THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1851.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 459, 7 September 1850, Page 2

THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1851.

The extent to which this subject has engaged the public mind at home, — and as a necessary result and reflexof such popularity,— occupies

the columns of the English 'journals, would warrant our devoting considerable space to it, even in the necessarily abridged accounts of European proceedings which we are able to lay before our readers. The movement, however, is in itself so important — so fraught with prospects of universal benefit, in which, if it be not our own fault, we in New Zealand may fully participate—that we deem it a duty to keep it before the view, and so far as we can, to press it upon the practical consideration of oui fellow colonists. The degree to which the project has commanded the approbation and combined the efforts of men of all classes and parties is thus forcibly described by the Times : — " The Prince Consort can claim the credit of having projected a festival in the appreciation of which all men and all nations concur. Such unanimity of approval has never yet been, gained for any object, however instrinsically laudable, however sincerely promoted, or however enthusiastically desired. There is scarcely any example of a leligious, or social, or political association which is not in some sense exclusive, and in some opinions objectionable ; but the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations collects on the same platform prelates and nonconformists, peers and tradesmen, ambassadors and manufacturers, Whigs and Tories, Free Traders and Protectionists. * * Such a cause can surely not fail of success." Perhaps the most striking occurrence that has yet taken place in connexion with the undertaking, was the assembling at a Banquet in London on the 21st of March, on the invitation of the Lord Mayor, of such a party as probably never met before on any similar oocasion. Prince Albert, the Chief Officers of State, the leading members of both Houses of Parliament, the principal members of the Corporation of London, the Masters of the great City Companies, the Foreign Ambassadors, and a large number of other gentlemen who had manifested a desire to promote the Exhibition were present. A distinctive peculiarity of the occasion was that the Mayors or other Chief Municipal Officers of the corporate towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland were assembled, so that almost every town of importance in the United Kingdom was represented by its first citizen* The preparations for the Banquet weie not only splendid, but admirably appropriate. The following almost picturesque description of the decoration and fitting up of the Egyptian Hall at the Mansion House for the occasion, is given by the Times : — This magnificent apartment bad been decorated in a moit appropriate manner, under the direction of Mr. Bunning, the city arth.tect, by the intioduction of trophies upon the columns, representing the several countiei of England, and alio Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It seemed fitted up lor ■ hall of conteience for the representutives of every industrial department. The products and manufacture! of every part of the kingdom were symbolized by meant ot paintings upon shields affixed to the columns, and by small gutta percha modeli, and in lonie instances by stuffing animals, the whoU being backed with laurel and formed into groups. Ireland appeared to be portrayed in its agricultutal produce— it* pork, its butter, its linens ; Scotland, too, was indicated in its manufacture* and agriculture, as well as by Hi wild game and iti plaids ; Wales was recognised by the leek and the goat's head, and its mineral* were not overlooked. The English counties were distinguished by representations ot the articles for which they are most famous:— some by their oxen, their corn, their hops, their cider, their cheese; some by their cottons, their woollens, their carpets, their lace; some by their minerals, some by their game. High upon the wall at the eastern end of the hall, behind the Prince's chair, were two well painted colossal figures, repmsnting Peace and Plenty, the former with a wreath encircling the globe* Under, neath was a large painting in distemper, showing tho ships of all nations discharging their cargoes in the port of London for the Exhibition. This painting which was extremely well executed, was said to be tha work of Mr. F. Featon. At the opposite end of the hall was the figure of Britannia, with four angels proclaiming to the four corners of the world an invitation (we apprehend) to bring their products for tbe approaching exhibition, Ai if to make the representation the more distinct, there was placed in the hand of Britannia a sketch or plan of a building for the reception of articles, and a painting of the exterior hung below. The plan exnibited a large circle filled with as many radii, or we might say avenues from the circumference to tbe centre, as could be conveniently introduce; in each of these the articles