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In the first place, it may be remarked that the month of May was a losing month to London speculators; very few visitors arrived from the provinces or from foreign countries-far less than corresponded with the preparations made for them. These first visitors had many localities to choose from, and on their return they were in a position to give definite information to others who were to follow; insomuch that almost all who have made the journey to London during this eventful year came with a predetermination to apply for lodgings at certain places indicated to them. It has thus happened that a lodging-house has, in many cases, had an uninterrupted string of visitors from one county, or perhaps one town; and from the same cause the houses of one street or one district have been sought by visitors from one county or provincial town. The neighbourhood of Smithfield, for instance, has been one of the head-quarters for Yorkshire visitors of the humbler class.

Another circumstance worthy of note is, that most country persons who have friends in London have sought to apply that friendship or relationship to a useful purpose; and Londoners came by degrees to the opinion that of all demands on their hospitality, those connected with the year 1851 were the most irresistible. Hence there has been an amount of visiting and meeting between absent and fardistant friends never perhaps equalled since the world begantaking into account the distances travelled before these meetings could take place. If it were possible to determine the number of excursionists from the country who found a temporary home under the roofs of London relations or friends, the sum total would be such as to dissipate much of our wonder that all were accommodated in some way or other,

We may here give a few illustrations of the good generalship and good feeling which marked many of the excursion arrangements. Messrs. Garratt, the eminent agricultural implement makers of Leiston, in Suffolk, gave a holiday to all their workpeople. They hired two vessels to bring the party to London, and provided these vessels with sleeping-berths, cooking apparatus, and all available accommodation for making them the homes of the visitors until their return to Suffolk. A wharf-owner at Westminster allowed the vessels to be drawn up to the side of his quay or wharf, where the visitors could have ingress and egress. Four bullocks, ten pigs, the materials for an untold number of plum-puddings, sundry barrels of beer, and other provisions, were laid in. The meal-times were strictly defined; the time of return at night to the vessels was also defined; a foreman superintended everything and everybody; and all facilities were afforded for visiting not only the Crystal Palace, but other "lions" of London.

Another interesting and well-managed visit was that of 800 agricultural labourers, from the district around the point where Kent, Surrey, and Sussex meet (near Crowhurst and East Grinstead). The clergy of the parishes conducted and even originated the trip, and small subscriptions had been going on for months. Dressed mostly in their smock-frocks, with rosettes of coloured ribbons, the excursionists assembled at the nearest railway station, had a special

train to London Bridge, took steamers thence to Westminster Bridge, walked in procession to Hyde Park, entered the wondrous palace of industry, and there feasted their astonished gaze. They were systematically organized into parties; and although nearly paralysed by the scene around them, Hodge and Roger and Dickon managed to keep together and to accompany each other back to the quiet district where they would henceforth be regarded as travelled authorities. They left the building at five o'clock, and returned as they came. The arrangements were so economically made, that the whole of the travelling expenses, there and back, amounted to but 2s. 2d. for each person.

Many of the London manufacturing establishments, in arranging excursion trips for their workpeople, hired vans to convey them to Hyde Park, paid their admission money, and either provided refreshments or gave them refreshment money. But it is to the trips from country districts that we are here more particularly referring. One organized by the Duke of Northumberland was admirably managed. The party consisted of about 150, from Alnwick, in Northumberland. They had a week in London, at the duke's expense; and he caused a printed programme to be prepared for their guidance, which is worthy of being put upon record:-"BE ALWAYS PUNCTUAL.-Monday, July 21: arrive at Euston Square station at 1.15; go to Swan with Two Necks, Lad Lane, Cheapside; take dinner; go to Westminster Abbey at half-past four; see Northumberland House afterwards. Tuesday, July 22; interior of Guildhall, five o'clock in the morning; be at the Tower of London at half-past eight in the morning; take steamboat at London Bridge for the Thames Tunnel; return by steamboat to Westminster Bridge; walk to the Waterloo Road station, and go by the Windsor loop line railway to the Brentford station; walk thence to Sion House; return by same railway to Waterloo Road station. Wednesday, July 23; the Great Exhibition, Hyde Park. Thursday, July 24; the Great Exhibition, Hyde Park. Friday, July 25; Houses of Parliament, nine o'clock in the morning; British Museum; Regent's Park, Zoological Gardens. Saturday, July 26; St. Paul's Cathedral; walk and view the exterior of various buildings in the city; return home to Northumberland."

