VISITS TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF INDUSTRY. Strassavuso the prevalent

interest of the public in the Great Exhibition of Industry, the daily press is putting forth its expansive energies in de- scription and explanation. The Times has set forward in a steady course of synoptical exposition, which can scarcely be completed till the reader has gone through a catalogue raisonne of all the substances in nature and all the contrivances of art and civilization. The Morning Chronicle, striving to maintain its preeminence as the organ of the Exhibition, has swelled to broad pages its close columns of triplicate English, French, and German description ; and seems resolved also to give budgets of na- tional statistics concerning all the separate nations who have entered themselves as competitors in the race. As these expository feats can scarcely instruct or interest the reader—if they are read—in proportion to the efforts needed to produce them, we little regret that our resources of space preclude any attempt of the kind on our part. In the notes, there- fore, which we shall offer from time to time of the things which most im- pressed us on our visits to the Exhibition, we shall only mark the broadest and most salient features. Our memoranda will serve as freshening re- miniscences to those who have already made their own personal observa- tions, and as outline tracings for the guidance of those readers, perhaps far more numerous, who have not yet encountered the first amazement of entering the " Crystal Palace."

Approaching the buildino. from London, we pace along the outside, and come to the Western or Kensington entrance.

At the Western end of the building, and while still in the open air, you are already in presence of some of the most interesting contributions. Far out on the sward, towards Kensington, is Marochetti'sgigantic figure of Richard Cceur-de-Lion ; which gazes to the West, as if typical of the reversed direction in which modern enterprise sets its crusading stream. Nearer to the building itself, right and left, are anchors of enormous size; monoliths of granite, which almost compare with the Egyptian obelisks, hitherto thought unapproachable for their simple and single vastness ; masses of coal as large as cottages, and slabs of slate of the area of a large room. A Staffordshire colliery company affords an admirable and in- structive section of the celebrated "nine-yard" or " thick seam" coal. It consists of a column of the coal about a yard square and ten yards high, braced by timber beams, and roofed at the top, so as to show the actual succession of the strata as they occur in the mine. But we enter the building. The eye is at first astonished by the enor- mous extent of the central vista—one-third of a mile long; the distance being made apparent by the diminishing perspective of statuary groups seen at receding intervals, and further prolonged by the atmospheric toning which is the result of Mr. Owen Tones's harmonized colours on the columns and girders of the building. It is well if the sense of astonishment is not made one of bewilderment, through impressions on another sense by the "largest organ in the world," which may be pealing forth a cataract of sound in the gallery over the head just as you enter. This is the British end of the building ; and the exposition con- tinues British—either Home or Colonial—from this Western entrance, till you reach the great transept which crosses the building at half dis- tance. As you advance up the nave, you leave behind you the " largest mirror " in the world ; and note the " largest mass of native copper ever seen," a mass of half a ton weight, so beautiful in its variety of metallic colours as to deserve a more signal position than can be given it in the retired but congenial department of raw materials. A few steps onwards, you come in sight of a beautiful model, some eight or ten yards long, of the town of Liverpool, with its miles of quays and cores of acres of water ; the latter imitated by silvered glass, upon which thou- sands of ships, beautifully and accurately modelled, hold imaginary an- choring-ground, and yield the fretted reflection of their delicately laced rig. ging. Fitly succeeds to this image of the greatest port in the world a model of the lantern of a lighthouse, massively constructed of two singular mate- rials for such a purpose—iron and glass. The lantern is of the size of a small observatory ; and the principle of its construction is such an ar- rangement of solid glass lenses that all the light of the lamps which are lighted in the centre of the lantern is dispersed in lines playing on the expanse of the sea around—none being wasted on the sky above or on the. earth immediately below. Next succeeds a magnificent Equatorial by Messrs. Ross and Sons, whose skill is replacing the reputation of English telescope-makers on the footing given to it by the ingenious Dollond; and who have, by the highest applied science, made English object-glasses to be the best instead of the worst in the world. Then follow specimens of statuary; gigantic figures of the two great Law Lords Eldon and Stowell, and of the late Sir William Follett ; some minor classical compositions by Marshall, Seeley, and Wyatt ; and some wonderful specimens of Na- ture imitated by Art in her crystallizing operations,--for instance, a great chair of alum crystal, such as might be the seat of some god of the caves. Keeping attention on these great features of the centre of the Exposi- tion, and only glancing aside to note for future recurrence the indications of British art that appear in the transverse alleys on either hand and in the galleries above, you arrive at the great central transept. The transept is already the rendezvous of all exploring friends. It combines the greatest wonders with some of the greatest beauties of the Exposition. The fresh visitor is awed, and the habitual visitor is ever newly delighted, when he comes to that point. Un- der the centre stands the crystal fountain of Messrs. Osler—a mass of crystal glass, three tons in weight, which rears its foliated form thirty feet in the air, and distributes sparkling water in beautiful broad-leafed shapes, combining harmoniously with the constructive lines. Standing on the South of this fountain, you have its crystal- line splendours thrown in relief upon the dark mass of tropical plants which form a grove under the foremost of the two old elms which nobly fill the Northern end of the transept, and are now in the full ver- dure of the tenderest spring green of England. The prospect is closed to the Northward by the beautiful cast-iron gates which the Coalbrook Dale Iron Company have placed there ; but beyond these gates, on your right or left, you may refresh yourself with the confectionary and emu- toxicating drinks purveyed-by the famous Xeasrs. Schweppe. Returning to the centre of the transept, and completingyour survey of it Northwaids, you observe in the gallery, under a glass case, the chemical apparatus to supply electricity for moving the great clock which fills the mul- lioned half-rose window of the transept end, whose hands point the hour of the day to the outside thousands.

