The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-17 00:00:00

THE INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES
OF RENFREWSHME.
THE PAISLEY SHAWL.
(From the Renfrewskire Advertiser.)
Sir Walter Scott, who has left no single point of our
nationality undeveloped in the course of his wondrous
weavings of fictitious tissues, has more than once referred
with something of that proud feeling which was mani-
fested in his roused enthusiasm, to products of the
Paisley loom. •
Since the mighty magician-thus sported with the sub-
ject, mighty changes have been effected, such as to place
the Paisley shawl, ,not only in a much nearer approxi-
mation for excellence to the Indian, but improvements
and facilities in the various arts connected with its pro-
duction have been pushed to such an extent es to occa-
sion as great a discrepancy in favour of the Paisley
shawl, in point of the cost of production, as there for-
merly was in favour of the Indian in point of compara-
tive value. The Indian is, nevertheless the parent shawl,
and having been favoured with some remarks on the
Indian, French, and Paisley shawl manufactures, we
avail ourselves of these to detail some interesting facts re-
specting them.
The Indian loom, excepting the four-leafed mounting
and treddles, is stated to be different in every particular
from either the French or Paisley machine; having no
harness, no boxes on the lay, no pluck-pin, no pirns, no
shuttles. Everything in connexion with it, although' the
work of a mechanic, is clumsy, rude, and primitive in
appearance, but on the whole better adapted to the In-
dian mode of weaving than either the Paisley or the
French loom. Even in the rude state in which we find
the mechanical operations of the natives of Cashmere in
the art of weaving, they still stand, as they have stood
for generations, unrivalled by any other nations in the
world in the highest branch of the art, that of producing
the pattern. The knowledge of their way of procedure
is extremely limited, alike from want of European inter-
course, and from their practice of packing up their uten-
sils on the approach of strangers, and removing to some
unseen and unmolested spot, for they work in the open
air, under a climate and on a soil alike favourable to the
advancement of manufactures, amidst a country rich in
romantic scenery, watered by numerous streams, blessed
with abundance of produce. At the foot of their hills,
covered with forests and pastures, are corn fields and
orchards, with mulberry trees (the support of the silk-
worm) clustered with vines. The meadows of the valley
are famous for flowers ; the rose and violet of Cashmere
grow wild ; but there are gorgeous gardens, groves, and
fountains throughout this regi sn, which the natives call
" the flower garden of India," " the paradise of the
world." Sixteen thousand looms, employing three
workmen each, were at work in this region, while
the trade in shawls was yet in a flourishing condition,
and before their conquerors had imposed the present
heavy customs on the natives. The remains Of art
amongst them, at once splendid and gigantic, seem to
intimate their present rude condition to be a dege-
neracy from the past. And while we regard them
as the parents of the art of design, though the fertility
of their imagination is still the theme of wonder, the
origin of their art is lost in antiquity. In one
sense, indeed, we need never be at a loss for the source
of that inspiration which we may term the im-
pulse of the textile muse, when we recal the glowing
scenery of their lovely vale. The females of Cachmere
were once celebrated over all India, and still, though
the natives have fallen uuder the despotism of tyrants,
they are not surpassed in natural grace, and as brunettes
are celebrated for the whiteness and regularity of their
teeth, and the brilliancy of their almond-shaped eyes,
softened by long black lashes. The refinements
and accomplishments of superior civilisation, which
may have commended them to the luxurious tastes of
Asiatic potentates, are, however, gone. And even the
men, though characterised by broad, brawny shoulders,
and strongly marked features, have, under the influence
of foreign oppression and barbarity, sunk from a state
of enlightenment into slavish timidity and insolence.
So far as regards habits of life,-customs, religion, local
government, they have maintained their primitive
national institutions. Amongst them the law of caste
is strictly maintained, so that they abide by the here-
ditary trades or occupations of their families, and are
forbid to connect themselves in marriage with any but
those of their own caste. So that, amongst other in-
veterate habits and prejudices which they cherish, the
continued use of their rude, unimproved, and clumsy
work-looms have been especially maintained. It is
stated, however, that they have, in other branches of art,
shown an anxiety to imitate our models, and have done
so successfully ; so that, should their opportunities of
European intercourse be increased (of which there was
at one time a prospect,) our mechanical improvements
may be adopted, as far as practicable, with their
mode of weaving. It is, however, anticipated that
in proportion as the French and British improve-
ments may be introduced—dispensing with the tedious
and expensive practice of looping the weft—the higher
department of art, in which the natives of Cashmere
presently excel, runs a chance of being neglected for the
sake of meeting the increased demand, arising from the
reduction in the cost of their goods. The shawls woven
in the open air by the Cashmere peasantry are composed
of a substance totally different from the stuffs generally
used in Paisley for similar parposes, and have no affinity
in quality or appearance to silk, cotton, or what is
usually understood by woollen or worsted yarns. The
Cashmere is taken from the goat, which is a native of
Thibet and Tartary, the only countries in which it is
said to thrive. These animals are fed and tended with
the greatest care, as the fineness and quality of their
fleece, in a great measure, depend on their treatment,
and are even influenced considerably by the tempera.
ture of the climate. They are shorn once a year, and it
is only the finest quality of the wool that can be used in
the shawls. A full-grown goat does not yield more
than eight ounces that can be appropriated to that
purpose. The most that is with certainty known of the
different stages of this manufacture is, that all the pro-
cesses, from the spinning of the wool to the finishing of
the cloth, are performed by the members of one family ;
and that the dyeing of the colours, of which they
have upwards of forty shades, forms a part of the house-
hold duty.
The French loom, the general and recent introduction
of which has effected such a revolution in the Paisley
shawl trade, is both simpler and more effective than
either the Indian or Paisley plan—where the Paisley lay
is substituted for the plain lay of the French. Still the
French have advantages over us, in respect of possessing
a command of card paper four times cheaper than with
us ; and also in the art of design, in which we have
scarely done much more than copy them since we began
to use the Jacquard. Previous to that time, however,
and under the operations of the Paisley loom proper, we
could set patterns at one-fourth the cost incurred in pre-
paring patterns for the jacquard. Our productions will
evidently fall short of those of the French designer, until
the art of design shall have made, under the auspices of
our Government, as much advancement in connexion
with manufactures as it has done in France, under the
anxious and watchful attention of the French Govern-
ment, now continued for many years. Our pattern-
drawers have much progress yet to make in the prac-
tical knowledge of art itself ; they have even to study
weaving and manufacturing more attentively before we
can equal in perfection the French designer. The latter in-
variably makes it his business to obtain a knowledge of the
jacquard loom previous to entering'the school of design;
and a jacquard machine was for years after its invention
(the story of which is familiarly known to every one)
kept in the French schools of design, for the purpose of
conveying the requisite information. Even after the
pupil has passed through the school of design, he is re-
quired-to devote six months to the theory of manufac-
ture, and, while at the school itself, must pass two hours
daily in studying the application of the design to the
machine, chiefly under the direction of persons whose
exclusive business it is to instruct these young artists to
transter upon ruled, or what we call design, paper, the
patterns they have produced. Under these circum-
stances, the art of design in France, which, previous to
the year 1808, was at a comparatively low ebb, while
trade was limited and uncertain, has become, since that
period, and more particularly sinco 1814-15, when the
jacquard was much improved and fairly established,
superior to all that British artists and British capital
could attempt, owing chiefly to the increased numbers of
young men devoting their talents to the production of
shawl patterns. It is this artistic advantage alone
which bestows its peculiar feature of distinction
on the French over the British pattern, and
renders the French decidedly the best imitators

