11 DECEMBER 1858, Page 11

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of late Vittistry and Of' des the affirmation. V thinka that it must refuse if ciety of Arts for another—Grea,t; Nations to be held in ,Londoeit the Tiflefoppoaedthé 1851s before the fact and some a the reasons offered btheoiiding journal noaeOppear to

lehtliere to be an !ExIiibitienhittea:86/4 =)litotitlefiCenaingtonehas

'fflrfliat; Itlee Glabe,' official organ

6; illtfist,yetlhat is to be, en-s

licrellis6,Ribi0t, the ,i'inzeal ‘'the'aelitinie of the ition of the Industry of all " If we remember rightly

bee mess:every day—in the street* rWhibitiem of the. Industry of

impreremennie handl:iced by s. that.it will, benes two:11step rqows. Then, re ss ;le :aye

aa it permanent Ilace'oreildbi

aye, is much nab& teftlitateitealies s Scarcely a.year has- passed since the ,tutectie of -'1661114it,oregokeett Exhibition somewhere. Dublin, New Yceir,,und one oraiiosaistheaeuman,capitals followed the lead of-London. Paris came out withiMi Afnixersal Exhibition in 11355 The Exhibition -of Mane/ester lastjetir afasrindtied.of, a.differeut kind ; it was a eied idea, and thins:leis the' pstsletisus aeel liberality of English gentlemen it:was perfectly uccessful. But it has *alien away the only just grounds for a new Exhibition in 1801—namely, the absence of works of art from Hyde Park seven years mace. At present it may be fairly considered that the mine has been sufficiently worked, and that the nation will not respond to any invitation for another display." 'This uniye' isal and c,oirtiauous acceptance of the idea looks as if the Publici Mt a want ; and if so, the Exhibition of 1851 was' not a supply which esihausted the demand. The Society of Arts desires, it is said, to illustrate" Art Progress." Ten years may seem nothing in the Mod the Times, hut in the progress of ac- teal life, recently, ten years repreaents -rather a. considerable- quantity. Time, in feet, is net to be measured by our-sense of it, fcor it is generally felt that when little is done, time passes elenelar and the hours of nIsitsh centuries are made are magnified in the proportion ; but when time passes quickly',—when "it seems but yesterday that hawkers were bawling the news through the streets" of events which happened so long as ten years ago, we at once understand that the interval has been a busy time, and that, presented in its results, the decade is a great interval. And so it is. If we sum up what has been-done for mankind by the achievements of practical politics, or practical science, seldom in the history of the world have we -been able to record a decade so full of substantial products as that between 1851 and 1861—the very reason, no doubt, why it has seemed so short a

day to the Times. , 'Taking it for granted that there is no absolute d priori reason

Why there should not be 'an exhibition in every one of the ten years ending -with the figure 1, the question is less whether we are to have an Exhibition or not, than what it is we are to exhi- bit. And the answer to this question again is probably the most substantial reply to the negative assumption of our contemporary. Le 1851, we had, says the leading journal, a great show of shop.. man's wares; in _Manchester we have had an Art Exhibition ; and it is semi-officially intimated that the display of 1861, unlike that of the last decade, is not to be a wholesale show of such wares as the world produces, but a prize parade for types of ex- cellence. We are to see, not the general manufactures of the globe in the useful arts, or the ornamental, but the prime speci- mens, the aristocracy of manufactures, the patrician exemplars of decorative art. Perhaps even such a display would scarcely claim the amount of attention, of capital, or of exertion, which got up- the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park somewhat more-than seven years

art.

lint_ there is a kind of exhibition that would be very naturally

suggested by this marked interval in the history of the'werld,Le

'exhibition of what the -ten. yeaPs -have done for us. Let the preper department in that behalf collect working -specimens of the achievements which !science, art, manufactures, industry, or in- genuity of any kind, has accomplished for this enterprising na- tion, and for mankind at large, during the interval since 1851, and tve have no doubt that the display would be well worth the trouble of presenting it, would coiled as many spectators and admirer p its that of 1851, and would be even more instructive. Pt would indeed demand such a collection to tell us the whole value of the decade. Probably there is scarcely a man possessing so much practical information as would enable him beforehand to ecompese the Guide and Catalogue Of the Exhibition. Even the few -salient and popularly, known triumphs of the period are enough to show what might be done. Of course the collection would not be limited to those improvements which have been in- vented in the period ; the inventive ideas of genius long precede te "fq di is a. very shert

ale'on Bonaparte beat General!

en 'Itt -and it seams but 1 ." e,n gitthe streets. As for ter4o41ee Vhither the lodging-bongo- Irt/likitaisiond melt the (minibuses reduced, their'fures." 1r viM brie .11.1 This last remark iserathet asentsializetiby- • the oflirther statement against any Exhibitioivein VW: see,i tir- -"in truth, we-have,itmt-Elitibitionsidtitil kin& even ‘tO satiety. As for the goat mass of 'shopman'syereanaiiiehifilled.dhe Jaiátlailding, itis Mean- • ceicable that any one should want them to be brought together ajiemenfi timairaffer a glass case.' • -W1tret4tth03btOet ko104.4,4httekseheste ebey ,to

thennete es as -scarcely tenable. Ten

Isis just ten years iince Pt Cavaignae in the election- forIa'a terday that the haWkersigA the Great Exhibition ofy851? keepers have recovereti'ffure