As you approached the transept, you quitted the Home exposition of your country, and passed through the contributions of your Colo- nies ; and might have noticed the silks of India, and the arms of our war- like Indian tributaries. As you passed across the transept and entered the Eastern nave, you quitted the dominions of Great Britain, and entered the departments allotted to independent coterminous kingdoms—China, Persia ; then, through Turkey in the Eastern and Western quarters of the globe, and Tunis in the Southern, you were brought back to the kin- dred countries of Russia, Austria, and Italy ; Algeria, France, Belgium, Holland, and the German countries of the Zollverein. But, guarding against geographical distractions, you heed only the cosmopolitan riches that still crowd the central path of the nave as you go Eastward. While yet in the transept, there is what looks like a gigantic brazen parrot-cage : it is the iron cage that restrains and protects the famed " Koh-i-noor " or " Mountain-of-light" diamond. The solid bars of iron are gilded. The diamond is supported in the air by two small golden hands, which project from golden pillars and just lay hold of two of its projecting points : thus its full outline is shown against a purple velvet ground. It is about the size of a very small egg, hollowed on one side : on each side are two smaller diamonds. At night, and on the touching of a spring by the cus- todian, these precious gems sink into a massive iron box of impregnable strength, prepared by Messrs. Chubb, and built into a pedestal of solid masonry ; and it is understood by the crowd of spectators, that ever so alight a touch of the glass shade which covers the diamonds within the great iron cage would cause the machinery to collapse like the leaves of the sensitive plant, and plunge the gems into their cavernous retreat till the authorities should summon them forth again with their privileged key.

You now come to an immense mass of native silver, worth some thou- sands of pounds ; and then succeed gigantic blocks of rich metallic ores. Another organ, little inferior in size to the instrument at the Western end of the British nave, or to that one at the North end of the transept, here illustrates the competitive skill of an eminent French organ-builder. Then succeed gigantic sculptures,—a lion of enormous mould and most majestic mien, from the Berlin atelier of Miiller ; a composition in which the Archangel Michael overthrows Satan; and then the feature of the Exhibition in the department of sculpture—the Amazon striking with her spear a tiger which has sprung upon her horse. This piece is of the highest artistic merit. The most refined delicacy of female feature is combined in the face of the Amazon with a magnificent intensity of masculine energy and fell purpose : the tiger is remorseless, and you writhe with sympathy for the horse, whose attitude pictures at once his death-agony and his unsubdued spirit superior to death ; but you draw your breath deeply with relief as you feel that the Amazon's spear will in an instant transfix the tiger's heart and hurl him dead to the ground. The balance of the female figure on the horse is exquisite : the right leg drawn up from the tiger, gives that side of the body a contraction that will steady the hold of the rider on her horse, and give irresistible rapidity and force to her blow ; while the extended leg on the other side conveys with marvellous skill the idea of security due to the equipoise and sym- metrical power of the whole figure. There is no other sculpture, foreign or English, to compare with this work of Herr Kiss. It is cast in zinc, and has been bronzed in the new mode invented by Geiss. Near to the extreme or Eastern end of the Foreign nave, is the famed American statue of the Greek slave : and beyond this statue, with characteristic proximity of the useful to the beautiful, is an American model of a timber and iron bridge.