exhibited would of course be placed, and the public could pass up one and down the next and a continuous stream, tacb person entering or leaving the stream as such avenue or walk as he pleased; the centre, appropriate to the horticultural department, forming an agreeable grove visible from every part, and a gallery above giving a curious birdVeye view of the whole. la the picture of the exterior the dome surmounting the supposed building was painted to represent the world. At the base of the balcony at each end of the hall were suspended shields, on which were the arms of various nations. The hall was brilliantly illuminated, tnd these embelishments attracted (as may be supposed) no little attention and admiration. i Pre* eminent amongst the speeches delivered during the evening — not merely from the position of the Royal Speaker, but from the enlarged and philanthropic views and sentiments embodied in the speech itself — was the following admirable address delivered by the Prince Consort, in response to the toast, — " The health of His "Royal Highness Prince Albert, and success to the Exhibition of 1851." His Royal Highness, in acknowledging the toast, spoke as follows: —My Lord Mayer,— l am sincerely grateful for the kindness with which you have proposed my health, and to you, gentlemen, for the cordiality with which you have received this proposal. It must, iadeed, be most gratifying to me to find that a suggestion which I had thrown out, as appearing to me of importance at this time, should have met with such universal concurrence and approbation, for this hai proved to me thtt the view I took of the peculiar chi«

rncter and requirements of our age was in accordcnce with the feelings and opinions of the country (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I conceive it to be the duty of every educated person closely to watch and study the "time in which he liras, and, as far as in him lies, to add his humble mite of individual exertion to further the accomplishment of what he believes Providence to have ordained. (Cheers.) Nobody, however, who has paid any attention to the particular features of our present era will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that great end — to which indeed all history points — the realization of the unity of mankind. (Great cheering.) Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but rather a unity the result and product of those very national varieties and antagonistic qualities. The distance which separated the different nations and parts of the globe are gradually Tanishing before the achievements of modern invention, and we can traverse them with incredible speed; the languages of all nations are known, and their acquiremeut placed within the reach of everybody; thought is communicated with the rapidity, and even by the power, of lightning. On the other hand, the great principle of the division of labour, which may be called the moving power of civilization, is being ext^n* ded to all branches of science, industiy, and art. Whilst formerly the greatest mental energies strove at universal knowledge and that knowledge was confined to the few, now they are directed to specialties, and in these again cren to the minutest points. Butthe knowledge acquired becomes at once the property of the community at large ; whilst, formerly discovery was wrapt in secresy, it results from the publicity of the present day that no sooner is a discovery or invention made than it is already improved upon and surpassed by competing efforts. (Cheeri.) The products of all quarters of the globe are placed at otir disposal; and we have only to choose which is the best and cheapest for our purposes, and the powers of production are entrusted to , tbe stimulus of competition and capital. So man is ap* , proaching a more complete fulfilment ot that great and •acred minion which he has perform in this world. His reason being created after the image of God, he has t<> use it to discover the laws by which the Almighty gOTerni Hii creation, and, by making these laws his standard of action to conquer nature to his use — himself a divine instrument. Science discovers these laws of power, motion, and transformation; industry applies them to the raw mattter which the earth yields us in abundance, but which becomes valuable only by knowledge ; art teaches us the immutable laws of beauty and symmetry, and gives to our production* forms in accordance with them. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, the exhibition of 1851 is to give us a true test and a living picture of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived in this great task, and a new starting point from which all nations will be able to direct their further exertions. (Cheers.) I confidently hope that the first impreßiion which the view of this Tast collection will produce on the spectator will be that of deep thankfulness to the Almighty for the blessings which He has bestowed upon us already here below; and the second, the conviction that they can only be realized in proportion to the help which we are prepared to render to each oilier,— therefore only by peace, love, ond ready assistance, not only between individu»ls, but between the nations of the earth. This being my conviction, I must be highly gratified to see assembled the magistrates »f all the important towns of this realm, sinking all their local, and possibly political differences— the representatives of the different political opinions of the country, and the representatives of of the different foreign nations— to-day representing only one interest. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, my original plan had been to carry out this undertaking with the help of the Society of Arts of London, which had long and usefully laboured in this direction, and by the means of private capital and enterprise. You have wished it otherwise, and declare that it was a work which tht British people as a whole ought to undertake. I at once yield to your wish, feeling that it proceeded from a patriotic, noble, and generous spirit. (Cheers.) On your courage, perseverance, and liberality the undertaking depends. (Cheers.) I feel the strongest confidence in these qualities of the British people (Cheers,) and am suie that they will repose confidence in themselves— confidence that they will honourably sustain the contest of emulation, and will nobly carry out their profferd hospitality to their foreign competitors. We, Her Majesty's Commissioners, are quite ' alive to the innumerable difficulties which we shall have to overcome in carrying out the scheme ; but having confidence in you, and io our own zeal and perseverance at least, we require only your confidence to make us contemplate the results without any apprehension. (Enthusiastic cheering, several times re" newed.) Did our space permit we should gladly copy the report of the speeches in extenso, but we must pass over those of Lord i s tanley, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, ' the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and others. Two or three of the addresses, however, had special interest — for reasons which will appear by the extracts from them which we subjoin. The Archbishop of Canterbury thus stated what may without impropriety he designated as the religious view of the subject ; — You might, my lord, bare supposed that the ministers of religion were comparatively indifferent to such an object which is in a great degree of secular character ; but you hare judged rightly in remembering that whilst we are ministers of religion we arc at the same time citizens, and we do not cease to be patriots (cheers.) ; and as citizens and as patriot! we mutt take a lively interest in whatever tends to promote the national pros* perity and to aggrandize oar country, (Hear, bear,)

I trust that the undertaking now proposed will be as successful in iti remit as it has been grand in its conception. (Cheers.) There will be still more occasion i for rejoicing, my lord, if the aspirations of his Royal Highness shall be answered, as I trust they will, and if that which has for its object the national prosperity and credit shall also improve the social relations and add to the amicable intercourie of the different nations of Europe with our own. (Hear, hear.) We shall rejoice in this because it will carry into effect that glorious characteristic of our holy religion— goodwill amongst men. (Hear, hear.) One of the great advantages to be anticipated from the project is that promotion of friendly intercourse and increased confidence amongst different nations to which Prince Albert so well referred. We observe in the latest news from the United States (received via California) that the disposition there to co-operate is strong and general. A pleasing indication of the aspect in which most of the European Powers may be expected to regard the subject is found in the response of the French Ambassador, when the health of the " Foreign Ministers" was drunk at the Lord Mayor's Banquet :—: — His Excellency M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the French Ambassador, who was received with much cheering, said — My Lords and Gentlemen, when I cast my eyes around me, I behold the cities of England represented by their chief magistrates in this assembly, which I may truly call the House of Commons of English industty. (Cheers.) I trust it is the shadowing of the future. (Hear, hear.) Foreign nations flocking to the banner raised by the hand of Great Britain will be represented here very soon by their vaiious productions in one vast assembly— 11 A mighty maze, but not without a plan; " I may add a garden tempting with forbidden fruit. (A laugh.) We are all aware that the golden fruits of exotic industry are often withheld from our grasp by a dragon whose protective daws and sleepless eyes are always on the watch. But you, gentlemen, acting on an august impulsion, have thrown open your doors to the competition of the world. (Henr, hear:) On ano» ther occasion I compared this rivalry of nations to a peaceful contest ; but I think it should rather be likened to r school in which we all of vi have something to learn. (Cheers ) And, though I believe that all will be giiners by the experiment, I venture to «ay that your