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

WATCH-MAKING IN SWITZERLAND.—There is no branch of Swiss industry so prosperous as its watch manufacture. Four years ago 70,000 nowwatches were annually made. At are least 100,000 produced. Ido not know a more interesting eight than t visit the watchmaking districts. A great deal of the work i' s done in the mountains, and nearly work i all the rough wages done there by women, the finer work by men. The earned are very low, considering the nature of the work; but the fact is, that there is no scarcity of that skill and sobriety, and steadiness of hand and eye, essential to this class of There is no monopoly of capacity for it, as there is in London. there, and the English watch.workmen It is highly paid work in drink, not unfrequent; possess the means of indulging without enough moral principle and intelligence to resist titemptation. 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 band. Theren is, therefore, a constant scarcity of first-rate hands in Lo 4on• This is not the case in Switzerland; the moral and primitive of the people extend the sobriety essential to the habits perfection of the art over the whole community. It is in-door 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 delicateupatiansr , the use of them by the artisan py, who carry on this manufacture in Switzerland. Carouges and Geneva ore the great marts of the trade, and thence work is given out to the surrounding villagers, and they must work hard to earn two francs a day; and the majority do not average more than 30 cols. (15d.) Ido not think, upon the whale, that the watchmaking community are so far advanced in civilisation, or so remarkable for cleanliness, as in the northern cantons. There them. It is customary is less reality of religious feeling among there for one of tho family to read the Bible, or some religious book, aloud, on a Sunday evening. It is not customary in the French Cantons, but only occasional. There is more of the form, and less of the spirit, of religion in the south than in the north ; nevertheless, save in the towns and Anglicised places round the Lake of Geneva, the eminence of Swiss morality perfeetion both for is largely maintained in the south provinces. The superiority of the watch manufacture is a signal evidence of the skill and merit of the eole. The to which the art is brought is universally' acknowledged, and and finish,, elegance, accuracy, the Swiss watches yby _ear  year, take a higher rank in Vur;;ean estimation. It is an achievement of mind and morals. Neither au ignorant nor an immoral people could excel in this difficult and delicate 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 in his pocket book, and a third in a box of dears, 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 k Amthostrume.  MISCELLANEOUS,  i:ieet prison a deka  has been  confined there 27 years, havin.g been committed by the Court of Chancery for contempt in 1815. The lion. Octavins 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.  n his episcopal robes, performed '•ministered the sacrament, a  The Bishop of Linco the rite of confirrnat: 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. ODD DIREr.