the muslins of Tarare, and the painted porcelain of Diehl, acquired such a repute that, in process of time, notwithstanding the prevalence of war, they became famous and world-renowned.

The Bourbons, of the elder and the junior branch, continued these exhibitions of French industry, and down till the memo

der; the Spaniards, oil, wine, and tallow; | ufactures, he still saw the policy and vast and the Italians, the productions of their importance of exhibitions of domestic inown favored country and of some portions dustry; and first in 1801, subsequently in of the East, with which they had then a 1806, counseled by Chaptal, his Minister nearly exclusive trade. At the fair of of Commerce, and others, gathered togethBeaucaire, for which a patent was grant- er in the Louvre the rich and varied proed by Raymond, Count of Toulouse, so ducts of all France. It was at the Exhifar back as 1217, it is recorded that Ital-bition of 1806 that the shawls of Ternaux, ians, Turks, and Armenians exposed for sale to the value of six millions of merchandise, most of which subsequently found a ready retail vent on the banks of the Rhine, the Saône, and the Garonne, among the lively and versatile Gauls. In Germany and Holland, the Jahrmarkts, the Messe, and the Kermesse, all of which were great exhibitional fairs, played an import-rable year of 1848, the artistical and manant part in commerce and civilization; and ufacturing genius and industry of France the Jahrmarkts of Leipsic, Frankfort-on- were improving under this process of exthe-Oder, Brunswick, and Nuremberg, posure and criticism, in a building open, were, in the middle ages, attended by the like our own Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, most considerable merchant princes of It- on a money payment, to Frenchmen and aly and of Holland. The fair of Leipsic, to strangers. These facts were well known indeed, still adds to the wealth and liter- to the studious, reflective, and philosophic ary repute of Fatherland; for not merely Prince who, till recently, stood in the do the booksellers and publishers of all highest place in our own country; and the Germany there congregate, to make pur- late Prince Consort improved on them by chases of books in every language and to a conception of his own, which had all the settle accounts, but the gathering is also merit of an enlightened patriotism and a attended by the leading firms of the book- happy originality. In devising the Exhitrade of Europe and America, who come bition of 1851, Prince Albert gave to it a to purchase any thing novel or marketa- wholly cosmopolitan character. Aware of ble. Nothing has done more to increase the energy, enterprise, and patient and the commerce and promote the prosperi- persevering spirit of Englishmen, he inty and civilization of semi-civilized Russia vited the coöperation of all the nations of than her Exhibitional Fairs, and foremost the earth at the original Exhibition, inamong them the fair of Nishni Novogor- augurated eleven years ago. Our countryod, which may be called the Great Exhi- men did not then shrink from rivalry and bition of hyperborean Russia. The ba- competition with Europe and the world. zaars erected for the accommodation of Though excellent in many things, Prince those who attend this fair form, according Albert well knew that the British manuto Dr. Lyall, the finest establishment of facturer and handicraftsman was not perthe kind in the world. The sales of iron fect in all. In details of design, of form, of and iron articles made at this gathering to color, of taste, and of proportion, there natives and strangers usually amount to was still great progress to make, and it 10,000,000 roubles, and the sales of furs to needed that this truth should be drilled 36,000,000 roubles. Captain Cochrane into the minds and memories of our emtells us that the value of the gross busi- ployers and workmen to guide and stimuness done at Nishni is represented by so late them. The result has been very aplarge a figure as 200,000,000 roubles; parent. In no decade of our history has while a still later authority states that general improvement in matters in which commodities are parted with representing the British workman was admittedly defithe value of five millions sterling of our cient been so apparent as in the epoch money. When the First Consul, subse- from 1851 to 1861. Within twelve months quently the Emperor Napoleon, had shut after the first International Fair, this ef out France, by a system of universal war, fect was so apparent, that the French Emfrom the commerce of Europe, and thus ex-peror and Government resolved to follow cluded his country from a knowledge and in the wake of England, and to inaugurate inspection of foreign commodities and man- an International Exhibition in Paris, in