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decade tbetereen 1861aml. 386 lytuad vie!mitchi nQtliivo,m07 witch • to-show far the petiotti Mete& oa!papere: but let ititeixitilatevhsta has been turnet to-eiraotiotiT aceoant; 'what-less been acquired:fo1e! the varieties.-- isidestry •of' the contain • Whit ha e beektrroueht inane the daily life of mankiiial, and the estension. te • the teinatekyarit enterprise will be 4 once recognized. Onesof the commonest ne- veltieeavitlewhich the PuliIie Ts 'becoming 'AA/lilies swell 'alone exemplify what we mean. Plioteeraphy, which hi an imperfect form, was known to the public before 1840, has been gradeally perfected since that date; has 'hem rendered what it is, in its uni- versali adoption; its :completeness, its- workiegpowee, mostjpere tainly since the Exhibition of 1851. Nothing in any degree re- sembling the reflex of the pieturegallerssof pertraiture, nature, or schattifie models, could, have been displayed- in 1851, which could now be laid: befete the public ins: neve-Exhibithere and if thare-

sorirces of the cottatry' were employed to collect the! finest esgoise.' meus of photography from all parts of the world,—from Feadeed;

Germany, Italy, end Ainerice, as well as England,—if the SWOlfsr,', of Arts were systematieilly to show us how. photography,, serve art, landscape gardening, popular portraiture, lengineeeinge and pOlice purposes, we shonld not only see what has been dimes! but give a starting-point for further achievemeute. Another re- volution has been effected: before 1851 We had heard of the eesee 'lug-machine"; bet it is since that date that- the tr,ilm ef dis- tressed seimpstresses has been broken :up by the introduotion of a little -machine not altogether unlike .a eolfee-ogrinder, that the process of joining long seams of textile fabrics has been rendered as rapid as the manufacture Of the fabrics themselves, and that the wages of the women engaged. in the work have.heeu eitieed, from :33.6d. or a little more, to sight, twelve, fifteen, andeighteen shilling!, or more. It is since 1851 that the agricultural la- bourer iii Ireland as well as England has assisted at the trial•of agricultural machines' :although everybody acquainted with the subject well knows that the machinery as yet applied to the field. _ is but The rude embryo of that more perfect machine which is probably at no distant date to bring the manufacturers 'of nature up to the manufacturers of the town; and undoebtedly the Exhi- bition of 1861, especially if it had a working 'Add Whereon: to display the procese,, Would vastly stimulate the haven:titre adttiptst- tious.for the debacle ending 1871 Submarine telegraphy begins with this decade. The aquavivarinm in its general adoption, is of the list, With a werldnf new knowledge conferred on scienee by the combined use of the vivarium, the microscope, and the photograph. And it is in this decade that the These !itself is rendered a master of its own time for printing by the use of the vertical rotary machine. There is, however, a certain degree of truth in the objection of the Times—" Why are we to have London turned upside down to do what can be done at-Sydenham- any day ?" The Crystal Palace, 'which originated in the transitory building of 1851, has become a permanent institution at Sydenham. The recently- published. re- port of the Directors shows that it has been extricated frtim the difficulties which beset it, is placed on a sound commercial baths, and affords the opportunity of pleasing and useful recreation for the population of this vast metropolis--reereation, healthful re- laxation, unvitiated amusement being one of the great and crying wants of the day in the view of all wise statesmanship. Trading motives may have dictated the foundation of Sydenham; may still dictate the exertions for its development; but to what do weowe the progress of the age more than to trading motives ? The in- stitution is decidedly beneficial, and, free-trade notwithstanding, it is a consideration whether the injury inflicted by a merely tem- porary competitor would not be attended with more Levil than advantage. At Sydenhani we have a building, and the money requisite for building up its rival might perchanbe be . more profitably bestowed. One of the remaining wants in the Cie- isting Crystal Pilace is, not so much mere distance from town by measurement—that has become a minor °onside:Titian—but more easy approach. Now the sum which would build A..' new Crystal Pekoe might be employed to construct such - approaches to the existing Crystal Palace as wouldlakve the. readiest access to it from .every part of London. Nay, mai-eons*/ e of the greatest wants of the metropolis is the means IA locomotion from the most distant parts.; and in constructing the access to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham we might famish -aaserysimpertant :contribution towards the railway systeni Of the Whole metropolis. Instead,: therefore, of spending the :funds in the erection of :at - structure Vrhieh would far a season adorn Hyde Pail, to be Swett! away and leave no traces behind, we might lay out our- money in • works of permanent advantage, which would be a monument of the decade, and the 'pathwayto further improvement for the de- cade ensuing ; the whole contributing to render existing institu- tions more permanent and more useful for the public. Some tenants of the building at Sydenham might have to be displaced for the temporary purpose of the decennial Exhibition, but their retirement for a season would be compensated by the increased éclat, by the greater facility of approach, by the strengthened familiarity of the public with the resort, and by the permanency given to that abode for the display of our daily industry in its ordinary products, with the decennial Exhibition to illustrate: our art progress.