1851.

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by the functionaries, was it possible to recognise the face or name of any other than a political partisan of the existing Government. Neither M. Thiers, nor M. Mole, nor M, Guizot, occupied a place at the board round which the amateur Mandarin Hesing and the Russian and American Commissioners sat. This circumstance becomes the more striking when we recollect that the presiding Minister of Commerce, M. Buffet, was the same who, on the occasion of the last French Exposition, had endeavoured, as before stated, but in vain, to induce his countrymen to assent to a widening of the basis of the Exposition, so as to admit of other than domestic competition.

The Royal Commissioners, whilst reserving to themselves the right of deciding on all points of principle arising out of the complicated questions constantly recurring, delegated to the Executive Committee, the task of working out the details and discharging all the active duties of the administration. In this distribution of functions, and the acquisition of such an executive body, on whom, after all, the due realisation of every scheme must mainly depend, there seems to have been an amount of good fortune and felicitous arrangement as unusual in the constitution of public bodies, as it is in keeping with the marvellous prosperity which has hitherto, beyond all precedent, waited on this undertaking.

We think we shall be strictly within the limits of historic truth, if we assert that at the date of their installation, 3rd of January, 1851, the prospects of the new-born corporation were far from dazzling. It is impossible to deny that there existed considerable zeal, and even much lively sympathy, in many quarters. Sixty different places had been visited by a deputation, dispatched by the President of the Society of Arts, some time previously. Local committees had been here and there formed, and 4200 influential persons had, as we are informed, enrolled themselves as promoters of the scheme. But, unhappily for the Royal Commission, the zeal of their supporters evinced itself pretty much in the same way as that of the Irish Poor-Law Guardians for the chief board, in the propounding of the most enigmatical questions; and the sympathy of friends in tedious demonstrations of the futility, absurdity, and impracticability of the scheme. The design of the Royal Commission to organise local committees in every town, was not seconded by any great local enthusiasm. The chief difficulty, it would appear from the report of the first person dispatched upon this mission, is to find anybody that will listen to you at all on the subject.' One of the first towns canvassed, Rochdale, refused its cooperation in consequence of the recent defalcations of the

savings bank of that town, and the consequent depression of spirits of the inhabitants.' From Cheltenham came grave doubts whether, as a fashionable watering place, it could be regarded as within the objects of the Royal Commission.' Hereford desires to be satisfied on abstract obligations, and, whether it is indispensably necessary that a town having a ⚫ local committee should at least exhibit some one production.' Manchester would co-operate, provided satisfactory answers were returned to twenty-three different questions: Would

the Royal Commission say how it intended to provide against two samples of the same or similar articles being sent in for 'exhibition? Where various towns have exactly the same kind of machines, is it intended to admit the same from different towns, or only one? if so, which? How many local commit'tees are deemed desirable? 'What are the powers of the local 'commissioners? Are they to be delegate representatives of

the local committees, or to have independent powers? Will local commissioners be allowed to be exhibitors?' Other towns had other scruples: Would a model of the docks and shipping ' of Liverpool be in accordance with the objects intended by the Exhibition. What is the total amount of subscriptions required in the judgment of the Commissioners? Is the subscription to be an absolute donation, or in the nature of a 'guarantee in case of deficiency? Will any expenses devolve upon local committees or local commissioners? if so, how are they to be met? Who was to pay for carriage? who for 'superintendence? who for insurance against fire, water, theft, and accident?'

It was not right nor reasonable to expect money, but anything else was at the service of the Commission. The local committees would, in short, aid them in the investigation of their theorems, assist them in the solution of their problems, would assent to all their axioms, but could not listen for a moment on the subject of postulates.

But if the prospect at home was cheerless and discouraging, there was surely little to excite hope or kindle enthusiasm in the aspect of affairs abroad. The same public journal that contained some moving homily addressed to the friends of brotherly unity on the blessings of peace, generally contained a no less exciting summons from half a dozen commanders to arms. The Commission invited the governments of the continent to mingle in idyllic brotherhood, at a time when both the governed and governors were engaged in a more rancorous contest from purely national motives than perhaps at any previous period. The very first dispatch of our Minister at Dresden, acknowledging

1851. Indifference at Home.-Political Convulsions Abroad. 567

the receipt of the communications of the Commission, announced the fact of Prussia having refused to take any part in the then 'forthcoming Exhibition in Leipsic, as not desiring to have anything to do with a government, like the Saxon, which had treated her so badly.'

On the whole the period of its first promulgation was one of general political convulsion, to which the annals of history happily offer but few parallels. From the Weser to the Danube, from the Belt to the Caspian, preparations for war were everywhere making. Denmark, Holstein, Germany, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, and Italy, bristled with armed men. The half extinct

crater of Schleswig Holstein still sent up from time to time dense volumes of smoke. And hardly had the vivid glare of actual war passed away, when the flames burst suddenly forth from out the miniature volcano of deeply wronged Hessen-Cassel, scattering its burning embers throughout the length and breadth of the German Fatherland. Prussia had scarcely dismissed its soldiers, tired with the harassing duties of the internecine campaigns of Dresden and Rastadt, to their homes, when the voice of Radowitz, the soldier-orator, issued the hasty summons for all Prussians above the age of eighteen years, to fall into rank and prepare to renew the old hereditary struggles of the Houses of Hohenzollern and Habsburg. Austria, still reeling beneath the weight of repeated shocks, seemed to have permanently taken to its tents; its capital and provincial cities appeared no longer safe; and, indeed, to this day are in a state of siege. France, after running through every stage of political excitement, and testing every form of government, from monarchy to republicanism, dictatorship, anarchy, Napoleonism, seemed scared and enfeebled tó inaction. All the seats of European commerce had been transformed into camps of armed men. We had ourselves, indeed, escaped actual embroilment; but hopes of alliance blighted, or the marked discountenance of ungrateful theories, had not failed to produce strong sentiments of estrangement amongst even our oldest allies. Then came the painful incident with the Austrian Field-Marshal, as if to mock the hope of a peaceful meeting of such jarring elements, which had lived in fierce conflict for so long a time.

