TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE EXPOSITION.
Mum trumpeting of preparation, prolonged for a full year, had produced the usual effect, and not a few had begun to grow sick of "the Exposition," especially those who, doomed to stand out, as it were, in the open market-place, had perpetually to face that ever- blowing idle wind of wonderment. But if there have been annoy- ances of that sort, look upon the thine as it exists and you forget them all.
It is done ; the work is accomplished ; all has gone well. Not a cross, not a frown, on man's face or heaven's. How many an anxious breast must now be relieved of its load 1—knowing what could be achieved, namely the thing we see ; but knowing also how human fallibility, or the treachery of circumstance, might mar that truly great enterprise, set before the world some abor- tion of the design, and turn the hope of good fame into humilia- tion under scorn. For the event often rebukes the too great con- fidence in better knowledge which discerns a possibility, by a shifting of results that makes shortsighted ignorance predicting failure seem to have proclaimed the truer wisdom. Prince Albert, who did a right princely thing in so clearly appreciating and so heartily adopting the enterprise, must have sustained a good weight of such care, not unshared by his crowned wife; and both can- not but rejoice that all is over so happily, with such full return of credit to the royal patron and director. As to any emeute or dis- turbance I.—the very sight of the thirty thousand in that building, and the glad host around, all most manifestly eobperating in heart and soul with the undertaking, chased away even the thought of interruption. The idea has attained a bodily consummation worthy of it. France has been celebrated for her Expositions d'Industrie, yearly growing in importance and interest ; but all who have witnessed both those exhibitions and this one concur in declaring that the French original sinks to insignificance in comparison with this its larger imitation. Because this, the more liberal in its very pur- pose and nature, embraces the whole civilized world ; and France needs not be ashamed to be outdone by the world. As to ultimate results, it is all too soon to talk of them. The present multifarious reality stifles such speculations and conjec- tures. It expunges those which have been hazarded already. It had been said, for instance, that this Olympic game of Industry, this tournament of Commerce, would stimulate competition, inven- tion, and practical skill : it may suggest many improvements, but less by mere emulation than by positive accretion to the aggre- gate knowledge of skilled art. It had been said that the in- dustry of one nation would filch ideas from another, and Eng- lishmen so libelled their country as to fear the consequence : but England is not so easily beggared in ideas. Besides, one nation cannot filch the genius, the "turn," the taste, nay the likings of another: France can no more steal our love of mechani- cal elaboration than we can steal her taste or the artistic vitality of Italy. The Exposition must have swept away some old falla- cies, of the "one Englishman to three Frenchmen' order. While it sets forth national distinctions more strongly than ever, by the comparison and contrast in juxtaposition, it also develops a cer- tain generic similitude over all. Admirable as each nation may be in some specific traits, it is plain that no one is distinguished from its fellows by any inaccessible, towering, supernal altitude. We may be English, French, German,—but we are all human; and we learn best when we meet in a common school. Hence, probably, the best effect of this concurrence will be, not to redistribute ex- cellence by some emulative change of position in the race, but to give an ulterior impulse to the whole.
One well-known truth was strikingly illustrated by the show. Thousands upon thousands of workmen had been cooperating to this one display, in all countries and climes, in all social conditions, un- der all creeds and political governments ; apart, labouring on ob- jects as different as the materials, many of the most homely kind : each, however, was brought up to the high mark of his vocation, each had to make his work perfect; and the result is, when all come together, that each one workman, each one article of produc- tion however rough or homely, falls into the general harmony and contributes to the one general effect of beauty. The arrangements of the whole affair—from the great edifice to the particular stands—from the organization of the committees to the ordering of the refreshment-rooms—were admirable compre- hensive, consentaneous, handsomely fitted up in every part, perfect in working, visibly perfect in the whole result. The first aspect under that vaulted transept—the blue sky and sun above, the blue and crystal arch a lower sky, the trees and plants, the fountains, the glowing luxury of commercial treasures, the sculpture—formed a conspiracy of influences drawn from the elements of civilization, worthy of the Congress of the World, but never thus allied before ; and the very fact that the impression produced is a commonplace in everybody's mouth, uttered scores of times daily, proves the force of the combined power thus created, in bringing together the minds and feelings of so many classes and so many races. The commonplace of the day is the voice of Man acknowledg- ing the power of Civilization in its most visible and concrete aspect. We do not hold, indeed, that the gates of Janus are for ever shut because the Exposition is opened—although Mr. Cobden was there introduced to the Duke of Wellington ; but that races the most diverse were there made to feel a fellowship in labour,
a common allegiance, a cosmopolitan friendship, is an assertion not stronger than the truth; and such a gathering must have noble fruits.
It must have noble successors. For that this can be the last Congress of the Peaceful Arts no one believes ; neither that it is. the only sort of congress which London will be content to witness. The Arts now appear as the handmaids of Commerce ; and in like manner, shall not Commerce, emulating them, claim to be the ser- vant of the Arts in some future congress of their own ?
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