Mexico weekly ledger., 1878-09-26

CHINES-How A JOLLY wAsHINGTo
MAN GETS A FREE RIDE IN PARIS.
From our regular Correspondent.
PARIS, Sept. 9th, 1873.
The Canadian trophy, towering VI
a hundred feet under the northwest
ern dome, is an immense structure
composed of the timber Of the coun.
try, and is surrounded by specimens
of work done in it, end by a grant
collection of ornamental woods; anG
/ may state once for all, that nearly
all of the English Colonies have sem
specimens of their timber and orna.
mental woods, which have been pre-.
pared and set up with much care.
And the same remark will apply to
many of the geological and natural
history collections, especially of Can
ada, which has a separate list of the
former class. All the colouies ex-
hibit stuffed birds and animals; and,
generally, they are well set up in the
usual manner. But in the Canadian
department q novel and remarkable
plan has been adopted, the carcasses
of deer and other animals and birds
are suspended by the feet as in a mar
ket or shop, and present admirable
tableaux of ''dead game" while the
fish lie on something resembling her.
bage, and look as natural as if they
had come out of the sea, on river, an
hour or two since only. The trophy
contains examples of nearly every
class in the collection, and visitors
wind up and down its staircase con-
tinually, neither deferred by the
black bear that stands sentinel at one
door, nor by the white one which per-
forms the same duty at the other.
People who take in hand an inspec-
ton of the Paris Exhibition in the
expectation that it will furnish them
with a faithful reflex of the present
aspect Of the manufacture of iron and
and steel are not only likely to be
largely disappointed, but are certain,
ifinfuanced in their judgment only
by what they see in the Champ de
Mars, to be led to altogether incor-
rect conclusions. England, the lead
ing country in all that relates to the
m~etaiurgy of iron, is very made
quately represented; America, the
next in Importance, comes so far
short Of putting forth its real strength
that it had much better have left it.
self altogether out of the reckoning;
Germany, the third greatest represen-
tative of iron and steel, is in the
same position as America; aud Bel
GUM has been content to leave itself
very largely in the hands of one firm,
which, however, has worthiiy dis
charged the trust. On the other
hand; it will be found that such
as Russia, Austria, and
Sweden, with material resources and
degrees Of development that only en-
title them to o place in the third rank
of the European family, have done
more in the way of asserting their
claims to recognition as industrial
powers than might have been expect
ed from them, eve if they had been
much more literally endowed by ma
ture, and geographically within easier
reach of the Champ de Mars. But
after these considerations have been
duly discounted, the collective ex
hibits of iron and steel present edu-
cational facilities and scientific men,
orabilia quite as notable, and proba-
bly,, on the whole, much more COM
plete, than any antecedent exhibition.
England and America have had nu-
merous opportunities, of which they
have taken full advantage, of showing
to the world their capabilities and
resources in this sphere of industrial
effort ; and heretofore the race has
been SO far to the swift, hat the
right of England to pre-eminence has
hardly been challenged. 1t is a fact
much too. notorious to be gainsaid
that the pride of place enjoyed by
Great Britain has made her disregard
the threats Of foreign competition,
and it is perhaps, due more to their
insular prejudice and contempt of
danger, than to aught else, that Eng
lish firms have come so far short of
their best efforts in the present exhi-
bition. But the extent and charac-
ter of foreign competition have been
brought very near and made uncom-
fortably apparent to the English in
dustrials, who have never until now
ceased to believe in their manifest
destiny as ''the workshop of the
world" and must, unless they are as
far from wisdom as an ostrich, per-
suade them that their energies must
mor than ever be taxed TO breast the
rising tide Of foreign competition.
A more complete or a more elaborate
series of iron and steel was proba-
bly, never brought together that that
contributed by France to her own ex-
pasition of 1873. This may, indeed,
be regarded as the very first opportu-
nifty France has enjoyed of showing
to the rest of the world her relative
position in the race of industrial pre-