THE GREAT EXHIBITION AND ITS RESULTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 48, 6 December 1851, Page 2

THE GREAT EXHIBITION AND ITS RESULTS.

" Whatever may be the ultimate results of the Great Exhibition, its immediate consequences have been most disastrous to the trade of London. We may wander through the magnificent

avenues and galleries of this glorious structure, gaze with wonder and admiration upon the incalculable treasures of art and industry, collected from the most distant parts of the globe, and indulge-in the flattering contemplation of England's proud position amongst the nations of the earth ; we may anticipate the great benefits that our manufacturers and agriculturists will derive from the opportunities for comparison and observation presented to them ; but amidst all these pleasing reflections one painful thought will intrude, one dark shadow will fall upon the brightest prospect, for no one who has eyes to see, or ears to hear, can be ignorant of the distressing fact, that the stagnation which exists in every branch of retail trade, has been unprecedented ; this depression is not confined to the West-end of the town, it extends over the entire metropolis, and is felt in every provincial town through the kingdom.

The shopkeepers of Regent-street have been absolutely idle during a cold and backward spring. May, the great month in London, comes and goes without bringing any improvement with it, and the fashionable season slips on, while the summer goods lie fading in the windows of their desponding owners.

All places of public amusement or intellectual recreation have been almost totally deserted. The arts and sciences have alike felt the paralysing influence of the Monster Exhibition; moving panoramas have failed to move the public to visit them; pictorial halls and galleries have been neglected; and even the Royal Academy exhibition has fallen off considerably in its receipts since its opening, as compared with those of last year. The theatres, too, have presented, nightly, "a beggarly account of empty boxes." The outcry, in short, is as general as it is distressing, and the sufferers, one and all, attribute their discomfiture to the National Show in the Crystal Palace, which has absorbed wealth that, under ordinary circumstances, would have been distributed through countless channels for the benefit of the community. Let us imagine for a moment a continual drain of from £1000 to £3000 a day from the visitors to the Crystal Palace for three or four months, and calculate the huge deficit it will make in the sum that would otherwise have been expended in various ways beneficial to the community at large. What good does the money spent by the visitors to the exhibition do the inhabitants of London ? None whatever; it is swallowed up and abstracted from the common funds of industry, to return to them only by slow degrees and circuitous channels.

" What seems too miicli forgotten," says the Morning Herald^ "is that the exhibition may assist in the spending of money, but it will do very little towards the creation of wealth. It is already found that the £100,0.00 received for the tickets sold, has been £100,000 diverted from other channels. And if a million or two millions of people are brought from the provinces, and spend each £1 or £2 on the visit to London, that sum of three, four, or five millions thus scattered about, although it will not find its way into the pockets of the London tradesmen, will prove in the end to be for the most part abstracted from the trade of the provincial towns. For, as we have already said, although the exhibition may furnish us with a new method of spending money, it will do marvellously little to increase the quantity of money which we have to spend." Notwithstanding the frightful depression of trade, produced by this magnificent but voracious exhibition, the London tradesmen and shopkeepers are expected to bear an enormous burthen of taxation, local and national, as well as other grievous loads, without a murmur. We are not habitual croakers, but we cannot be blind to the alarming crisis to which the cruel pressure on the industry and energies of the country is hurrying a patient and most loyal people. The English operative will at least learn one important lesson from the exhibition, by examining and comparing the work of his own heavily-taxed fellow workmen with the productions of the lightly-taxed foreigner with whom he has to compete." With the above from one, compare the following from another London paper. " Tradesmen still complain that the Great i Exhibition in Hyde Park absorbs so much of the public money as to materially affect their interests. The theatres and other places of entertainment are in a measure deserted; and, but for the prospect of a reaction at no distant period, we believe that many speculators would gladly retire from the field of enterprise,

and leave the Crystal Palace "aloiuPilK glory." The same complaint extends to the country, where every spare shilling that otherwise would have been spent in domestic necessaries and luxuries, has been husbanded to en"able the owners to witness the noblest building that the mind of man ever conceived, and co'> over the rare gems of art and nature that -•' contains. When people have satisfied the: 11 curiosity, and return to their homes to boast i T their neighbours how much additional know- 0 ledge they have acquired, and get again into the " current of their ways," trade will revive. In the meantime we look around us, and behold with astonishment how much money has becya expended, in the adornment of shops, in the erection of buildings, in repairing our streets and renovating our public edifices, with the view on the one hand to attract custom, and on the other hand to set foreigners rejoicing in what they have seen, and in the reception prepared for them. Modern Babel never before presented such an appearance—our thoroughfares are lined with foreigners. Chinamen, Hindoos, Persians, Neapolitans, Germans', Frenchmen, Turks, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Norwegians, and Americans, meet us at every turn. They have come among us to see and be seen ; to benefit themselves by acquiring tastes and habits to which they were before strangers ; and to return home better prepared to assist in the advance of civilization, and in making all the nations of the earth as one great family^ knitted together in the bonds of friendship. Who would not willingly submit to a temporary depression to secure so great an amount of good ? Already we begin to perceive that incalculable benefits must arise to the public from this Exhibition. The Goldsmiths' Company have resolved to spend £5,000 in the purchase of works of art. It is said that the Corporation of London will follow the example; and we have no doubt that the numerous rich companies in town will let loose a large portion of their enormous wealth, in order to patronize our home productions, as well as the productions of foreigners. In looking over the Exhibition we perceive that many noblemen and gentlemen have become the possessors of the choicest productions of the chisel, and which—but for the opportunity thus allowed to artists of exhibiting their works — might have remained on their hands as useless lumber. Jewels, precious stones, the labours of the cabinet-maker, works in iron, steel, and silver, we understand, have been purchased by the nobles of all countries, to adorn their mansions. The money that will shortly be in circulation must tend to bring about the reaction of which we have just spoken, and give no ordinary fillip to trade. To say, as some foolish people assert, that the Exhibition will do harm, is to utter downright nonsense ; it will do an immensity of good. It has already set the inquiring minds of our artizans at work; see how attentively and with what zest and interest they examine every article of utility, how they compare this with that, and pronounce upon the value of each. Tell us that the exhibition will do no good ! Why, in half-a-dozen years we shall possess the finest set of skilled workmen in the world, no matter in what branch. In every branch, with the aid of our powerful machinery, we shall beat all other nations. We know what Englishmen can do, and what they will do when they are " put to it." and we are certain that they will glean so much from the present exhibition that the time will come when no rival in the useful arts will show in the field."