You now return Westward again ; passing from side to side just to ob- tain a general idea of what is in the great collateral passages which have tempted your scrutiny at every step. You will at once find that America has hardly received all the articles she means to bring to the competition: in her immense space on both sides of the nave, her best display at pre- sent is in the manufacture of carriages and sleighs, in the craft of cooper- age, and in the making of well-finished but not sumptuous furniture. Russia is also behindhand in her arrangements ; many of her treasures are still locked up by the ice in the North. It is expected that she will come out with supreme strength in some departments of social art—as in the manufacture of lamps and candelabra. Austria is still incomplete in some of her display ; but even at present she astonishes by her imperially rich taste in upholstery and glass. Four palatial rooms have been fitted up with their principal contents by a Viennese firm ; and the result can scarcely perhaps be equalled by any other four rooms in the United Kingdom, though, perhaps, individual excellences might be matched, by a parquet floor here, a state bed there, or a piece of carved furni- ture elsewhere, among the palatial and baronial residences of this country. France, considering her nearness and experience, is the most behindhand of all : but towards the end of this week she has made immense progress. She will excel all, no doubt, in the varied field of tasteful manufacture —whether it be in jewellery of the highest artistic design and workman- ship, in the metal castings for which she is celebrated, and in her infinite variety of manufactures of papier mache and china, in the beauty of her silk textures, or in her unrivalled tapestries. Belgium and the Zoll- verein States are pushing forward with a show of machines, hardware, and woollen manufactures, that will strike Englishmen generally with great astonishment.

You see that none of the Foreign departments are yet complete. It will be no loss to you that you should have some further time for be- coming acquainted with the immense display which your own country- men have organized at the Western side of the transept. Returning, therefore, to the British nave, you have still time and attention re- maining to mark the general arrangement adopted. On the margin of the aisle which runs parallel to the nave on its South, are ge- nerally disposed the raw materials of food, or of use in the arts,—the .various grains ; the various vegetable fibres, as flax, hemp, and cotton ; the various minerals, stony and metallic. On this South side, and towards the West end, is the great display of agricultural machinery exhibited by the Royal Agricultural Society. Hereabouts, also, and on the opposite spots in the Northern side of the nave, will be found the results of the textile raw materials in all the variety of cottons, linens, mnslins, hosiery, staffs, &c., for which our manufacturing districts are famed. Then all along the Northern verge of the British we will be found specimens of the wonderful variety of machinery which has created so much of the wealth of our nation. Here, in separate departments, will be found the identical apparatus, in actual motion, by which veetable and animal fibres are spun into thread, and woven into cotton, linen, woollen, or silken goods. You may see the tenters of the mules and looms at real work, and may watch the silk-worm's thread, from the roving-ma- chine which winds it from the cocoon to its ultimate place (grant the dyeing) in the pattern of a figured silk, or an Irish poplin. Under your own eye here, you may shortly see the proprietors of the Illustrated News print a portion of their actual weekly circulation, with a ma- chine made on the principle of that which enables the impression of the Times to be thrown off at the rate of 12,000 per hour. Here also are seen at actual work the ingenious machines by which needles are extemporized at the rate of millions by the day ; the exquisite and almost intelligent operations by which the coining-ma- chine turns a plate of metal into a multitude of coins all of exactly one weight, and all embossed in a style of beautiful art ; the awe-in- spiring movements of Nasmyth's Titanic hammer, as it alternately hovers in the air with the vibratory hum of a small bird's wing, or sweeps up and down in its irresistible course with the din and shock of a great piece of artillery. Bessemer's centrifugal pump will exhibit a new and prac- tical solution of an old scientific problem, worked out by the aid of steam; and Mr. Scott Russell's engineering firm will show how the enormous powers of this agent can be economically applied with advantage to West Indian agriculture in pressing the saccharine juice from the pores of the sugar-cane. And if you just emerge hence for a moment to the nearest point of the central nave, you may see a crowd of spectators agape at the facility with which a little boy, aided by De la Rue's envelope-machine, converts pieces of paper into ready-made envelopes at the rate of about one hundred per minute. This maze of machinery is kept in motion by the powerful steam-boilers erected at the North-western angle of the build- ing ; but in close neighbourhood to the moving machinery is a department of gigantic apparatus in repose, including the celebrated machine which raised the tubes of the Britannia Bridge, and models of all sorts of marine and river steam-engines. Glancing to the extreme Northern verge of the British nave, you see the locomotive railway erected by the Great North- ern Company, with a number of engines and a variety of railway pas- senger-carriages, grouped upon it, for competitive trial at some future day.

