EXHIBITION A. D. 1849-1852. Part II. Selections. the first instance; the residue was then to be divided into three GREAT equal parts; one part was to be paid at once to the Society of OF 1851. Arts as a fund for future exhibitions; out of the other two parts all other incidental expenses, &c., were to be paid; and the residue, if any, was to be the remuneration of the contractors, for their outlay, trouble, and risk. Subsequently the contractors agreed that instead of this division, they would be content to receive such part of the surplus, if any, as, after payment of all expenses, might be awarded by arbitration. This contract was made on the 23rd August, 1849, but the deeds were not signed till the 7th November following. For the purpose of carrying the contract into execution on behalf of the Society, the Council nominated an Executive Committee of four members, who were afterwards appointed the Executive in the Royal Commission, and the contractors their own nominee. In thus making the contract with private parties for the execution of what, in fact, would become a national object, if the proposal should be entertained by the public, every care was taken to anticipate the public wishes, and to provide for the public interests. It was foreseen that if the public identified itself with the Exhibition, they would certainly prefer not to be indebted to private enterprise and capital for carrying it out. A provision was made with the contractors to meet this probability, by which it was agreed that if the Treasury were willing to take the place of the contractors, and pay the liabilities incurred, the Society of Arts should have the power of determining the contract before the 1st February, 1850. In the event of an exercise of this power, the compensation to be paid to the Messrs. Munday for their outlay and the risk, was to be settled by arbitration. The Society of Arts having thus secured the performance of the pecuniary part of the undertaking, the next step taken was to ascertain the readiness of the public to promote the Exhibition. It has been shown that the proof of this readiness would materially influence her Majesty's Government in consenting to the proposal to issue a Royal Commission to superintend the Exhibition. The Prince Albert, as President of the Society of Arts, therefore commissioned several members of the society, in the autumn of 1849, to proceed to the "manufacturing districts of the country, in order to collect the opinions of the leading manufacturers, and further evidence tricts. Visits to the manufac turing dis GREAT A.D. with reference to a Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations to be held in London in the year 1851, in order that His Royal Highness might bring the results before Her Majesty's Government." Commissioners were appointed, visits made, and reports of the results submitted to the Prince, from which it appeared that sixty-five places, comprehending the most important cities and towns of the United Kingdom, had been visited. Public meetings had been held, and local committees of assistance formed in them. It further appeared that nearly 5,000 influential persons had registered themselves as promoters of the proposed Exhibition. Contract with Messrs Munday. EXTRACT FROM FIRST REPORT OF HE Society of Arts, not having at their own disposal any "Tfunds which they could apply to the purposes of the "THE Exhibition, had found it necessary, at the very outset of their proceedings, to make arrangements for procuring money on the security of the profits which they anticipated might arise from the undertaking; and having met with a firm (Messrs. James and George Munday) willing to advance the sums likely to be required, had entered into an agreement by which the firm bound themselves to advance whatever amount might be necessary, in consideration of receiving a proportion of the profits of the Exhibition, which proportion was in the first instance fixed, but afterwards, at the request of the Society of Arts, was left to be decided at the close of the Exhibition by arbitrators chosen on either side. "Into this agreement a clause had been introduced, giving the Society of Arts the power to cancel it, if requested to do so by the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury within a specified period, provision being at the same time made for the repayment to the Messrs. Munday of any sums that might have been advanced by them, together with a fair compensation for the outlay and risk which they might have incurred." LETTER OF MR. DREW ADDRESSED TO T CONTRACT. 7th December, 1849. GREAT OF 1851. O the two proposals mentioned, respecting, first, the willing- EXHIBITION ness of the contractors to place a limit on their possible profits, and, secondly, to assent to a further extension of the 1849-1852. term for determining the contract, I have to inform your Royal Highness, that I am authorised by the contractors Messrs. Munday, to reply on their behalf as their nominee. Before considering the first proposal, I submit it is necessary to dispose of the obvious preliminary question, whether the Minute implies that the Government or the Society of Arts, or anybody else, in desiring to limit the possible profits, is prepared to limit the possible losses that may be sustained under this contract. As the Minute does not allude to this contingency, I have taken it for granted that no one is so prepared. Under this view I proceed to discuss the proposal, which I am authorised to say the contractors are quite prepared to consider in accordance with your Royal Highness's suggestion, because they fully sympathise in the desire of your Royal Highness to protect to the utmost the public interests in this matter. They admit the full force of the fact, that the undertaking now appears under an aspect very different from that which it wore in July last, when it was first propounded by