The practicability of this, and the propriety of imposing a duty upon all flax shipped for England, was understood to be the subject of inquiry by the commission despatched by the Chambers to England, which consisted of Count d’Hane, a member of the upper house, M. Couls, the representative for the great linen district of St. Nicolas, and M. Briavionne, a successful writer upon Belgian commerce, and one or two other gentlemen connected with the linen trade.
The application of machinery to the manufacture of linen yarn, though comparatively recent in its introduction into Belgium, has, nevertheless, made a surprising progress, and bids fair, if unimpeded, to maintain a creditable rivalry with Great Britain. The offer by Napoleon, in 1810, of a reward of a million of francs for the discovery of a process by which linen could be spun into yarn with the same perfection as cotton, naturally gave a stimulus to all the artisans of the empire, and almost simultaneously with its promulgation, a manufacturer of Belgium, called Bawens, announced his application of the principle of spinning through water, which is now in universal use. The old system of dry spinning, however, still obtained and was persevered in till superseded, at a very recent period, by the invention of Bawens, improved by all the subsequent discoveries in England and France.
The seat of the manufacture, at present, is at Ghent and Liege, and is confined to a very few extensive establishments, projected by joint stock companies, or Sociétés Anonymes,[9] for the formation of which, there has latterly been almost a mania in Belgium. Four of these establishments, projected between 1837 and 1838, proposed to invest a capital amounting amongst the whole, to no less than fourteen millions of francs. One of them at Liege, perfected its intention and is now in action. A second, at Malines (Mechlin), was abandoned after the buildings had been erected, and the other two at Ghent, are still only in process of completion. Besides these, there is a third at Ghent, in the hands of an individual, calculated for 10,000 spindles.
That which we visited belonging to La Société de la Lys, may be taken as a fair illustration of the progress which the art has made in Belgium, as the others are all constructed on similar models, and with the same apparatus in all respects. It was originally calculated for 15,000 spindles, but of these not more than one third are yet erected, and in motion, and but 5,000 others are in preparation. The steam engines were made in England, by Messrs. Hall, of Dartford, on the principle known as Wolf’s patent, which, using two cylinders, combines both a high and low pressure, and is wrought with one half to one third the fuel required for the engines, in ordinary use in England,[10] an object of vast importance in a country where coals are so expensive as they are in Belgium.[11] The machinery is all made at the Phœnix works in Ghent, the preparatory portions of it are excellent, and exhibit all the recent English improvements, and in roving they use the new spiral frames. But the spinning rooms show the Belgian mechanics to be still much behind those of Leeds and Manchester, as evinced by the clumsiness and imperfect finish of the frames, although they were still producing excellent work; the yarn we saw being of good quality, but of a coarse description, and intended for home consumption, and for the thread-makers of Lisle. The quantity produced, per day, was quite equal to that of English spinners,[12] and their wages much the same as those paid in Ireland, and somewhat less than the English.[13]
On the whole, the linen trade of Belgium, notwithstanding its extensive preparation of machinery, and the extraordinary demand for its flax, must be regarded as in anything but a safe or a permanent position. In those stronger articles which can be made from flax of English growth, the English considerably undersell her already; an important trade is, at this moment, carried on in the north of Ireland in exporting linen goods to Germany, whence they were formerly imported into England, and whence they are still sent into Belgium, where the damask trade of Courtrai, which has been perpetually declining since 1815, is now, all but superseded by the weavers of Saxony and Herrnhut; and the tickens of Turnhout, by those woven from the strong thread of Brunswick.
The contemplated measure of the French government, to impose a heavy duty on the importation of linen-yarn, will, if persevered in, be most prejudicial to the spinners of Belgium, as more or less, it must inevitably diminish their consumption. On the other hand, as England herself may be said to grow no flax for her own manufacture, and that of Ireland is not only far inferior in quality to the Dutch and Belgian, but inadequate to her own consumption, and every year increasing in demand and rising in price,—so long as Great Britain is thus dependant upon her own rivals for a supply of the raw material to feed her machinery, at an expense of from 8 to 10 per cent, for freight and charges, in addition to its high first cost, and whilst she must, at the same time, compete with them in those continental markets, which are open to them both, the spinning mills of Belgium cannot but be regarded otherwise than as formidable opponents. Nor is this apprehension diminished by the fact, that Belgium, which a few years since had no machinery for spinning yarn, except what she obtained from other countries, or could smuggle from England at a serious cost, is now enabled to manufacture her own, and has all the minerals, metals, and fuel within herself, which combined with industry and skilled labour, are essential to bring it to perfection. For the present, the English manufacturer, has a protection in the cost of his machinery alone—the factory of the Société de la Lys cost £80,000 to erect, which supposing its 10,000 spindles to be in action, would be £8 per spindle, and as only the one half of these are at present employed, the actual cost is sixteen pounds; whilst an extensive mill can be erected in Ireland for from £4 to £5, and in England for even less. The difference of interest upon such unequal investments, must be a formidable deduction from the actual profits of the Belgians.
