THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 586, 26 November 1851, Page 3

THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

(Fiom the "Times," June 25.) Next to the state opening, the most impressive sight, pei haps, that the building; has yet presented was yesterday morning. Thousauds of shilling visitors had had 'entered during the first hour, when, without a note of perpetiation, by the good management of about a dozen policemen an avenue was formed down the nave, and the Queen, who had, asusuul, come early was, on leaving, enabled to pass along between living walls of her people as quietly as if she was in her own drawing room. Hitherto Her Majesty has usually taken her departure by one of the side passages, but on this occasion she very unexpectedly put her shillingpaying subject", ou their trial for respectfully and corteous behaviour towaids her. Leaving the north half of the Indian depai tment, and preceded only by Mr. Mayn" and Mr. BHshaw, she proceeded, leaning on the King of Belgium's arm, to O&ler's fountain, which fbo <> short times anested her attention. The effect at tins point produced by the thousands of exceedingly fine, and all kept then places with an admirable and priiseworthy sense of propnety. Everybody seemed to fell the novelty of the situation, and to ilesne that justice might be done it. It was, in point of fact, the first extempoie walk of the Soveieign in the presence of her people without other guauls than themselves. The uiatification caused by the event was visible in every vace, ad the occurrence seemed greatly to surprise and pleased the many foreigners who happened to be present. Here and there cheers were raised when the loyalty displayed rose to Us highest point, but the spectators generally appeared to suppress their feelings, as if they doubted the good taste of eNpiessing them on sucli an occasion. The Royal party was attended by Mr. Cubitr, Sir Staflbid Norihcote, Colonel Reid, Mr Cole, and Mr. Dilke, Dr. Flavian-, and Mr. Bowring; they commenced their tour by examining the fixed machiners and receiving the explanations of Mr. Ilensman and the exhibitors present as to their respective contributions, After admiring the fine display of marine engines, of locomotives, and other interesting objects which this department contains, they minutely inspected Cox and Company's new sodawater machine, and not far from this their attention was directed to the remarkable collection of the sacred volume produced by the Bi itish and Foreign Bible Society. Her Majesty duiing her stay for the first time saw the splendid ivory throne, studded with jewels, presented to her by the Maharajah of Tiavancoie, with the extiaordinary magnificence of which she appeared greatly astonished and pleased. It is to be hoped that the respectful conduct of the people yesterday may lead to a repetition of such acts of condescension as we haee just recorded, and that the thousands of country folk, who now daily flock to the metrnpolis to see there, once for all, an epitome of viorply magnificence, raay occasionally be able to carry back with them to their homely fiiesides the simpl story of the Queen walking among them, graoiously receiving their unaffected homage. The receipts at the doors amonnted during the day to £3186 l'2s.; and, according to the police return, 68,394 pei sons entered the building. Among the visitois were 41-j agiicultural labourers from the estate of Mr. Pusey, whose expenses weie kindly and liberally defrayed by that gentlemen. The decoration of the British ime with municipal flags proceeds rapidly and successfully, and will, when completely, add much to the general eltect. It would materially assist this movement if the wealthy city companies lent their aid to it. Within tnelast tew days, at the south end of the tiansept, space had been affoided to Mr. Nash, the well known sketcher of the old baronial halls of England, to exhibit a coloured series of lithographs giving four ditferent views of the interior (luring the ceremony of inauguration. These prints are clever, coirect, and effective performances; and will, no doubt sell well. Some remai kable experiments were made yesterday in the presence of the jurors, with Henley's magnetoelectnc telagraph. Two length of percha covered wire having been laid across the Surpentine and connpcted to the instiument, each length had a portion of the gutta percba cut away and the wire well scraped to a bright surface. Notwithstanding this, howeverl the telegraph work welL One length of wire was then cut in two, and a long piece of uncoveied blight wire was inserted between, yet the lesult was again satisfaceory, the ■water failing to deviate the course of the electric cm rent. The third experiment made consisted in cutting asunder the wire and letting the ends fall into the water at some distance apart from each other. Even even thiough this defective insultation the instrument worked well, and if continued to do so after a still greater quantity of the gutta percha coating had been removed. Those results place in a remarkable point of view the merits of this invention, whereby the inconvenient and expensive use of a galvanic batteiy to the piesentelectiic telegraph is entirely superseded.