Since the opening, no fewer than 510 schools visited the Exhibition, or at least portions of schools; the total number of these juvenile visitors being 43,715-for all, or nearly all of whom, one shilling each had been paid as admission money. No less than 900 Christ's Hospital children visited the building. On many days the school children exceeded one thousand in number; and on September 18 they made up the remarkable number of 2,729.

The cab arrangements of the metropolis during the Exhibition were much assisted by a course of proceeding adopted by the Commissioners of Police. When the Exhibition was approaching its period of high numbers, the police authorities caused a useful manual to be prepared and printed, and copies given to the policemen stationed at and near the entrances to the building. In this manual the correct fares are stated from the Crystal Palace to all parts of

the metropolis-to the ambassadors' and consuls' residences, the banking-houses, the bazaars, the bridges and the Thames Tunnel, the city halls, the club-houses, the chief commercial establishments, the docks, the various exhibitions, the public gardens, the public offices, the fire-engine stations, the hospitals, the scientific and literary institutions, the museums, the palaces, the parks, the picture galleries, the police courts, the prisons, the railways, the squares, the theatres, &c. Not only are fares given, but the correct distances in miles and yards. As this manual is doubtless still in existence, it will remain permanently useful for purposes beyond those immediately contemplated. A second manual was at the same time prepared, taking Whitehall as a centre instead of the Crystal Palace.

On the opening day, the carriages conveying visitors to Hyde Park, if ranged in a continuous line, were estimated to have given a total length of nearly twenty miles; leaving out of view those which may have arrived in other directions, and those whose arrival was after twelve o'clock, the police counted the following numbers, as having arrived at the Park gates by the hour of noon:-1,050 state carriages and private carriages generally, 800 broughams, 600 posting and hackney carriages, 1,500 cabs, 300 clarences, and 380 vehicles of other descriptions-making a total of 4,630. On the last public day (Oct. 11), when the numbers were not half so many as on the preceding Tuesday, but when they included a stronger muster of carriage-riding and cab-riding visitors, there were said to be 3,920 cabs which "set down" between nine in the morning and four in the afternoon at the Crystal Palace; together with 1,649 private vehicles, and 1,063 omnibuses-making a total of 6,632.

In respect to railways, the Exhibition does not appear to have benefitted them before the 1st of May. The bringing of exhibitors and exhibitors' goods to London did not swell the receipts so much as had been expected. The receipts for the first four months of the year, on all the railways which have termini in London, exceeded by only 9 per cent. those of the corresponding period in 1850; and as many additional miles of railway had been opened in the interval, this increase was virtually reduced to nothing. During the month of May, too, the increase was not very notable; but from thence to the middle of October it was important. During the Exhibition period of twenty-four weeks, the receipts on the above-mentioned lines (viz. those whose termini are at Paddington, Euston Square, King's Cross, Shoreditch, Fenchurch Street, London Bridge, and Waterloo Bridge) were about £3,700,000, against £2,900,000 in the corresponding period of 1850. How much of this very large increase (£800,000) was due to the Exhibition, it is impossible to say; but the Exhibition must have been far more effective than any other cause in producing the result.

The trains which brought the excursionists to London were never before equalled either in number or magnitude. One thousand persons in a train was a common number; two thousand occurred frequently; three thousand was the number on more than a single occasion. But the greatest, the most gigantic of all, was a Great Western train in the last week of the display; it is said to have con

sisted of 150 of the immense broad-gauge carriages, in which 5,000 Bath and Bristol folks were packed. If this really formed one train, it must have far exceeded the Crystal Palace in length.

THE FINANCIAL RESULTS.

The receipts at, and in relation to, the Exhibition, by which it was made a self-supporting concern, were truly remarkable.