manufacturers will not reap the least advantage from it ; for, mit has been justly remarked, their merit consist! in the cheapness of their prices, in the texture of their fabrics, and in the durable nature of their productions — not in their fine glossy surface, as the wife of the Vicar of Wakefield would say (laughter andcheeis), but in such qualities as wear well. (Renewed cheers,) These qualities are the results of a hidden skill, of which no curious gaze can penetrate the mystery ; whereas the attractions, the external beauty, and the superiority of design in which others are supposed rather to excel, are open to first sight, and are accessible to imitation ; but whether in the school, or on the field of battle, I am sure England will stand her ground. (Loud cheers.) The only extract we can add is from the speech of the amiable and philanthropic Earl of Carlisle, who, in proposing the toast of the " Working Men of the United Kingdom," gave expression to the following sentiments which will find an echo in the bosom of every man who rightly appreciates the character and worth of those operative classes without whose energies " Britain's wonder-working industry" and commercial prosperity would soon be numbered amongst the things that have passed away. It is indeed most fitting that, amidst all the brillianf j and gorgeous accompaniments of our present gathering amidst all its Royal, its patrician, and its civic splendours, those who form that great^and active mass of beings who from day to day do the'real work of the world, should not be forgotten. (Cheers.) For I feel my Lord, that I may appeal to the large proportion of your municipal brethern whom your truly metropolitan hospitality has gathered round you upon this occasion, who come from the hives and marts of industry in all corners of the realm, who may be said to represent the staple branches of our manufactures, and the varied pursuits of the nation's labour (cheers),— l may ask them whether there it a single person in this distinguished assembly, from the illustrious Prince nearest to the throne of England to the magistrate of the smallest to^n within the kingdom, whose comforts, whose luxuries, whose life itself, aie not prompted, embellished, and sustained by the sweat of the brow, the strength of the sinew, the skill of the hand, and the resources of the brain, which go to constitute the wonder-working industry of Britain ? (Loud cheers.) It is most right, as it appears to me, that an assembly ike this should give a distinct assurance that although the Exhibition of 1851 is for all classes as well as for all nations, it is yet pre-eminently intended to be the festival of the working man of the working-woman (enthusiastic cheering), for there is no monopoly of sex, any more than of condition or of race, and to interest their attention, to refine their taste, to stimulate their invention, and above all, to do honour to their industry, are among its fairest and most legitimate objec's. (Cheers.) Though I have not the honour of being a member of the commission, I am sure I do not misrepresent the views of that commission when I state that among the many, though, perhaps, still scattered, acts of liberality which have been exhibited towards this project, any contributions from the working pebple, limited and proportioned to their modest earnings as they must be, will not be the least acceptable. (Cheers.) I quite agree with those who have advised you not to entertain any feelings of discouragement from the circumstance that the various temperaments and aptitudes of the races and nations which people the earth would scarcely allow any one nation whatever to carry away the palm in every species of excellence from a field where the competition is universal. It was said of the most | ovrerful people that the world has yet known, and at the very moment when the power of that Roman I eople was at its meridian point, that others might more softly mould the breathing brass, or chisel the living features from the marble, but that the compen« sation that was held out to them was prowess in arms and the subjugation of the world. So it may be that our countrymen appear comparatively deficient in some of the minuter graces or design and fabric, but they will not in the din of strife or in the roar of battle, but they will find it in the sturdy, useful, persevering industry that forms the element of the Saxon character and tbe glory of the British name. (Cheers.) In the exhibition and storehouse of all the most choice pro* ductions of the world they will see nothing but what industry like their own has produced — noihng but what industry like their own may aspire to excel (" Hear, hear," and cheers) ; and, in the confidence th«t they are made of tbe stuff and fibre which will not