Jewels, Gold and Silversmith's Wobk. —One of the most unexpected, if not the most immediate results of the Exhibition will very probably be the manufacture of diamonds. Since tile proof was given (100 years after the ( assertion) that the diamond was pure carbon, a> new philosopher's stone has been sought; but adepts have directed, their researches by the pure ray of practical science, and have spurned the jargon and the mystery of the alchemists of an earlier age. Already we have been shown how to melt charcoal, but when called on to crystallise, it would take no other form but that of plumbago, instead of a diamond, whereas the diamond readily burns to pure charcoal. Ihe devil, black lead, takes the place of the angel diamond in the attempt at recomposition. v» c are told, indeed, that this depends upon the agent by which decomposition is effected. Jhe experiments in making diamonds were found'I' l on the vast magnetic heat emitted from aw ;■--- ------cumulation of batteries ; now a practical r;'<i.osopher contends that that was not heat ■■'>'>ie^ and that the principle, electricity, convert* ■■■ the

j decomposed charcoal into a metal. Here is a hint for speculation, which may give rise to cxl traordinary results ; why, for instance, should the diamonds now in the Exhibition, including the contributions from India, be valued at the enormous sum of 5,000,000/., when their manufacture is within the reach of art and industry .Regulated by science. 1 The false jewellery "which, beautifully set, appears to enrich the collections of Austria, Belgium, and France, are not made diamonds or other gems, but the models for the manufacturer. The largest diamond known to exist is reported to be that which belongs to the Rajah of Mattan, in India. It is a stone of the purest water, weighing 367 carats, which, at the rate of 4 grains to a carat, amounts to 3 ounces troy. It is shaped like an egg, with an indented hole near the smaller end, and was found at Landack, about 109 years ago. The Mogul diamond (Kooh-i-Noor), now seen in the Exhibition, is within a small fraction of 268 carats, and was estimated by Tavernier at 468,9691., but, according to the rule proposed by Jeffries, it would be worth 622,000/. This jewel, which was formerly in possession of the Great Mogul, is said to have lost half its original weight in the cutting. The next is the great Russian diamond, said to have formed one of the eyes of the statue of Sheringan, in the temple of Brama, and which the report is that a French Grenadier, who had deserted into the Malabar service, found means of stealing from the Pagoda. He escaped with it to Madras, where he sold it to a ship captain for 2,000/., who resold it to a Jew for 12,000/., by whom it was transferred for a large sum to the Greek merchant, who sold it to the Empress Catharine. Next to these comes a diamond weighing 139 carats, belonging to the Emperor of Austria. This stone has a slight yellowish hue, and has, nevertheless, been valued at 100,000/. Next in order comes the celebrated Regent or Pitt diamond, among the crown jewels of France, a stone remarkable for its form and limpidity. Although it weighs only 136 carats, it has been valued at 160,000/. The Kooh-i-noor is followed in the Exhibition by the " sea of light," shown in the India department, and seen to more advantage by the contrast of its position, the diamond lying near a mass of emerald. The Queen of Spain's jewellery, and the splendid collection of Messrs. Hunt and Roskell, in the south gallery, demand express attention. The only King in India has sent his Crown, the coronet of his eldest son, and the turban of his prime minister. In the north-western provinces of Hindostan resides a remote and unsophisticated community engaged in mining for iron. These primitive people have a worship and a temple of their own. The temple contained a lamp fashioned with rude ingenuity, and regarded as partaking of the sanctity of the place. It was begged for " the Exhibition," and willingly surrendered to be transported 10,000 miles, for the edification of Londoners at home. It has been remarked that the Indian compartment attracts a large proportion of visitors, but we do not believe the circumstance is traceable to mere idle curiosity, or even to the enticements of gold and silver brocades. The fact is that no officer or servant of the Company itself ever saw so much of India's treasures in the.whole course of his service as he may now see in a single morning. It was no easy matter to procure a sight of Gobelin tapestry in France, or of Royal porcelain at Berlin, but the finest specimens are now cheerfully dispatched to compete with rival consignments from Sevres and Meissin, from Constantinople and Smyrna. These are true industrial products, though heretofore jealously guarded, and naturally take a place among the arts and manufactures of the world. But what shall we say of articles more purely curious ? How far must a man have travelled iv ordinary times before General Narvaez would have shown him his pistols, or General Cavaignac his sword ? before he could have criticised the dressingtable of a Bourbon princess, or gloated over the decorations of a Spanish Cathedral ?