We have yet to allude to an event that deepened the general gloom of the period, and deprived the Royal Commission of one of its most strenuous and efficient supporters. From the minutes of the proceedings antecedent to the royal patent, we learn that His Royal Highness stated he had recently commu'nicated his views regarding the formation of a great collection 'of works of industry and art in London in 1851, for the pur

pose of exhibition and of competition and encouragement, tó 'some of the leading statesmen, and, amongst them, to Sir • Robert Peel. His Royal Highness judged, as the result of these communications, that the importance of this subject was fully appreciated.' The full import of these words was never thoroughly felt until the occurrence of that calamity which deprived the Royal Commission of the statesman, whose support abroad, even more than at home, was a tower of strength. It is not possible to over-estimate the value of the aid rendered, in liberal act and ready counsel, by the most worldly-wise of British statesmen to the labours of the Royal Commission. The minutes of the weekly meetings record hardly one at which the name of Sir Robert Peel is wantingdown to the very day of the fatal catastrophe on the 29th of June. He it was, we believe, who first suggested that the gold and silver medals, which had succeeded in supplanting the large money-prizes, should be abandoned, and bronze substituted. In the sitting of March 23. 1850, we find the following minute: The draft of a statement to be issued to the public was pro'posed by Sir R. Peel, and approved.' The introductory passage of this statement will be read, perhaps, with interest, as not uncharacteristic of the pen from which it flowed: - Her 'Majesty's Commissioners for promoting the Exhibition of 1851 have had under their consideration the subject of the prizes to 'be awarded to exhibitors, and have resolved to take immediate steps for having medals struck of various sizes and of different designs, it being their opinion that this is the form in which it will, generally speaking, be most desirable that the rewards should be distributed. They will endeavour to secure the 'assistance of the most eminent artists of all countries in producing these medals, which will, they hope, be valuable as works of art of the highest class, besides serving as records of 'distinction in connexion with the Exhibition. They have " decided to select bronze for the material in which the medals ' are to be executed, considering that metal to be better calcu⚫lated than any other for the developement of superior skill and ingenuity in the medallic art, and at the same time most likely 'to constitute a lasting memorial of the Exhibition.' The foregoing is no bad example of the unrivalled skill of the writer in the use of the Optative mood-and the ability to fulfil the recent direction on a Florentine packing-case in Hyde Park, —‹ This case to be posed with softness.' Such was the transition in the character of the prizes from large money rewards to simple bronze medals.

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Having now indicated some of the moral difficulties with

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which the designs of the Royal Commissioners had to contend at the very outset, we have next to direct attention to the nature of the machinery by which these and subsequent influences of a still more disheartening character were successfully combated, and eventually overcome.

Whilst the Royal Commissioners, under the presidency of Prince Albert, held their weekly meetings, in the Palace of Westminster, the Executive Committee, first under the presidency of Mr. Stephenson and subsequently of Lieut.-Colonel Reid, sat daily at their offices in Palace Yard; both bodies communicating through a third, the Finance Committee, under the presidency of Lord Granville. Several committees of sections, consisting of the leading men in the departments of agriculture, manufactures, and the arts, were forthwith nominated, whose function it was to facilitate the subdivision of their respective departments into proper classes, and to act generally as consultative bodies on all matters of a technical character within their respective spheres. If we add to the foregoing two Special Commissioners, Dr. Lyon Playfair and Lieut.-Col. Lloyd, who acted as intermediaries between the Royal Commission and the Local Committees, we take in at a glance the whole official organisation. Nothing can be more simple than the business routine of these several bodies; and nothing can better demonstrate the power of a sound organisation to dispose with accuracy and dispatch of an otherwise overwhelming amount of the most complicated business. The letters were in the first instance opened by the Executive Committee, their contents noted, and the answers at once written upon their faces; these answers were then copied, forwarded, and an entry of the substance of both the letter and the answer made in the letterbook. No formal archives were kept. It may, perhaps, give some idea of the amount of business thus dispatched to statethat the number of letters so received and answered by the Executive Committee amounted, on the 15th of September, to 39,000. Letters involving questions beyond the competence of the Executive Committee were brought before the Royal Commissioners, and replied to by that body. In all matters involving an expenditure of money, a monthly estimate was prepared by a financial officer, whose calculations of receipts and disbursements were duly controlled by the Committee of Finance. The most rigid economy was enforced in every department. The slender prospects of the Commissioners' exchequer seem to have deterred the chairman and the majority of even the Executive Committee from accepting of any salary for their laborious exertions. It would almost seem as if the members of this body

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