ROYAL INSTITUTION AND SOCIETY OF ARTS. 671 



plete revolution of the financial condition of the association. In 1850 

 the dehts of the Society amounted to 2,402, an amount that was re- 

 duced in 1851 to 1,696, since when the Society has become not only 

 solvent, but possessed of a large accumulation of capital, which in 

 the opinion of many of the members, now amounting to over 3,000 it 

 is somewhat chary in dispensing. This great storm, which completely 

 altered the condition of the Society of Arts, and culminated in the 

 Great Exhibition of 1851, can thus be distinctly traced to Mr. Felix 

 Summerly's " teacup." 



The merit of initiating the idea of an international exhibition has 

 been often warmly contested, but there is no longer any doubt that 

 the original proposition was made to the committee of the Society of 

 Arts in 1844, by Sir William Fothergill Cooke. There is no question 

 that the idea of this gentleman was clearly that of an international 

 exhibition, at that time declined by the committee of the Society of 

 Arts, but at a later period adopted by that body with the sanction 

 and cooperation of the late prince consort. 



In the month of June, 1849, the secretary, Mr. J. Scott Russell, 

 stated at the annual meeting, in the presence of the late prince con- 

 sort, that, owing to the yearly increasing success of the Society's 

 exhibition, the council had no doubt of their being able to carry out 

 the plan originally proposed for holding a great national exhibition 

 of the products of British industry in 1851. This statement led to 

 frequent communications between his royal highness the president 

 and various members, with the ultimate result of expanding the plan 

 to international dimensions. The prince consort, as president of the 

 Society, brought the scheme officially under the notice of the Govern- 

 ment ; but in the mean while the Society of Arts was not idle, and had 

 already entered into a contract for building a convenient edifice, when 

 a royal commission was issued. Mr. Scott Russell and Mr. (now Sir) 

 Stafford Northcote were appointed secretaries. An executive com- 

 mittee was formed, consisting of " Henry Cole, Charles Wentworth 

 Dilke the younger, George Drew, Francis Fuller, and Robert Stephen- 

 son, with Matthew Digby Watt as secretary." Meanwhile the So- 

 ciety of Arts had organized the financial arrangements necessary for 

 carrying out the scheme, but the immediate connection of the Society 

 with the exhibition now came to an end ; the child had outgrown its 

 nurse, and required nothing short of a royal commission to manage it. 

 How well the Exhibition of 1851 was managed, and how, after the final 

 adjustment of accounts, a surplus of 186,438 18s. Qd. remained in 

 hand, are now matters of history, as well as the expenditure of that 

 sum as part of the money devoted to the purchase and development 

 of the Gore House estate. 



Since the launching of the Great Exhibition, the Society of Arts has 

 done much good work in promoting industrial art and encouraging 

 inventive genius. It is true that much of its work has been taken out 