1855. It will be remembered that our | sorious spirit by many of the organs of Queen and her lamented Consort journey-public opinion, yet we do not conceive ed over to France to be present on this that the architect is justly obnoxious to occasion, and their progress was recorded several of the objections which have been in a previous article of this journal, pub-raised against the structure. When it is lished seven years ago.* There can be considered that the architect had to prono doubt that the French Exhibition of vide within a year, and a limit in point 1855 effected in its way nearly as much of expenditure, solid structures for picturebenefit for France as that of 1851 for Eng- galleries, securing the valuable works of land. Since the period we speak of, the art from all accidents of weather; that French have applied themselves more and large spaces were necessary to be lightmore to the arts that are most useful and ed in various ways for objects arranged necessary to man, in which they were for- in courts and galleries; that corridors, merly deficient, and have made sensible platforms, vestibules, and passage of inimprovements in machinery, cutlery, cot- tercommunication were also indispensatons, pottery, hardware, carriages, and rail-ble; that roomy spaces were required for way plant; while we, long excelling in machinery, and ample and convenient rethese handicrafts, have applied ourselves fectories and luncheon-bars for refection, successfully during the last eleven years the difficulties imposed on the constructor to the production of articles combining will appear considerably more than ortaste, form, color, and intellect, thus dinary. It should also be remembered proving that the ideas and conception that there was a limit as to ground-space, of the original founder of the scheme as well as to cost, for the area of the of 1851 were excellent and practicable. building is inclosed within sixteen and Yet Prince Albert had to encounter great a half acres, exclusive of the two annexdifficulties in organizing the first Exhibi- es. The structure is rectangular in plan, tion, and considerable ones in organizing having its largest façade facing the Cromthe second, of which we are speaking. well Road. What an immense amount There were not wanting those who, eleven of room is afforded for exhibitional puryears ago, talked of the unpracticalness poses, will be apparent when we state of the scheme; and, even after success that the building, exclusive of the annexes, had been assured to it, the great mass is 1150 long by 500 wide, and 50 feet in of London tradesmen did not very clearly hight above the ground-level. At the exsee how the trades or staples of England ternal appearance of the building, and were to be benefited by an Exhibition more especially of the domes, much bitter which was open to the whole world. Nor sarcasm and some pleasant banter have among the great masses of London retail been leveled, both by English and French tradesmen did the idea of the present Ex- critics. But when it is considered that hibition find much more favor or coun- the main object of the founder of the Extenance. But, sustained by the enlight-hibition was to secure a safe repository ened opinions of the educated classes, the originator persevered in his wise and beneficent course, and the result is that there has risen up, as if by magic, a building on a much larger scale than that of 1851. The site on which it is erected, our country readers should be told, adjoins the Royal Horticultural Gardens at SouthKensington. The ground on which the building stands belongs to the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, and was purchased by them out of the surplus funds arising from the proceeds realized by the first Exhibition. The designer and architect is Captain Fowke, of the Royal Engineers, and though his work has been criticised in a captious and cen* See British Quarterly Review, No. xliv. Octo

ber, 1855.

for the wares and objects of art and industry of the whole world-in other words, a solid, spacious, commodious, and lightsome building, not to say a great international warehouse - most reflecting persons will, we think, agree that Captain Fowke has accomplished the purpose which the late Prince Consort and the Commissioners had in view. That was a purpose with which architecture had little to do, except in relation to convenience and security. Why, we may inquire, should money be expended in adorning a structure intended to be used as an international bazaar or repertory merely? The contents accumulated within the building from every country and clime were really intended to be its chief, its only, and best decorations. The Kensington

pure sky and balmy breezes; but having been in the building in all weathers that have visited us during the last six weeks, we can aver that we never felt within the walls the extremes either of heat or of cold. It is true we have not flowers, foliage, and fountains in such abundance as in 1851; we have not large trees included within the building itself, nor those sparkles of color produced by the prismatic glass; but we have undoubtedly a building unsurpassed for abundant space, lightsomeness, and facile means of intercommunication with all its parts. The structure is solid, and therefore serviceable; it is convenient and spacious, and therefore appropriate; and hereafter, if there be a large surplus, it may be decorated and made more classical by the aid of architectural embellishment and the most elaborate ornamentation. Be it remembered that the building raised in the Avenue Montaigne in 1855 was like this-an undecorated building, erected for the special occasion, irrespective of all the rules and all the orders of architecture. The Parisian hypercritics do not know, or do not care to remember this. All they desire in their objurgatory remarks is to be smart and to produce a stinging sensation. They condemn the building not so much because it is good or bad, (for of its goodness or badness from ignorance they are incapable of judging,) but because they have never seen any thing of the like before. It is new to them; there is nothing like it in the Boulevards or Champs Elysées, and they therefore cry fie on it. The lines of Horace will occur to the reader, and might be quoted to the Assolants and Edmond Texiers, if one could furnish a French translation, for few of these persons know any language but their own, and their own somewhat imperfectly:

domes, however, so much caviled at by
the Parisian penny-a-liners, and by some
cockney critics, of more smartness of style
than soundness of judgment, and which
shed an abundant light over the building,
are, it should be stated, of larger diameter
than any similar ones previously erected
in Europe. The building of 1851 occu-
pied nineteen acres, that of 1862 occupies
more than twenty-six. The flooring space
in 1851 was 989,784 square feet. In the pres-
ent building there are 1,140,000 square feet;
but as the machinery and agricultural im-
plements are exhibited in wings built for
the purpose, there are really 450,000 feet
of flooring more in 1862 than in 1851.
The greatest hight of the building of 1851
was the center transept, 108 feet. The
main nave running from end to end was
66 feet high by 72 wide. The total length
of the first Exhibition building was 1841
feet by 456 feet wide. The dimen-
sions of the present are 1152 long by 692
feet broad, exclusive of the annexes. The
price paid the contractors in 1851 was
£80,000, if the materials were returned,
or £150,000 if the building were retained.
In 1862 the contractors are to be paid, in
the first instance, £200,000, and £100,-
000 additional if the gross profits exceed
£500,000, the figure reached in 1851.
The decoration of the building was con-
fided at the last moment to Mr. Crace,
and, considering the shortness of the time
allowed him, the execution is creditable
to his taste. The prevailing tint of the
roof is lavender, which has a lively and
agreeable effect. The projections of the
pillars are painted in bright blue and red
colors, which, placed in juxtaposition in a
small building, would be garish and glar-
ing. In this immense building, however,
the effect is lightsome without being gaudy.
Standing under either of the domes and
looking down the nave, the view of the
immense vista is picturesque and beautiful."
There is wanting undoubtedly the atmo-
spheric efforts of color produced by the
glass building in Hyde Park; but if we
have not the varying and delicate tints
of 1851, we are, on the other hand, relieved
from the stifling and hot-house air of a
glass palace, whether in Hyde Park or at
Sydenham. The present building is, more
over, well ventilated, and its temperature
agreeable. From the first of May to this
the sixteenth day of June, when we are
writing, there have not been three genial
spring, not to say summer days, with a

