In this view, we are inclined to doubt whether the
caveat corn- prized in a recent Order in Council is really for the interest of this country as she is to be represented in the Paris Exhibition. The Committee of Council decline to take upon themselves the selec- tion of specimens sent in, and refer the selection back to the local committees,—declaring that "it is upon the exhibitors themselves, and the committees formed to represent their interests, that my Lords must depend for undertaking that selection, which in other countries is generally exercised by functionaries appointed by the state." Is this species of universal suffrage likely to procure the best selections? The exhibitors themselves, or even their com- mittees, will be likely enough to have a much stronger impression respecting the importance of the works with which they are best acquainted than of works sent in from other places. The neat space, exclusively of passages, will be broadly divided amongst the various classes of manufacture ; and, with the excep- tion of a small reserve, "the remainder will be subdivided among the various committees, partly in proportion to the number and character of the applications that have been received, and partly in proportion to the scale upon which each kind of industry is carried on in a locality." The reserve is intended for the comple- tion of such departments as may be unrepresented by the demands received. Thus the Committee of Council appears to anticipate that the spontaneous supplies from the several districts may not be exactly what they ought to be, and a right of supplying de- ficiencies is retained. -Unless the notice, however, should receive some modification, we are inclined to doubt whether another species of reserve has not been too absolutely given up—whether the central Commissioners ought not also to retain some power of rejecting improper or inadequate specimens. Should we be correct in supposing the order open to this objection, there is still time to remedy the defect.
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