The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-10-10
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.

Gladstone on Foreign Competition. -
HIS ddr1ce TO English Manufacturers.
The female gdmbooiiers Of 81.
Petersburgh sat dorm upon. The
Sultan making a rirtue of necessity.
LONDON, England, Sept. 16, 1879.
MIR. Gladstone, the other day, in
opening fine art museum, made some
remarks on the importance of improv-
ing the beauty of English manufactures
in order to be successful in foreign COM
petition. He said that English manu-
facturies are below those of France and
the United States in beauty of design
and in elegance of finish. This is quite
true; and as France is becoming every
year greater manufacturer, and con-
seguently competition with England In
the markets of the world it would be
well to examine how she comes by her
excellences; and if her secret can be
discovered to make use of it without
delay. The taste of mankind is no
doubt improving. The rudest nations
are finding new pleasures in the
elegance of form and color in those pro-
ductions which they buy from foreign
peoples, and in their own native manu-
facturies they are giving proofs of ex-
ccllence that did not exist in past gener-
ations. English manufacturers must
satisfy the tastes of their customers, or
those customers will pass into other
hands. Formerly, England was distin-
gushed for the solidity and durability
of her goods, but now that has become
a tradition. Shoddy, delayed" cottons,
and sham excellence have taken the
place of the old lrade virtues. Cheap
ness in production, in fact, has been
the beau idial of British manufacturers
and to it they have sacrificed vast deal.
Hence the critical condition Of English
trade. Purchasers have discovered that
the worth of British commodities has
singularly declined; that old names do
not represent old qualities; that imiia-
ton has supplanted substantially. Sc
there has fallen upon John Bull suspi-
cion that he is not as square as he was
in the good old times. English manu-
PICTURES have not been distinguished
for beauty, and, not being now accept
ed as durable, are losing character
and no time can be spared III the
attempt to recover their place in the
estimation of mankind.
Several St. Petersburgh newspapers
allnde to bye-law recently passed by
the committee of fashionable club il
the Russian capital, prohibiting ladies
from playing Muschka" or othel
games of cands in the apartments rcntet
by Tie association i'll question. 1t ap
pears that until quite recently the lead
ing Russian clubs have not only admit
ted the female relatives of their sub
scribing members to participation in thu
use of their dining-rooms, libraries, ant
fumoirs, but have tolerated their pres
ence in the playrooms as well, wher
they have distinguished themselves b,
"plunging" with true feminine reckles
ness. AS these fair votaries of fortun
have not infrequently been found t.
develop an extraordinary intelligenc
in the direction of influencing tn
chances in their favor, and 10 exhibi
an inexplicabe obliviousness with res
pect to the payment of their losse
when their fellow gamblers of tn
steamer sex have happened to win thei
money, it has been deemed expedien
by committee after committee of tn
clubs on the Neva to tabor their card
tables to honorary members or visitor
Ol tIlt lclnult SCA. IC inCi Z httCosit
of such prohibition throws q some
what startling light upon the manner
and customs of club life in st. Peter,
burg. That ladies of high social pos
ton could be induced to frequent estal
lishments of so free-and-easy a charactt
as Russian clubs is astonishing, but tn,
ban should be pronounced upon theI
by the directors of those establishment
on the ground that they miscondu'
them at play is circumstance so ANA
ing that / should certainly refuse
credit it upon any evidence less concll
. sive than that afforded by the utteranc'
of the Russian press.
, The news from Constantinople show
that the Turks have made up their mint
to let the Greeks have their pound
:. flesh. The Sheik- ul-Islam has sent
: message to the Moslem inhabitants
: Episus and Thessaly preparing them Fl
) their transfer from the dominion of Il
G sultan to that of King George. III
i document is peculiar. The religion
head of Islam tells his co-religionis
4 that a neighboring state, small
d extent, but of great antiquity, has liv,
!, on amicable terms with the Turks
a a critical time. The Koran enacts tn
s the great and wealthy shall free
bestow alms on their poor and weak
= neighbors. The sultan feeling the for
/ of that divine precept, has thereto
Q decided that portion of the great al
IS mighty Turkish empire shall be detac
ed and handed over to that insignifica
nation, so as to enable it to live in col
J: fort. The Greeks are sensible peop
a and will no doubt gladly accept t
n "alms" which restores the greater pa
+ of Episus and Thcssaly to Greece.
+, The Turkish minister of finance h
IS reported that the porte is maintaini
F. half million refugees in addition
d the Turkish army. An imperial ira
S, has therefore been issued reducing I
O. army, and stating that after the sett
II ment of the Greek question the arr
y. will be further reduced to one hundr
ie thousand men. ALPHA