SHAWL MANUFACTURE. The Hin does have been the instructors of our manu facturers in the production of shawls. There are two modes of working the pattern in an Indian shawl; the one by embroidering it upon the material, and the other by working it into the web during the process of weaving. The first mode is a sort of needlework, and forms the less valuable kind of Indian shawl. In the production of the most costly kind, a number of skewers made of ivory, and some times of wood, about the size of a common packing needle; are used ; they are sharpened at both ends, and each skewer is covered with a different coloured wool; and with these simple aids, the pattern is worked stitch by stitch into the web. The backs of these shawls show the effect of this minute and laborious handicraft, and present a totally different appearance from the European shawls, the patterns of which are woven en tirely on the loom.
Paisley excels all other towns in the United Kingdom in the manufacture of shawls, in quantity and perhaps in quality. The com mon kinds are woven in the power loom ; while the finer kinds require the more de tailed aid of the hand loom weaver. In the common shawls cotton is mixed with the wool ; but for the finer articles the best wool of Germany, of Australia, and even of Cash mere, is employed. Some of the finest of these shawls are equal to anything produced in any other country. The Paisley weavers
are mainly dependent on French patterns, which they modify in details ; but the School of Design in that town is gradually training up a corps of designers whose taste may shortly influence in an important degree the shawl manufacture.
It might seem strange that the paper duty should press injuriously on the shawl manu-• facture of Paisley; but such is the case. In weaving elaborate patterns it is necessary to employ the Jacquard loom ; and in using this loom many hundred perforated pasteboard cards aro employed for each pattern. Now the French weavers pay no duty for the paper used in these cards ; whereas the English weavers are subject to an impost, the effect of which maybe illustrated by one circumstance. In an elaborate Paisley shawl, woven for the Great Exhibition, the preparation of the loom for the intricate design cost 4701., of which the mere duty on the card-board comes to 931. A Jacquard loom, when onto set up, will weave any number of the same pattern ; but as the commercial success of any one pattern is always very precarious, the oppres sive duty on the card-board employed may be a serious item even in every individual shawl woven of that pattern.