(From the "Times," July 1.) Yesterday there was a very considerable falling off in the numbeis that visited the building, the police returns giving 52,8? 9 as the total, while the receipts at the doors amounted to £2,169 16s. The excessive heat of the weather, is probably the cause, for there is no reason to believe that the Crystal Palace i\ as yet losing its attiactiveness with the masses. By a constant use of hand watering-carts and can«, and by removing the glass partitions at the eastern and western ends, the interior was kept pretty cool throughout the day, and the temperature must have bpen conside:ably lower than it was outside. A good deal, however, still remains to be done in the way of ventilation, and it is satisfactory to find that the management are taking vigorous steps to insure the comfort of their visitors during these veritable dog-days. They intend to open up large spaces for the admission of fresh air both below and in the galleries, and we have no doubt that [ when their arrangements aie completed they will be crowned with the same success as has hitheito attended theii labours. Reverting to the lessons in artistic taste which the Exhibition teaches, we are anxious to guard ourselves against those deductions winch the jealousies of national prejudice are so apt to draw, and to remind the reader that if we point out to particular branches of our native industry, specimens of excellence in foreign production, it is not for the purpose of recommentl'ng imitation. There has been enough of that hitherto, and little good it has done us. Let us quote some of the instances by way of warning. Our potters have sent contributions to the Exhibition which illustrate every known style of the manufacture. Some delight in Etiuscan shapes and. colours, otheis take the bronzes of Pompeii for their model. The influence of China, is &f course prominently seen, and medieval art, also showers down its suggestions, Then we have bud imitations of Sevres and worse of Dresden. Every day we are adding to the number of reproductions; and, no sooner is Parian introduced for modelling statuettes, than Cupids and other juvenile indelicacies are perpetually smiling at us under glass shades, or pitting in very uncomfortable attitudes upon projections oi dishes, or balancing themselves muaculously upon the summits ot lids. But potteiy is by no means the only or the most flagrant case of this imitative rage, which is so strongly j marked at the Exhibition. Take the section of carpets, I and you will hnd it almost if not quite as strong, i Here partly, probably, in obedience to the dictates of the Berlin wool-workers, and partly in deference to the j tastes of the Bnibsels and Fiench makers, we have got into a habit of covering the floor we Head upon with a luxuriance of vegetation and a lavibh expenditure of colours which it 13 quite wondeiful quietly to contemplate. Let anyone look along the girders of the western nave, from the sides of which our carpets aie suspended, and we are much mistaken if even the Chiswick shows have any longer the slightest charm for him. He will there see flowers, and leaves, and fruits, of a size such as was never se«n iv this world before, and we conscientiously hope may never be seen m this world again. He will find his eyes dazzled and perplexed by moss roses that give him a headache with their brightness, and he will wonder how he could ever make up his mind to walk over a material so decorated. The uses of a carpet are no mystery, and any sensible person who examines the subject will have no great difficulty in deciding whatstyle of ornament is unsuitable for such an article. In tho first place, he will say,

make your carpet the back ground for setting off your furniture appropriately ami well. Mow isth.it to bo done by bioad and staitlmg contiasts of colour, winch are constantly drawing the eyebight painfully downwnrdo, in&tead of allowing it to lest ngieeably upon other objects? Again, no one will contend that floweis lepiesenled as real, and fruit rounded off so that you are tempted to stoop down and gather it, and vegetation that thteatens the foot with hopeless entanglement, aie proper designs to tread upon. Yet that is whatnot only England, but all Europe, judging by thp Exhibition, does in this matter — and why 7 Because when tapestry becune no longer useful, the love of large pattei ns and i eal effects w Inch it suggested were imported into carpet-making, while the monstrosities of Beihn-wool woik came in aid of the inanm. The Enghs.li t-ection of carpets has imitations of Indian, of Biussels, of French, of paiqu<4ne and te^selated pavements, and of the medieval htyle of manufactuies. In one article that is a pretty long list of reproductions, nnd reminds us that in industry as in the drsuni we aie rather addicted to boirowing other people's ideas, and not very choice in the selection of them. Let us take another bianch of piodifction, wheie it seems less likely that we could en. It is that of gtales, lamps, candelabia, chandeliers, c mdlebticlvS, and such like objects, for the heating and illumination of our dwellings. In these undoubtedly there are a few \ery fine productions, and with respect to some of them our pre-eminence is undoubted, but let any person of ordinary taste examine the whole collection carefully, and he will letup from the survey with a painful unpiession of the ignorance displayed in the u^e of leally beautiful m.itenaK lie will find grates, exquisite m the quality of their woikman,hip, but totally unsuited for the uses they aie intended to serve, which must necessarily bieak the hearts of servants in the eftoit to keep them clean, with Greek, Gothic, Moorish, and ICluabcthan architectural airungements mhoduced which aie totally unnecessary, nnd figures of human beings in unhappy proMimty to an element which must inevitably destroy them. 