The Exhibition.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3682, 13 October 1880, Page 2

The Exhibition.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Star, writing about the Exhibition, says : —The city is now full of noble " Foreigners." There are four live Governors caged at Toorack, besides our own, a real Marquis, stumping the country, and an Earl being shown the lions of the colony. The Marquis of Normanby is " boarding " the vice-regal parties, and the Marquis and Earl are at present tiring in special railway cars, and dining at 40 mile stages. Then we have no end of French, German, Austrian, Belgium, Italian, American, Indian, and Japanese' notables, besides Intercolonial representatives, all of whom are being made much of by the public, and insulted by the leading snobs of the Executive Management of the Exhibition. The Hon W. J. Clarke, who thirsts for knighthood, has been displaying a princely hospitality to onr chief visitors. He has invited them to musical matinees, fetes, garden parties, <fee, and finds for them no end of carriages and horses. Our Mayor, too, is having a lively time of it, but the money is not so much an object with him as the introduction of his amiable daughter to the "nobs." Our Premier being a] democrat of the first water, and living by politics alone, has not beep able to show to the front in these hospitalities. All that he and his henchmen Yale, Mirara et hoc genus homo have done is to snub those whom nature and breeding never intended they should associate with, by reserving for themselves and their hangers on the best positions for the opening ceremony and relegating distinguished visitors to the rear rooms, where they may either stand, or, following the example of diggers when a circus visits a mining centre, bring kerosene tins with them for seats. So disgusted have numbers of the Foreign Commissioners been with the treatment they have received at the hands of the executive that they determined to be absent from the inaugural ceremony, and, to show their resentment of tne " grab all" tendencies of Victorian manufacturers who have appropriated all the beat stands in the building and the greater part of the space, the representatives of English exhibitors resolved to go upon a picnic excursion on the opening day. These 4iiconrtesie», practised by oar

political bullies and underbred traders, who control the management of the Exhibition, have given theuutmost offence, not only to our visitors, but to every one possessing the .instincts and feelings which are necessary to appreciate the high compliment paid to the youngest of England's colonies by the gathering together in one centre of some of the world's representative men. The snobocracy of the London shopkeeper is politeness refined compared with that exhibited by a Victorian shopkeeper or professional politician when placed in a position of patronage or authority. The country districts have put Melbourne to the blush in their conduct towards our distinguished visitors. They have sent them invitations to visit their cities, have shown them their mines and the publio institutions, their farms and their stations, have offered them the greatest courtesies, have given them the best entertainment that money could purchase, and have withal behaved themselves in such a manner as to favourably impress and convince those they have entertained that Melbourne is by no means Australia. :,_,,;