of the Indian shawl. One Ching is certainly true,
the French spare neither labour nor expense in main-
taining this position. More than one-half of the goods
imported from India to this country are purchased by
French merchants or their agents, for patterns ; and as
a proof of the estimation in which the productions of the

east are held by them, "To nature and Cashmere," is a
byword of the artists of Lyons. Not only so, but in
1820 it was discovered that the French had not only
gone the length of importing and making their shawls of
Cashmere wool, but that Cashmere goats were rearing in
France. _

. Meanwhile the progress of the Paisley shawl manu-
facture has not been short of a marvel, considering the
pitch it has attained, deprived of almost all these advan-
tages. Forty years ago there was not a shawl loom in
Paisley. And except an attempt made at the close of
the 18th century to imitate
the Indian shawl in Edin-
burgh, similar to what was doing in Norwich and Stock-
port, nothing was done to cultivate the branch of art.
Some of the English goods, it is stated, were sent to
Paisley for the inspection of several manufacturers, but
the muslin trade being then good, it was conceived that
shawls as a fancy article would be of a short-lived cha-
racter, and few accordingly were they that engaged in
them. It was Mr. J. Paterson who first embarked in the
business with ingenuity and perseverance, attended by suc-
cess sufficient to establish the trade in the locality, and

prevent its being transferred to some other Tauter. He
was followed by others. But the operatives, from the
expense of erecting a shawl-loom, and the length of
time required to put it in a working condition, were
many of them long deterred from entering on this
branch of business. The decay of the muslin trade and
reduction of the price of labour, impelled them at length
to turn their attention to the shawl trade, and it was

not long ere it proved the more important of the two.
The well-known intelligence, perseverance, and indus-
try of our operatives conquered every difficulty ; and
serious as the outlay of money might appear to them,
few hesitated to engage in the business. In a short
time the shawl trade began to develope itself into dif-
ferent branches. Shawls were made in spun silk, soft
silk, and in cotton, as well as in mixtures of all the

three. These goods, however, did not possess the ap-
pearance, nor did they feel as soft as the peculiar con-
struction of the Asiatic loom. To remedy this a stuff
was made from the admixture
,of soft wool and worsted.

The approximation, however,' was not quite so com-
plete as was desirable. About 1820, Messrs. Gibbs and
M'Donald, of Edinburgh, introduced a wool from Van
Diemen's Land for shawl manufacture, and along with
it a style of figure and arrangement which placed them
foremost in the market for many years. In 1830 they
also produced admirable imitations of rich Indian