The Express.
London, England, 1866-12-24 00:00:00

THE PARIS EXIUB ITION OF 1867.

(iron our Breast coiunisrommerr.)
The commissioners of foreign countries are now
rapidly entering an appearance, and the arrival of
Mr. P. C. Owen at the Hotel de Louvre is an
earnest of impending activity on the part. of the
English commissioners. The French promise to be
punctual to the moment, and not to give Punch
the opportunity of retotting on Cham. I remem-
ber that in a number of Lc Chariaari published
one month after the openii_g of the Universal
Exhibition of 1862, Cham began a series of pic-
torial squibs on our eccentricities, with a drawing
of a visitor who was trying to get into a vast crate.
Stopped by a policeman, he says, " 1 have paid to
see the Exhibition ; is it my fault if it is still in a
packing-case I" Te Swedes and Norwegians will
not, at any rate, be among the laggards this time.
Their goods amid Havre ; and a model boat of
four horse power is bravely working its way against
the strong stream of the Seine to the Pont d'Jena.
The eastern nations are active. The Japanese,
Chinese, and Siamese compartments in the
galleries have their timber-work almost complete.
Without, the Temple of Marietta Bey is progress-
ing apace. It will be one of the more attractive
objects of the Exhibition, since it is to be labori
ously and learnedly finished in every detail.
Wonderful promises are made concerning the anti-
quarian riches it is to contain. First among these
will be the recently discovered bas-relief, which is
said to be an authentic portrait of Cleopatra. On the
exterior of the temple will be represented the arts
of ancient Egypt. The interior will glow with the
ancient Egyptian jewellery, together with the anti-
quarian treasures of the Viceroy's rare collection.
About this temple there will be wondering crowds
next summer, who may linger amid the native
vegetation, and sip coffee in an Egyptian restaurant.
The sporting world will learn with satisfaction that
the north-east corner of the park will be occupied
by model stables of various descriptions.
The Italians are full of promises, but for the
moment they appear to confine themselves to pro-
mises. Prince Humbert, may infuse a little energy
into them at the last moment. Let us hope he will,
for the opportunity is a golden one for regenerated
Italy. Her workmen who are to be sent hither to
study the industry of the word should bring sonic
samples of their own. Even Egypt will exhibit the
dwelling place and domestic and agricultural econo-
mies of a fellah of Upper Egypt.
And now let use turn from the Exhibition works
to a work which will astonish visitors next year,
and which will be a very formidable competitor
among the claimants of the prizes which the
Emperor has offered for the designs on institutions
which have been created for the promotion of the
happiness of the masses, or for the harmonious
prosperity of employers and employed. The jurors
who are to decide on the merits of the plena sent in
have, 1 believe, already met. Their meeting was
appointed for the Ist of this month. It is to
be hoped that this jury will be at the pains of
making a careful survey of the many societies, in-
dustrial families, systems of wage-payments, eco-
nomic modes of living, co-operative devices, and
other modes by which wage-payers and wage-
earners, separately or together, are seeking the
greatest material happiness of the greatest num-
ber. A quantity of most valuable information can
now be brought together that may form the start-
ing-point in a new era of social science. In the
list of new systems—and of strange and startling
ones—however, there will not, it seems to me, be a
bolder nor a more fascinating one, at the first
blush, than this, which is not merely a dream upon
paper, but is at this moment deemed solid enough
to satisfy the hesitating mind of the capitalist.
Let me describe it.
By the Chateau d'Eau, on the Boulevards--on the
site of that wonderfully picturesque group of little
theatres in which so many generations of Paris
gamins found delight—a vast edifice, highly orna-
mented, and with pointed roof and corner towers,
is receiving now its finishing architectural touches.
The vast proportions of the building, as seen from
the lloulevarts, lead passers-by to imagine that it is
some national munument—the palatial home of
some public department. It is nothing of the kind.
It is, the inquirer is told, tho gorgeous birth-place
of a new system trade. Its plan and aspect are
to dazzle the world next spring. People of all
nations are to dock to it, after they have revelled
in the wonders of the Cnamp de Mars, and are w
see in iti operations a system that is to regenerate
and ennoble commerce. On passing through the
grand entrance, the visitor enters a spacious qua-
drangle. He is wider a broad colonnade. Colon-
nades stretch along all sides of the quadrangle, and
on getting into the open space, he perceives that
there are two or three stories of these handsome
covered ways. Everything is solidly built in mas-
sive stone. The scene suggeststhe Valais 'Loyal tothe
mind--a Valais Royal with two or three stories, or
tiers of shops. lam told that no less than 400,0001.
have been already spent on this place of trial forthe
new idea which is to startle the world next spring.
