64 



THE QARDENER'8 MONTHLY 



[February, 



tural that it should appeal but little to the sym- 

 pathies of English horticulturists. The following 

 from The Gardener's Magazine, however, shows 

 that it may not prove wholly unattractive to our 

 English friends : 



The International Exhibition of 1876, which 

 will be held in the city of Philadelphia, will in 

 all probability constitute as distinct an epoch in 

 the history of international exhibitions as did the 

 first of the series, held in the lovely palace of glass 

 in Hyde Park, London, in the year 1851. Since 

 then the experiment has been repeated in many 

 of the great cities of Europe, London included, 

 and, though it cannot be said that failure was 

 felt anywhere or any when, until a permanent 

 exhibition was organized at South Kensington, 

 yet there has always been wanting the freshness, 

 the surprise, and the completeness of the first 

 venture, while the partial successes achieved 

 have been more or less prejudiced by a pervading 

 sense of weariness. If any such thing as a great 

 international exhibition is wanted now, the 

 Western continent is certainly the proper place 

 for it. For the present, and for some time to 

 come, the old world has had enough of these 

 things, and it is well that our cousins on the 

 other side of the Atlantic have taken the subject 

 out of our hands, and intend to rehabilitate it in 

 their own thorough and original way of managing 

 Buch afl'airs. The description of the scheme, 

 which will be found in another part of this sheet, 

 will show that the scale is vast and comprehensive, 

 and comprises features now for the first time at- 

 tempted. All the industrial arts will be fully re- 

 presented, while agriculture and horticulture will 

 obtain a prominence they have never enjoyed 

 before in similar undertakings, a course of pro- 

 cedure consistent with the requirements of the 

 age as well as with the characteristics of Ameri- 

 can enterprise and taste. 



One of the necessary consequences of the lo- 

 cation of the exhibition will be that the old world 

 will visit the new world iii considerable force in 

 1876. Hitherto the traffic across the Atlantic has 

 been chiefly determined by business considera- 

 tions, for although Americans visit Europe in 

 considerable numbers, very few Europeans visit 

 America, except in obedience to calls of duty or 

 the temptations of commercial advantage. In 

 matters intellectual the people of the States have 

 always had to subsist for the most part on the 

 products of the old world, and the influence on 

 them of European thought has of necessity de- 

 veloped an interest in European scenery and 



memorials and manners. The playful sarcasm, 

 that " rich Americans when they die go to Paris," 

 represents fairly enough the joyous curiosity 

 with which our Western cousin starts on his tour 

 of Europe, which may be said to begin at Strat- 

 ford-on-Avon, to culminate at the mosque of St. 

 Sophia, and to end somewhere in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Tuileries. Between us in respect of 

 such matters the reciprocity, thus far, has been 

 quite partial ; for few Englishmen, and in pro- 

 portion, fewer Continentals, have visited the 

 States unless they were impelled by motives of 

 interest or that conviction of duty which makes 

 the sea as dry land, and converts danger and 

 strangeness into delights which fill the soul 

 with agreeable expectancy. But a change is 

 coming, and, indeed, has come. The active 

 spirits of the old world are on the move. Phila- 

 delphia is the universal goal of the reflective, in- 

 quiring, and adventurous ones of Europe, and in 

 an especial manner of all possible English visit- 

 ors to any possible exhibition. It is early as yet, 

 perhaps, to make the trip, but many whose ruling 

 motive is curiosity are already on their way, and 

 the completion of the exhibition buildings will 

 be witnessed by many nationalities. 



The spring of 1876 will sec a vast exodus west- 

 ward, and it is certain that thousands of brave 

 Britons will obtain a glimpse of the United States 

 in a very agreeable way, who would never have 

 sought such a pleasure except through the per- 

 suasions of an international exhibition. All will 

 be done that can be done on both sides of the 

 Atlantic to facilitate the movement; but the sea 

 that divides will take its toll of our time, how- 

 ever otherwise it may be disposed to help us. 

 The great Napoleon abolished the Alps by 

 marching over them, and the only way to abolish 

 the Atlantic is to take the fastest ship, and con- 

 sider the feat of crossing it a nine days' wonder. 

 Some time early in the summer of next year, 

 some great excursion parties will be organized 

 for doing the thing cheap and sociably, and even 

 now various kinds of accommodation are being 

 prepared for the very many who will make the 

 exhibition an excuse for a good look round at the 

 wealthiest cities and most renowned scenes of 

 the western continent; so that many who begin 

 at Philadelphia will have Lake Superior, and 

 Niagara, and Quebec in the programme, and wilj 

 be wiser when they return than when they went 

 out; or, if not really wiser, certainly richer in ob- 

 servations, and reflections, and comparisons that 

 the " memory will not willingly let die." 