your Royal Highness. At the same time, the contractors submit it should be borne in mind, in considering their position, that, before the proposition for holding the Exhibition, accompanied with the offer to the world of prizes to the amount of £20,000 could be published, it was obviously necessary that there should be some guarantee that the proposal would become a reality. The contractors apprehend there can be no doubt that the Government, the Society of Arts, or some one, must have taken the preliminary risk before any public steps whatever could be taken, and the contractors, for certain considerations, were then willing to undertake that risk. If a contract had to be made now, in the month of December, for the first time, the present information as to the expression of public feeling might, perhaps, cause the terms of that contract to be different. Part II. Mr. Drew on the con tract. GREAT A.D. 1849-1852. Part II. Selections. The contractors, however, do not wish to take advantage of the state of uncertainty which existed in July last, and are willing that the better knowledge and experience in this matter, which have been obtained at their risk and by their expenditure, should be fairly considered. But in so doing, I submit that the circumstances of the early period when the agreement was made, ought not to be forgotten. In July there was no evidence at all to indicate how far the public would respond to the proposal; and there was no pecuniary guarantee whatever to secure its eventual success, as indeed there is none certain even now. The contractors were invited to enter into an engagement binding themselves to carry out this great work, involving a certain liability of £75,000; to be prepared at once when called upon to deposit £20,000 for a Prize Fund; to advance all necessary capital for preliminary expenses; and to make an outlay immediately without any tangible commercial security whatever. If they had viewed this proposal simply as tradesmen, they would probably have declined it, as I knew that others had already done, but they were induced to entertain it principally by my knowledge (obtained from the perusal of minutes of meetings held at Buckingham Palace and Osborne House, and shown to me by Mr. Fuller) of the interest taken by your Royal Highness in the plan, and of the confidence displayed by your Royal Highness in this matter in Messrs. Cole, Fuller, and Russell, from whom, (then personally unknown to the contractors) the latter received an assurance of willingness to co-operate in the Executive. Upon such moral rather than commercial security, the contractors entered into this arrangement, binding themselves to carry out the proposal, which was not indeed defined in its extent, but was to be carried out to such an extent, and in such a way as your Royal Highness, or a Royal Commission if issued, should direct. The receipts by which the outlay was to be repaid, either as respects the amount, or the regulations for obtaining them, were to be altogether beyond their control. How and whence they should arise they could not determine; this point resting with the public themselves and with the Royal Commission. It was agreed, when the receipts were sufficient to repay the £20,000 advanced for the Prize Fund, the expenses of the building, and some expenses mentioned in the deed, that the residue of the receipts, if EXHIBITION A. D. 1849-1852. Selections. any, should be divided in certain proportions between the Society GREAT of Arts, as trustees for the public in this matter, and the contrac- OF 1851. tors. Out of their share the contractors undertook, further, to pay the expenses, necessarily very considerable, of all management, Part II. salaries, offices, advertising, printing, &c.; and the Society of Arts, I understood, would hold their proportion in trust for future similar exhibitions; so that, even after the Prize Fund and the building had been paid for, the contractors still had a risk, whilst the public were sure of a future fund, if the receipts from the undertaking afforded any surplus whatever, beyond the outlay for prizes and the cost of the building. During the preparation of the deeds for giving effect to the arrangements already mentioned, a still further protection of the public was asked of them, and they consented to the proposition made by Mr. Cole, that the contract should be altogether cancelled upon arbitration before February 1st, 1850, if the Government desired it: thus practically agreeing that, if a better arrangement for the public could be devised, there should at least be an opportunity of making one. I have now to state to your Royal Highness that, as the contractors still entertain the same confidence towards the undertaking and its promoters as they did when they came forward in July, and by so doing enabled the proposal to be announced to the world, so they are now willing that an arbitration shall determine, when the Exhibition is closed, the proportion of any surplus, after payment of all expenses whatever, to be allotted to them as remuneration for the capital employed, the risk incurred, and the exertions used. With regard to the wish of your Royal Highness, that the contractors should agree to a still further extension of the time within which Her Majesty's Government shall be at liberty to determine the contract, and the suggestion made, as I understand by your Royal Highness, that the period of extension should be the end of two months after the first meeting of the Royal Commission, I have to state that the contractors consent that the contract shall be liable to be determined at any time within the period suggested, upon the desire expressed by the Lords of the Treasury, in the manner in all other respects provided in the deed. In conclusion, I beg leave to submit to your Royal Highness, that, while I have no wish to parade the willingness of the contractors |