'I he English manufacturer nevei abandons the idea of vegetation, and wreaths of fruits and floweis that would puzzle the horticultural acumen of Mr. Paxton himself are fearlessly suspended over the leceptacle for the glowing embers, or disposed upon the fender as if it was meant that they should be toasted. Again, in lamps, candelabra, chandeliers, and such like, the greatest atiocmes in taste aie committed, all leliance \ipon the m.irmals employed and the pui pose they aie intended to serve seems to be thrown oveiboaid, and the study of the makeis has evidently been to render their pioducts as little as possible like what they weie intended for. Some seize upon the idea of trees with curiously entangled blanches, and which have neither ait nor nature to recommend them ; others get a human figure patiently to support upon its head a weight of metal winch would sink the stalwart frame of an Atlas ; then animals and buds of all kinds are represented doing physical impossibilities in the cause of light, and, to crown the absurdities peipetrated, Cupids and the other adjuncts of heathen mythology aie lavishly mtei sper^ed among chandtheis and biocuets with a disregard of simplicity and elegance in design which is truly surprising. We give, as an illustiation ; the description of a bracket which is among the best of the kind in the Biilish pait of the Exhibition. A complicated Greek scioll springs from a laige basket which is supported by two grim caryatides, and the summit is occupied by a female figuie executed in Parian in an attitude of expectancy as if she had an appointment there with her lover. On the projecting part of the scioll, and at its extremity, rides a Cupid, also m Parian, who, of course, is shooting one of his airows at the young lady above him. After vaiious obstructions, the cord descends to the chandelier itself. Three other tremb'ing Cupids are looking on with fear at the archery scene, and under these is a confused mass of goats heads, masks, and owls, which seem to have no connexion with the rest of the subject or with each other. Let it not be supposed that we think the French or any other country exempt from the same criticism as our own manufacturers. The sins committed against good taste are confined to no single people, but, aa we send to the Crystal Palace the largest number of contnbutors in each section, our faults and short-comings aie unavoidably the most glaring. There is another view of the subject, too, which should not be lost sight of, and which, probably, in a great measure explains the vulgauties of our manufacturers. Like a schoolboy's first efloi tat composition, which naturally mn into ambitious rhodomontade, our industrial classes, called from their usual unpretending and useful labouis to complete with the whole world, have indulged laigelyin the hypeiboleof production. It is so in most of the classes, but especially in those where foreign rivalry threatened to be the most foimidable. Some sections, and especially that of machinery, feeling their pre-eminence secure and undoubted, have been content to be plain and unpretending, in consequence of which they develop a high degree of aitistic excellence. The most refined taste will gather pleasure and satisfaction flora a survey of our machinery department; for there, in the forms and the arrangements, strict attention to the proprieties and requirements of each machine may be readily traced. The only beauty attempted is that which the stringent application of mechanical science to the material woild can supply, and in the truthfulness, persevetance, and seventy with which that idea it> carried out, there is developed a style of art at once national and grand. We may quote as remarkable illustrations of this. Whitworth's tools and the cotton machinery of Ilibbeit and Plate. So, again, in the building which enslnines this vast collection of human industry there are no pillars that could be dispensed with, no arclntectuial mannerisms, no effort at efl'ect unsubordinated to the general design. All is plain, simple, and mathematically severe ; yet who can enter that vast intenorand Dot feel his heait hwell within him at the solemn and majestic impression which it cieates? Wo do not for a moment contend that the unbending precision which produces such great results in the cases quoted would bo equally applicable to the mnnufactuied products made available for our every day and domestic wants and comforts, but unquestionably it shows that there aie limits to the decorative art prescribed by the uses and the material of the objects on which it is exeicised, and that we cannot with impunity attempt to recall defunct or foreign styles of ornament. Whether we shall ever have a school of design incorporated with our manufactures original, characteristic, and meritorious, it is impossible at present to foretel, for the Exhibition throws no very hopeful or decided light upon that subject. New tastes are not formed and old habits of subseiviency are not dismissed in a day. The power of cheap pioduction and the advantages of excellent material turning the scale of the market blind our eyes to defects which would not otherwise escape notice if competition pursued us more closely. Then it must be remembered that the sins of which we complain are shared with England in pretty equal proportions by every other European country. In some branches we are in advance, in others we aie behindhand; and the Fiench undoubtedly twist about the ideas which they gather from the past with a fieedom and playfulness which we with our literal faithfulness of rendering cannot always equal. But, on the whole, the vein of art in connexion with manufactures seems well nigh exhausted all over Europe, What, then, is to he done, and wheie fehall our industrial classes look for inspiiation to guide them? Undoubtedly they will learn most from a careful study of the Indian collection. There they will find developed in its greatest known excellence the harmonious combination of colours in textile fabrics. Such a thing as vulgarity in design seems unknown in our eastern dominions except when clearly imported hy ourselves. They appear to have the secret of being minute in thenpatterns without any confusion or indistinctness, and, however great the elaboration of ornament in which they indulge, the uses and mateiials of the article which they decorate are considered paramount. We do not, in pointing out these things, by any means recommend that our manufacturers should cultivate long beards, rush into the productions of Cashmere shawls and Mnsuhpatam carpets, go about in palanquins, and, forsweanng Chustianity, become Mabomedans or Brahmins, but they may supply defects and correct faults in the decoiative art aspiactised among them from a careful elucidation of those rules upon which the nibtinctive genius of eastern nations in such matters depend. They may at length penetrate the secret of that happy ease nnd grace of style which makes Indian productions magnificent without being in the least degiee staring or pretentious.