie:l in pugilistic Ess
land. 'Very many of the young men, stud the majority dal
old, have their faces, breasts, and shoulders deeply sink
and scarred, from gashes gained by those quarrels. The
have no doubt increased in a ratio with the impartation
aguadiente : a horrible sort of pale yellow brandy framed
Spain, like liquid flame, and of which all classes regularly
drink. Assassinations are of course of common =urn=
One of the most hideous sights imaginable is a say
old Mexican Indian, when his copper complexice
turned to wrinkled bronze, and his limbs have be=
distorted, his dark face rendered shapeless by sews, be
mouth displaying three or four fragments of black bap,
and his large, shining, bloodshot eyes rolling in their echo,
standing mad drunk with aguadiente, yet steady sad
adf
possessed, while he brandishes his knife in the milled tY
path you are compelled to take. But the Indians ue, k
the most part, harmless towards foreigners where let aka:
kind-hearted, of quick intelligence, and possessing a
natural dignity, courtesy, and composure of demeanor.
With elements of nature like these the admixture of ths
grave yet fierce, cool yet impetuous, chiral:Luc yet mom
lonely cruel, ridiculously pompous yet highsthouglited
ad
proud character of the natives of Old Spain, has predated ia
the modern Mexicans a natural complexity of physic'',
moral, and intellectual qualities, deeply toterestin; to ths
philosophers who woad contemplate these remain
of an ancient and extraordinary nation during the
period of their transition state. From so ycang
a people as the modern Mexicans, exposed t • nest arduous
trials is their struggles for independence; subject to sail
greater, because far more confusing, difficulties when they
had gained this independence, owing to their incompetency to
self-government at this early stage of their new pelitied
existence ;—too much has been expected; and it is no sonde
that they have hitherto disappointed all the great anticipa-
tions so prematurely entertained concerning them and
their beautiful country. That they are now destined shortly
to receive another influence from the conquest of the eocustrYi
by the Americans of the north, seems but too probable. lit
feet independence, and their deadly hatred of an rapacious
rentbcceMisfieexireguearereres,ltoigithobeueirsufisnuxcilehtiantibialjoitnsualiannerdaalivl'ylituc:gl:emforid!
*awls: tniinwodfliutche.
invaders, the conquest sad annexation (direct or indi-
rect) of the country will introduce a Her clement
of discord among the United States of the noeth. such ea
may cause them bitterly to regret the money wasted i?
obtaining so ill-starred and ill-striped an increase of tem.
tory. As to the Mexicans paying the expenses of the war,
they will no doubt " promise to pay • ' but it is more tee
probable that the " expense of collecting," will absorb the
interest, and eventually cancel the principal.—rioa: a Cor-
respondent.

COLONIAL.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
DESTRUCTIVE STORM.—This ill-fated island hr
been visited, before it had time to recover from the late caw
flagration, by a storm, apparently the same in which the
Great Western was caught, which appears to have been felt
all along the American coast. The capital of the colony his
again been strewed with ruins, and, as tar as could ire learned,
the destruction of shipping and loss of human life throughout
the settled districts had been great. Ihe Bishop of Newfound-
land had sailed in the church ship, the Hawk, fur England,
the day before the storm. The Newfoundland St. John's
Morning I'ost, of tho 22nd of September, says:
"The gale which took place on Saturday last has nit teen exactly:l
in violence, we arc told, by any that occurred here within the recolks
Bon of the oldest inhabitants. The destruction which everywhere
attended its march, so far as we have yet been enabled to xeerta#4
has been fearfully great. We have it not yet in our pace to P'
anything like a furl or an accurate scram: of the extent of the
Jury and damage which have been done, but the folloaine, as hras it goes, appears to be a correct staterneat of some of the :weaves
which have occurred. The first and gre.itest, and whic,, Caine imp*.
dlately under our notice, was the altucst instinkineou. and entire
prostration of the Natives' Hall, a building containing one hundred
and forty tons of tiraber,which had been boarded in, nod inec the flit
afforded a place of habitation to several faninie, amone the power
classes whom that calamity had renderol totally destitute. A flee
about flee years old and his sister about twenty years of air woe
killed by the fall of the building, and we believe their mother and set
or two others of the persons injured at the time, are yet in a prerari-
, one state. In the harbour several boats tame sunken. and • OA
part of the shipping received consi•lerable injury. Eno!