Of the season tickets, no less than 10,892 gentlemen's tickets at three guineas each, and 8,615 ladies' tickets at two guineas each, were sold before the Exhibition commenced, making together 19,507, for which more than £52,000 was paid. About 6,000 more tickets were sold during the period of the Exhibition; and it is worthy of note that of these 6,000, the ladies took off nearly a thousand more than the gentlemen. Nearly all the tickets were purchased at the original prices of three guineas and two guineas each, respectively; the sale having become very small when the reduction of price occurred,

The smallest money receipt at the doors was on the second day after the opening: the largest was on the third day before the closing: these sums were 4821. and 5,2831. respectively, the former in sovereigns and the latter in shillings. There were two admission days at 11,, twenty-eight at 5s., thirty at 2s. 6d,, eighty at 1s., one for season-tickets only, two for exhibitors and their friends, and one for exhibitors and the officials; making up the total of a hundred and forty-four.

The receipts at the doors, arranged in calendar months, were as follow:

£ Daily £

May.

...... 27 days, 67,999, Average, 2,518

June

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Few things were more remarkable than the equability of the receipts at different prices, the numbers diminishing pretty nearly in the same ratio as the prices increased. The sums taken on the highest crown day, the highest half-crown day, and the highest shilling day, approached very near to each other, being (in round numbers) 5,000, 4,8007., and 5,300l. respectively. The lowest receipts, of the three classes, also approached near to an equality. The total receipts from all sources make up half a million sterling in the following items :

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These sums are given in round numbers, and one or two small items are omitted; but the total is stated to be 505,1077. The seventh item in the above list is not among the least curious; it was collected in sums varying from one halfpenny to two pence.

66

It is calculated that the 275,000l. taken in silver coin at the doors (about 82,000/, having been in gold) must have weighed about 35 tons, and have measured 900 cubic feet. Only 907, was taken in bad money throughout the whole period, and scarcely any of this was on shilling" days. Each day's receipts were taken by from sixteen to twenty-four money-takers, from whom porters carried the money to collectors, who handed it over to tellers; when it had been counted and registered, the cashiers or treasurers locked it in a strong box, from which it was transferred to the Bank of England on the following morning in boxes holding 600l. each. It was only during a few hours in the last eventful week that the twentyfour turn-tables were unequal to the admission of the shilling visitors fast enough, and when extra hands had to take the shillings with no other safeguard than a vigilant superintendent standing by. Although it was announced that "no change" would be given at the doors, this rule was occasionally relaxed, for the money received varied in amount from a farthing to a ten-pound note. On the last "shilling Monday" the silver coin received at the doors required two cabs to convey it to the Bank; it weighed nearly 15 cwt.

The per contra account of the Commissioners will probably not be made public before this sheet goes to press.

STATISTICS OF JURY AWARDS.

The details of the Jury Awards do not come within our present object; but the following are the general results, as affording materials for comparison.

There were 166" Council Medals," 2,876 " Prize Medals," and 2,042 “Honourable Mentions," making a total of 5,084 honorary distinctions of all kinds. If we take the exhibitors at the estimated number of 15,000, about one-third were deemed worthy of some kind of recognition. Of the total number, 2,039 were absorbed by the United Kingdom, and 3,045 by foreign exhibitors. Our foreign guests occupied about two-fifths of the space, and took off threefifths of the honours. The greatly-coveted" Council Medals" were awarded in the ratio of 79 to British and 87 to foreign exhibitors; the "Prize Medals," 1,244 British and 1,632 foreign; the "Honourable Mentions," 716 British and 1,326 foreign,

In relation to different classes of exhibited articles, there were a few striking and instructive facts. In machinery, in manufactures, in metal, and in glass and porcelain manufactures, the British exhibitors gained more prizes than all the foreigners combined. In textile fabrics, in fine arts, and in miscellaneous manufactures, the foreign exhibitors took off the honours in the ratio of about threefifths to two-fifths British. But in the section of raw materials for food and manufactures the foreign exhibitors gained nearly four times as many prizes as the British (988 to 262). It would be a hasty generalisation to infer from thence that Britain is a manufacturing

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