We returned to our Hotel by a shady promenade along the Coupure, which connects the waters of the Lys with the canal of Bruges, the banks of which planted with a triple row of tall trees, form one of the most fashionable lounges and drives in Ghent. Opening upon it are the gardens of the Casino, a Grecian building of considerable extent, constructed in 1836 for the two botanical and musical societies of Ghent, and, in which, the one holds its concerts, and the other its spring and autumn exhibition of flowers. At the rear of the building is a large amphitheatre with seats cut from the mossy bank and planted with flowers, where the Société de St. Cecile give their Concerts d’Eté, which are held in the open air, in summer, and at which as many as six thousand persons have occasionally been accommodated.
In the rearing of flowers, Belgium and more especially Ghent, has outrivalled the ancient florists of Holland, the city is actually environed with gardens and green-houses, and those of the Botanical Society, are celebrated throughout Europe for their successful cultivation of the rarest exotics. At Ghent their sale has, in fact, become an important branch of trade; plants to the value of a million and a half of francs having been exported annually, on account of the gardeners in the vicinity; and it is no unusual thing to see in the rivers, vessels freighted entirely with Camellias, Azaleas, and Orange trees, which are sent to all parts of Europe, even to Russia by the florists of Ghent.
The general appearance of the city, without being highly picturesque, is to a stranger, of the most agreeable I remember to have seen. It does not present in the mass of its houses and buildings, that uniform air of grave antiquity which belongs to those of Bruges, the greater majority of the streets having been often rebuilt and modernized, as well as from the effects of civic commotions, as to suit the exigencies of trade and manufactures, which, when they deserted the rest of Belgium, seem to have concentrated themselves here. Its modern houses are almost all constructed on the Italian model, with ample portes-cochers, spacious court yards, lofty staircases, tall windows, and frequently frescoes and bas-reliefs, to decorate the exterior.[14] Almost every house is furnished with an espion, a small plate of looking-glass fixed outside the window, at such an angle, that all that is passing in the street is seen by those inside, without their appearing themselves.
Here and there upon the quays and in the narrower streets, there are to be found the gloomy old residences of the “Men of Ghent,” now converted into inns or ware-rooms, with their sharp tilted roofs, high stepped gables, abutting on the street, fantastic chimneys, and mullioned windows, sunk deep into the walls. And turning some sudden corner in a narrow passage obstructed by lumbering waggons, drawn by oxen, one finds himself in front of some huge old tower, or venerable belfry, covered with gothic sculpture, and stretching up to the sky till he has to bend back his head to descry the summit of it. One singular old building on the Quai aux Herbes, remarkable for its profusion of Saxon arches and stone carvings, was the Hall of the Watermen, whose turbulent insurrection under John Lyon, is detailed with quaint circumstantiality in the pages of Froissart. But in the main, the streets of Ghent are lively and attractive, and its squares, spacious and planted with trees, forming a striking contrast to the melancholy brick and mortar buildings, that compose the manufacturing towns of England. Here too, as in Manchester and Leeds, the population seem all alive and active, but instead of the serious and important earnestness which one sees in every countenance in Lancashire, the Gantois seems to go about his affairs with cheerfulness and alacrity, as if he was less employed on business than amusement. The canals are filled with heavily laden barges, and the quays with long narrow waggons of most primitive construction, into which they unload their cargoes; whilst the number of handsome private carriages, that one sees in every thoroughfare, bespeak, at once, the wealth and refinement of the population. The shops are exceedingly good though not particularly moderate in their charges, and I was somewhat surprised to see as an attraction on the sign boards at the doors of the drapers and modistes, the announcement that Scotch and English goods were to be had within. Altogether the combination of antique singularity with modern comfort, commercial bustle, wealth, gaiety, cleanliness, and vivacity, which is to be seen at Ghent, cannot fail to strike the most hurried traveller, and I doubt much whether it is to be found in equal perfection, in any other city of the continent of equal extent.