says that a boat was swamped in the Narrow. with n.
or seven persons in it, all of whom must have tea
Mat. The several bridges in the neighbourhood of Ow
town have been partially destroyed, a large fissure in Job's Bridge,
near River Head, renders it timpasiable, and boots arc in attendance
to carry previewers to aid from the south side; the arch of
hug
bridge, a piece of solid mawanry, his been entirely awe; t away,
Brine* Bridge is partly broken up. The fine new brick home
come of erection for E. M. Archibald, Esq., sustained very Wiwi
injury, a great portion of it having been blown down. St. Thames
church was removed from its foundation ; and indeed. whore"'
the eye is turned towardstbe outskirts of town, fragments of fen"
Irma, or other wrecked materials meet its view. In the neighbour4
outporta of Portugal Cove, Torbay, and Pouch Cove. warmly s
flake or stage has escaped the violence of the gale.—at the
former of those places, the Brigus Packet was lost, and the other
boats had to have their masts cut away to save them hint
tbithfugelnralncotedh in—ancouseqd the.wholealinthee ::reeroakdthittrenisc,ic:,r,ed.winzascsablns
ite;
vessel belonging to Mr. (ary, (the sisters) laden with Ash and cis
from Twilingate was atrftded at Preeh Water bay and one of the inie
from on board was drowned. Mr. Howley's Native Lire. in
sae °f
the bay*, has also been lost ; Mews. Hounsell, 'Schenk, and
Itouaxßy
Lavinia, which bad 3,000 quintals of fish in, Paubeiloaded by Bersivt
Punt= and Munn of Harbour Grace, 104 atch Cove, and the

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podard flan the Labrador, telonging to Mr. W. Dillon, was stranded
et posy Bartow."
Tbe Poet continues the lamentable details in its number
0,2 1.1 we gave an scorunt of the consequences of the
" sow, as far as we could gather that and we much *lab that
Sate its destructive abets tied been confined to at. John's.
o is greatly to be kared that besides • vast amount of damage
am, to sluts, stages, lc., belonging to the numerals thing
embalmment' along the coast, the lase of shipping will be to a very
emo "wt. We believe we may safely say that a more violent
m
tmm, or one more destrative in its efitets, was never beforea ape.
rienced—it Iris Quite appalling. The rain deeeenling in nent'
eoy sow occasioucd tho overdowing of the rivers, by obiso
mon of the bridges In the nelgisbourbood of St John's were
wept away or sustained such damage to will =asks
0.'"" swept expense to the colony. Nor le this all, for
6wry done to the poorer cameo of the inhabitants will
dooboossii° toad greatly to augment the previously existing claims
stoo the funds at the disposal of the relief committee. The yew ISM
be rendered memorable in the bleary of this colony by, first, so
anoteressful seal fishery ; second, a most disastrous fire, by which
to eity was laid in ashes; third, the appearance of the potato diem*
to tetra important districts; fourth, the destructive areas of the
moo ink; sad, though bat not least, a cod fishery, the staple of the
obsd, considerably below an average catch. These are misfortunes
street adlicient to annihilate a colony poseeedng within herself Is.,
of Ward reources, or having a less fliyarishiug trade than New-
wood, bat It is, notwithstanding, net to be Mantled that the
mrprets of the approaching winter are not only not at all cheering,
but that they are gloorny in the extreme.
The ..Vevlivindkead Times, of the 23rd September, men-
tions that the Misses Peyton (daughters of the stipendiary
03gistrate at Tw Wingate), and Mr. Lewis Emerson (son of
mr. Henry Emerson, barrister) were passengers in the
th but escaped. The Times mentions the following ad-
Bitten,ditionalcasualties :—Yesterday a fishing-bo.it came in to
the wharf of Messm. Robinson, Brooking,having
on board the remains of four persons belonging to Port-de-
Grave; J. Butler and his two sons, and an Englishman
named J. Daniel, who sought shelter from the storm in the
harbour of Renews, but unfortunately perished in enact-
Tsurioo to reach the shore. The barrack., at Signal-hill are
materially injured.