You begin now to feel tired at the enormous extent of the field over which you have ranged. You hastily make for the Western end of the building,—passing through a room crowded with beautiful vehicles of every species devised by the coachmaker's skill, and come to the point at which you entered. Here you give a final gaze of admiration up the central vista ; then glance to the gallery-aisles which you have as yet only recognized by the beautiful display of furs, carpets, and rich sta.% of the larger sort, which festoon their girders, but where you will another day inspect musical instruments, philosophical apparatus, manufactures in porcelain and glass, and the products of the jeweller's art. And so you step forth again upon the open green expanse of Hyde Park.

The Queen with her children, and several of the royal friends who are visiting her, inspected the Exposition of Industry on Saturday and Wed- nesday; each day inspecting only one or two departments, and making an exhaustive examination of those alone.

Prince Albert visited the building yesterday, and spent a couple of hours in some of the British departments.

The number of the visitors increases. On the two high-priced days of last week, the attendance was very large, both by holders of season-tickets and by the guinea-admissions on those two ,days ; but since Monday, when the price of admission fell to five shillings, the attendance has been quadrupled. The sale of season-tickets continues steadily at the rate of about five hundred pounds' worth per day ; the receipts for the guinea- admissions on Friday and Saturday were nearly two thousand pounds ; and the receipts at the price of five shillings, begun on Monday with fifteen hundred pounds, have risen to two thousand pounds, and promise with fine weather to reach a much larger amount.

Suggestions made at an early period, that the Exhibition should be made subservient to educational purposes, are already acted on. Professor Cowper, of King's College, has commenced a series of lectures to his class on the building and its contents • and Professor Ansted is said to be now busily making arrangements for the formation of classes in mine- ralogy and chemistry, to whom he will deliver practical lectures in the building itself. The Executive Committee are stated to be desirous of giving all possible facilities to the great Metropolitan schools for carrying out such excellent purposes.

Several provincial clergymen have written to the Executive Committee with proposals to bring up all their parishioners in a body for a day's view of the Exhibition.

The Executive Committee seem disposed to defer the closing-hour till seven o'clock : the experiment of continuing open till half-past six was commenced early in the week, and the clearrtnce of the building was ef- fected so promptly after the gongs began to sound, that the trial of a later hour was encouraged.

The ship Southampton arrived yesterday from Calcutta, with three hundred and fifty packages to swell the already large and beautiful con- tribution made to the Exhibition by the East India Company.

The Prussian Academy of Art has appointed Dr. Waagen, Director of the Berlin Picture Gallery, to represent the interests of the Prussian artists who have contributed to the London Exhibition.

We understand that it is the intention of the sculptors of this country to invite to a dinner the foreign artists and sculptors who have contributed to the Exhibition. The entertainment will, we believe, be presided over by Sir C. Eastlake, the President of the Royal Academy.—Morning Chro- nicle.

Some surprise has been expressed, that, contrary to what was originally intended, an address from the representatives of foreign nations to the Queen did not form part of the ceremonial at the opening of the Exhibi- tion. The withdrawal of that part of the programme is understood to have been caused by the want of precedent at this court for the reception of the foreign diplomacy as a corps or in a corporate capacity, as is the case in France and some other Continental states.—Daily News.