The •• ulea" appears to have been originated by
M. Edouard Alexandre, the famous harmonium
builder, of Ivry, and was first applied to the sale of
organs for the village churches of France. In this
palace it is, we are told, to bo applied on a great
scale, to be hence spread over the empire, possibly
"to the extinction of pauperism." The idea may
be a Utopian one, impossible of realisation, but it
has here as filtered throw the minds of many prac-
tical men, it would seem, who have one and all
pronounced it to be both sound and feasible. As I
have said, it was first applied to the site of organs
for village churches, after it had been submitted to
the Minister of Public Instruction and Worship,
and hail received his sanction. The minister went
so far as to appoint a commission to examine into
the scope and moral bearing of this new system of
trade. It was on the report of this commission
that in 1463 the minister addressed an official cir-
cular to all the prefects of the empire, calling upon
them to recommend the acquisition of organs in
village churches and public schools on M. Alex-
antlie's plan. From this beginning the present
monument has sprung. It is to carry out an ex-
periment on a gigantic scale to the honour of enter-
prising France in 1867.
Groupi of puzzled people collect about the
great building at all hours of the day, wonder-
ing what the mystery may be. There is a
large board fixed upon the scaffolding, bearing
these words, '• Magasins The United
Shops' This name suggests merely a bazaar on
an unprecedented scale—an inclosed town of shops.
A line under the title only deepens the perplexity
of the reader. He is told that the United Shops
are built for the sale of goods, " under a new sys-
tem, with re-inibursenient by obligation-warrants."
Now, what is an obligation warrant f Who is to be
re-inibursed I According to M. Tinsoth4e Trimm,
the building is already called by the facetious
workmen of the Quartier St. Ant dine the Palace
of the Prodigal Son. The ingenious Fiench people
who have got a hint at the meaning of au " obliga-
tion-warrant," or at the scope of the United-Shop
plan, have already woven together all kinds of
ridiculous and fantastic visions of the future. Of
all the facetbe, however, which have obtained of
late about the Chateau d'Eau, the notion of the
Palace of the Prodigal Son is by far the happiest.
It will be no longer possible for the prodigal son
to ruin himself. Let him run up a tailor's bill as
long as the Boulevards, let him cover himself with
jewels and perfumes, and swathe himself in the
finest of linens, and drink deeply of the cost-
liest et „+, and provide himself with the most
expensive stud of horses, and the most luxurious
carriages and yet he shall be as far from ruin,
when he has sown the last grain of his wild oats,
ashe was when, laden with his splendid inheritance,
he decamped from under the paternal roof. Hence-
forth to be ruined by extravagance is to be almost
an impossibility • at least, the way to the dogs will
be made as difficult in the future as it has been
easy in the past. The way to fortune is to become
as clear and well beaten as the path to the parish
church ; while the road to ruin is to be a maze
which only the very cunning shall be able to un-
ravel. The sceptical laugh, and shrug their shoul-
ders, and turn on their heels—they have heard of
so many settlements of man's social difficulties in
their time. The shades of St. Simon, Fourier,
Owen, and the rest, dance before them. This is

Illeparted. -
I have under my eyes a pamphlet by Paul
'Dalloz on the art of saving by spending. Eco-
nomy could surely not be presented to the mind in
a more agreeable form. M. Dalloz is no dreamer.
His pamphlet is merely a reprint from the ifoiti-
1, teer. He admits that at the outset the idea of
saving by spending is a startling and a dazzling
one. He then proceeds to tell his readers how he
has studied the system of " obligation warrants,"
and has reached the conclusion that their appear-
ance in trade marks a new and happy epoch. We
have not come upon the millennium yet, but on the
horizon the light of a better day shimmers, To hint
a happy future is as clear as bun jeer. He has
analysed the foundation of the united shops again
and again ; he has striven with all his might to find
a flaw in the corner-stone of the building ; but
ever! where are harmony and strength. The united
shops are marked with this paradox, " Buy, and
you will have your purchase and your purchase
money." The passers-by laugh. Many wonder
who the fool is behind the black board upon the
scaffolding ; but still the masons hold on to their
work, and the day of opening steadily ap-
oaches. A number of practical men have
beben found to club their money together that they
may say to the public, " While we make a fair
profit on our capital, you, who are buying your
daily necessaries of us now, shall be only thereby
laying up a fortune for those who come after you,
or indeed for your own age. Nought that you
consume shall be lost to you." " Cast thy bread
upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many
days," saith Scripture. Without any idea of
preaching charity, but with that of appealing to a
man's self-love, he is told to cast forth his sub-
stance of to-day, where he shall find it and subject
it to his own use again after many days. The
golden age is still far away from us ; but the age
of social economy and statistical science is upon
us, and the trade combinations on which the
nited shops are founded only so many cun-
ningly-contrived sums which an intelligent and
patient man has set himself, and has worked out.