allow them, in any course of useful progress or any career of high achievement, to fail. I give you now, " the Workmen of the United Kingdom." (Loud cheering.) The benefit which the undertaking is calculated to confer on the working classes as thus pointed out, is really one of its most valuable features. Lord Brougham, indeed, had started, amongst other crotchetty objections, the notion that it would injure British trade by causing an immense importation of foreign goods ; but he stood nearly alone in this view, and was understood to have abandoned it himself — no very unusual occurrence in the history of his " volatile" lordship, as his friend Lord Stanley called him at the Banquet. The operatives were shewing their own judgment on the project by contributing freely to its advancement, numerous items appearing in the subscription list as the united donations of the workmen in large establishments ; and in several of the manufacturing districts, the workmen were organizing clubs for the purpose of securing the means of visiting London during the Exhibition. The Ladies were actively engaged in the promotion of the object. A meeting of Ladies of high rank had been held at the Duchess of Sutherland's mansion, and a committee formed to aid the project. On the invitation of the Lady Mayoress, a similar meeting had assembled at the Mansion House, and had appointed a Committee which adopted this resolution :— " That this Committee believing that the Great Exhibition of 1851 may be a means of promoting trade, and of increasing the comforts and developing the skill of the women of England, resolves to invite the assistance of the Ladies of the city of London in order to further this national object." Subscriptions were pouring in towards defraying the necessary expenses with a liberality which amply justified the step of annulling the original arrangement by which the risk of the preparations was to be undertaken by the private enterprise of the Messrs. Munday, and casting the support of the scheme on the freewill donations of the public. The London district alone had contributed considerably more than £20,000 for the purpose, and there was no doubs that funds to an amount worthy of the object would be furnished by the people at large. After all, however, the money thus collected was not given away ; it is rather like seed cast into a fertile soil which is sure in due season to produce an amply remunerative crop of commercial as well as social advantage. — If our fellow colonists would only duly consider the subject they too would see it in this light , — and would be stimulated to secure for New Zealand a share of the benefit.

Tea Meeting. — On Wednesday evening, about 180 persons assembled at a social meeting, in the large School room adjoining the Wesleyan Chapel in this town, to testify their respect and esteem for the Rev. Stephen Rabone, who, after having efficiently laboured for several years as a missionary in the Friendly Islands, has resided and ministered in Auckland for some months, and is now about to enter upon a new sphere of duty at Hunter River, New South Wales. The Rev. Thomas Buddle presided ; and in the course of the evening, appropriate addresses were delivered by the Chairman, the Rev. Messrs. Ward, (Primitive Methodist), H. Lawry, J. H. Fletcher, Reid, and Waterhouse, and by Messrs. Elliott and T. S. Forsaith. Mr. Rabone at some length acknowledged the feelings of Christian kindness manifested towards him, and in impressive and affecting terms took leave of his Auckland friends. The reverend gentleman sails to-day in the Moa, followed by the affectionate remembrances and the warmest good wishes of the Church and congregation which have been gratified and profited by his ministrations during his stay amongst them. Fancy Ball. — A Fancy Dress Ball was given by Captain Oliver, and the Officers of H.M.S. Fly, on Thursday night at the Masonic Hotel. We are informed that it was attended by the elite of our military and civil circles, and passed off much to the satisfaction of all concerned. " Larking " Outrage. — We had hoped that the very annoying, although very despicable, outrages of this character to which we felt it our duty to call marked attention some time ago, had nearly or altogether ceased. We learn, however, that our esteemed townsman, Dr. Davies, who had already suffered considerably by these worse than ungentlemanly practical jokes, was again a sufferer on Thursday night, when his doors, verandah, windows, &c, were daubed over with black paint. It may perhaps only gratify the performers of this exploit to know that a lady who was staying that night at the Doctor's house, had a very valuable dress in which she went to the Fancy Ball totally spoiled by coming in contact with the daubing. We observe that Dr. Davies offers a reward of Ten Pounds for the detection of the dastardly offender,— an offer which we sincerely wish may lead to his being iscovered and dealt with as he deserves. Daring attempt at Robbery. — Yesterday evening, between 6 and 7 o'clock, a soldier, (whose name we are told is Naylor) deliberately pushed his hand through a pane of glass in the shop-window of Mr. Keightley, watchmaker in Queen street, and took possession of two or three of the watches which wer«

hanging in the window. He was immediately taken into custody ; — indeed he made no effoit to escape, expressing, on the contrary, a wish to be " sent to Hobart Town." The property was of course recovered, as he had only just laid hold of it.