332 Annual International Exhibitions. (July, 
of scientific culture will be able to read it without deriving 
both pleasure and profit, or will refuse to join us in the wish 
that this may not be Mr. Belt’s last appearance before the 
public. It is no idle compliment to say that if he were a 
man of leisure, instead of a man of bustle and business, he 
would prove a worthy rival of Agassiz and of Humboidt. 
V. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS. 
By FrRepD. CuHas. DANVERS, Assoc. Inst. C.E., &c. 
International Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862 were un- 
mistakable evidences of the popularity: of those ~ 
institutions, and the public, by the support they accorded to — 
them, testified plainly enough to the correctness of the 
judgment which allowed a decade to elapse between the two ~ 
events. Another similar occurrence in 1871 or 1872 would, 
no doubt, also have proved a success, notwithstanding that 
intermediate exhibitions elsewhere had, to some extent, an- 
ticipated the results which such an institution would have 
achieved. Nothing could be more advantageous than the 
establishment of a decennial exhibition of all nations, for 
the purpose of exhibiting the advances made in science 
during each period of ten years; but when the example 
must needs be followed by France, Italy, Germany, Russia, 
America, and probably other nations also, the Exhibition 
necessarily becomes one of almost annual occurrence, and 
the strain upon manufacturers becomes too great for en- 
durance, and it soon manifested itself that such Exhibitions 
were degenerating into huge advertising affairs, and they 
were treated in just that light by manufacturers in general. 
Hence. it was clear that the days of huge International 
Exhibitions were numbered, and that it would be impossible 
to extend their existence for any further lengthened period. 
Whether it was from an appreciation of this fact, or from_ 
other causes, that led to their abandonment in this country, — 
we are unable to state with any certainty; but on the 23rd of © 
July, 1869, their death-warrant was signed, so far as this 4 
country is concerned, by the issue of an advertisement by 
Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, - 
wherein the public was informed ‘‘that the first of a series” 
of Annual International Exhibitions, of seleéted works of 
fine and industrial Art,” would be opened in London, at 
South Kensington, on Monday, the 1st of May, 1871. It 
Ye 
Ppue undoubted success which attended the two great — 
