The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1842-02-25 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

SWITZERLAND.—There is no branch of Swiss industry so prosperous as its watch manufacture. Four years ago 70,000 watches were annually made. At least 100,000 are now produced. Ido nct know a more interesting sight than to visit the watchmaking districts. A great deal of the work is done in the mountains, and nearly all the rough work is done there by women, the finer work by men. The wages earned are very low, considering the nature of the work ; but the tact is, that there is no scarcity of that skill and sobriety, and steadiness of hand and eve, essential to this class of work. There is no monopoly of capacity for it, as there is in London. It is highly paid work there, and the English watch-workmen possess the means of indulging in drink, not unfrequently without enough moral principle and intelligence to resist the temptation. It is sometimes the case that they get into difficulties before their work is done, pawn their lathe and tools, and finish and spoil it with inferior instruments. Drink soon impairs the nerves, and they lose their steadiness of hand. There is, therefore, a constant scarcity of first-rate hands in London. This is nut the case in Switzerland; the moral and primitive habits of the people extend the sobriety essential to the perfection of the art over the whole community. It is indoor work, and suits them during the long continuance of weather too inclement in the mountains to permit of open air occupation. It is surprising how few. are the tools, and how delicate the peasantry, who carry on this by the artisan use of them manufacture in Switzerland. Carouges and Geneva are the great marts of the trade, and thence work is given out to the surrounding villagers, and they must work hard to earn two I the majority do not average more than 30 francs a day ; anti vols. (15d.) Ido nut think, upon the whole, that the watchso far advanced in civilisation, or so as in the northern cantons. There making community are remarkable for cleanliness, of religious feeling among them. It is customary is less realityread the Bible, or some religious there for one of the family to book, aloud, on a Sunday evening. It is not customary in the French Cantons, but o r.d.ts of religion in the south than yocc,asionai .There is more of the form, and less of the spun in the north ; nevertheless, save in the towns and Anglicised places round the Lake of Geneva,te south provinces. The the eminence of Swiss morality is largely maintained in the superiority of the watch manufactureis a signal evidence of the skill and merit of the people. The perfection to which the art is brought is universally acknow.ledged,ss iniati on. It is an watches year by and both for elegance, accuracy, and finish, the Swi year, take a higher rank in European est achievement of mind and morals. Neither anand ignorant delicate nor an immoral people could excel in this difficult n handicraft. The French custom-houses form but a very ' . slight impediment to the progress of the manufacture. Almost every traveller is a smuggler of watches. A fellow traveller of mine smuggled three watches through the French custom-house ; one was carefully stuffed in his neck handkerchief, another is his pocket book, and a third in a box of cigars, which he produced, and virtuously presented to the official in attendance as the only article he had to declare, and which being half empty Was graciously permitted to pass. The best smugglers are dogs regularly trained for the purpose; they are especially useful for crossing the Rhine into Austria, and I am happy to say constantly escape the murderous aim of the coast guard musketry on the dark nights and foggy mornings which favour their transit.— AntAentrum.  MitiCELL,VNLOt  There is now in the Fleet prison a debtor who iuu been confined there 27 years, having been committed by the Court of Chancery for contempt in 1815.  The Hon. Octavius Duncombe, brother of Lord Feversham, will shortly lead to the hymeneal altar the Lady Caroline Campbell, eldest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Cawdor.—Morning Post.  The Bishop of Lincoln, hi his episcopal robes, performed the rite of confirmation, and administered the sacrament, a few days ago, to the young man now awaiting his trial for the barbarous murder of a young woman at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The rite was performed in the chapel of the gaol, in presence of the prisoners. The Bishop remained an hour conversing and prayed with the, to all appearance, penitent neophyte. .  -