The calculations on which the obligation-warrant
system has been established may be briefly de-
scribed. The advantage or gain to the purchaser
is obtained by the simplification and consequent
cheapening of the process of distribution. The
wholesale part of the usual profits which are made
in commerce to the disadvantage of the consumer
is suppressed. The hundred and fifty shopkeepers
who will be installed in the new edifice,
will be there at extraordinarily low rer ts. They
will be saved the great cost of separate advertising.
At the same time they will have a steady custom.
In short, one hundred and fifty shopkeepers club
their expenses, and find their rent, to begin with,
reduced from about a thousand a year to about a
hundred and fifty. The great saving which the
shopkeepers will effect in their expenses, and the
advantage of direct trading with the producer,
form the basis on which the obligation warrants
are established. The shopkeepers will sell at the
'total rate, but the extra profit of their operations,
the profit derived from the society's plan, will be
kept back and deposited in the society's coffers.
Now, it is this profit which is presently returned
to the purchaser who has created it. It is ex-
pressed to him in this way :—Say that he buys a
dress for his wife of the value of 100 francs ;
he pays his money, receives the robe, and with it
an Obligation-warrant fur 100 francs. This obliga-
tion-warrant is a negotiable security. It entitles
the holder to the sum of 100 francs at the
expiration of 59 years. But this is not all.
A certain amount of these obligationwarrants are
paid off every year by lottery, like other public
debentures or loan coTtons in France. It should
be observed that these obligation-warrants are
amply secured, the capital which they represent
being all placed out on public securities. Sooner
or later then, at latest fifty-nine years after the pur-
chase is made, the purchaser or his reprentati:e
comes again into possession of the money se
he ex-
pended.
Say that the obligation-warrant system of trading
had been established twenty years ago ; under this
system a middle-class family has expended 400/.
a year. Paterfamilias would have in his
secretaire obligation-warrants secured on the
public funds, to the extent of 8,0001., if in-
deed he had not already realised part of this
sum in one of the twenty annual drawings, at
each of which be would have had a chance. At
any rate, he would have negotiable securities,
and he would find himself every year the richer
for his expenditure. These obligation-warrants
are within the reach of the humblest purses. I
should observe, that every obligation-warrant will
be of the value of 100 francs. The majority of
purchasers in the Magasins-R4nnis, or Palace of
the Prodigal Son, will not invest to this extent at
one visit. A poor mother buys a pair of boots for
her boy, paying six francs. She receives with the
boots a little printed acknowledgment of her ex-
penditure. When her little purchases in the
palace are shown by her receipts to have reached
100 francs, she repairs to the society's office in the
palace and receives the obligation-warrant to which
she is untitled. By this simple process this econo-
mical shopping or trading, the poor mother can,
while she is spending money on her boy's neces-
saries, positively accumulate for him a little fund,
that may at his majority be enough to purchase
his exoneration front military service. A dazzling
series of cases to which the system of obligation-
warrants may bring comfort and happiness has
been drawn up. The dot of the daughter is insen-
sibly provided by the expenses of her bringing up.
An ingenious writer has described the new system
in this way : he says, that the purchaser's
money is merely an advance made to the
shopkeeper for which the goods delivered
are the interest. It follows, then, as a matter of
simple justice, that when the amount of interest
expressed by the gouda has been earned at the rate
of 5 per cent. by the capital, the capital itself
should return to the investor.
There are certain articles, as bread, which can-
not be included in the operations of the Palace
of the Prodigal Son. The profits of the baker are
regulated by authority, and there can be no sim-
plifications of his trade that will make a new profit;
therefore the consumer cannot get his money back,
even after many years. In the Palace of the Pro-
digal Son there are to be no announcements of
extraordinary bargains and ruinous sacrifices.A
fair regulated profit will be made ow every article.

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