Indignor quid quam reprehende nonquia

crasse,

Compositum, illepidere putetur sed quia nuper."

We have said that the building is larger than the Crystal Palace of 1851, and so it ought to be. There has been an addition of four millions to the population of these isles within the last eleven years, and an addition of half a million to the population of London. Then the rest of the world has been also increasing and multiplying, though not in the same ratio, so that there

was need for more room than in the olden | tering. But why should not this be so? time. Let it be taken into consideration, The representatives of the British press also, that our trade and manufactures pay for their tickets, and such correspondhave greatly increased, that we have more ents of the English press as proceeded to to show than in the preceding decade in Paris in 1855, paid on entering the buildglass, in porcelain, in iron, in domestic ing in the Elysian fields like natives and furniture, in fire - arms, and rifled and strangers. For more than ten years it has Armstrong guns, in jewelry and precious been the habit of our leading journals to stones, in cutlery and sword-blades, in pay for the entrance of reporters and draribbons, silks, and broad cloths. There matic critics to theaters and other places has not been the rush to the building in of public amusement. For ourselves we Cromwell road that there was to the build- confess we do not envy the feelings of ing in Hyde Park, for then the idea was those foreign writers who allowed themnovel; but there have been a far greater selves to indulge in spiteful, unfriendly, number of strangers to look at the second and wholly unjust observations, because World's Show than ever traveled to view they found themselves obliged to disburse the first. The reason is not far to seek. one guinea, three, or five guineas, as the The whole of the Continent is now reticu- case might be. This was an unworthy lated with railways, and journeys may be feeling on the part of the representatives made with much more of speed and econ- of the press of a great and enlightened omy than in 1851. The renown, too, of nation. But the press is not now in the first Exhibition has whetted the appe- France what it was in the days of constitite of thousands of foreigners who missed tutional and monarchical government. the opportunity of seeing it, and who are The era of the Chateaubriands, of the resolved not to be disappointed this time, Bertins, of the De Sacys, the Etiennes, in seeing the second. In 1851 a gentleman the Mignets, the Michauds, the Armand proceeding from Piccadilly to the Bank, Carrels, has passed away, and instead of or from what was formerly called Tyburn being officered by scholars, orators, and Turnpike to the Temple, was encountered men of principle, it is now officered for by a stream of people rolling against him the most part by the laquais of imperiallike a spring tide flowing on a shallow ism, by editors and writers without gestrand or an opposing shore. These were nius or learning, named by the Minbustling citizens or provincials wending ister of the Interior at the rcommendtheir way to the glass house, as it was then ation of some successful speculator or disparagingly, or the glass palace, as it some jobber on the Exchange. It is forwas magniloquently called. But there tunate, however, that one of the older were few or no foreigners among them. and better class of journalists and littéraNow there are no such surging streams of teurs, Theophile Gautier, was present at natives rising high against the breast of the opening of the Exhibition, and he has the banker or barrister wending his way done justice to our artistic, manufacturing to Throgmorton street, or to Tanfield and social progress, unlike those adventurcourt, or Twisden buildings, but there are ers of journalism, those writers of "sensathousands of short, squat, swarthy French-tion" paragraphs, who regard more effect men with small hats, like the ancient sauce-boats of five-and-thirty years ago, some of them accompanied by women as small and swarthy as themselves, and all of them jabbering and chattering with the volubility of magpies. There are also to be seen a plentiful sprinkling of worthy, dreamy, and credulous Germans, scores of pale-faced, thoughtful, intellectual-looking Italians, some Spaniards and Portuguese, very many Belgians, and a few Turks, Greeks, and Armenians.

A great din has been raised by the French journalists because the reporters and penny-a-liners sent hither had to pay for tickets as all others pay in en

and excitement than truth. Probably we have laid too much stress on the reports and letters of these small scribblers, who, to use the words of Voltaire are―

"Malin gourmand saltimbanque indocile."

But when one of them pronounces us nation of savages," we are not surprised at the indignation of the daily and weekly press, and of the monthly periodicals, at the disreputable diatribes.

Probably the best way for the visitor who can not afford many days to the Exhibition, as is suggested in the Guide of Mr. Routledge, will be to start from the