1874.] Annual International Exhibitions. 333 
was then contemplated that these Annual Exhibitions should 
be devoted each to certain classes only of industry and fine 
art, and it was so arranged that within a cycle of seven 
years all the principal arts and manufactures of the world 
would have been illustrated in them. 
Before entering farther into an account of those Exhibi- 
tions that have hitherto been held, it is right that we should 
state that, prior to the issue of the advertisement above 
referred to, the whole question of Annual International 
Exhibitions was fairly laid before the leading representatives 
of Trade in London, and their opinions were invited as to 
the probable success of such Exhibitions. We are informed 
by one of the gentlemen so consulted that the unanimous 
verdict of the London Trade was that such Exhibitions not 
only could not succeed, but that they would be mere super- 
fluities; that similar exhibitions, only on a far more exten- 
sive scale than could be achieved at South Kensington in 
the manner proposed, already existed, and were perennial, in 
all the leading thoroughfares of London; and that a person 
wishing to become acquainted with any particular branch of 
manufacture could do so, far more successfully and speedily, 
by visiting the show-rooms of a West End tradesman than 
by an inspection of anything that his branch of trade col- 
lectively would be likely to exhibit. 
Anyone who has-been a studious visitor to the Annual 
Exhibitions already held will be able to bear out completely 
the views expressed above. ‘These Exhibitions have clearly 
not commended themselves to manufacturers generally in 
this country, whilst foreign nations have certainly been but 
very imperfectly represented on every occasion, although 
perhaps some exception may be made as regards the French 
Annexe, but then, as must have been apparent to all, the 
French Exhibition has not generally been devoted to the 
special classes of objects for which each year’s exhibition 
was supposed to be devoted. But, independently of this. 
the French Annexe has, in a great measure, been the means 
of bringing these Annual Exhibitions to an untimely end. 
By this remark we do not mean to imply that there was 
anything in the principle or manner of conducting these 
Exhibitions that rendered their continuance even desirable ; 
on the contrary, we were from the first impressed with a 
conviction that their ultimate failure was inevitable, but we 
were, perhaps, hardly prepared for their meeting with so 
speedy a dissolution. It appears that the French Govern- 
ment was induced to go to the expense of erecting its own 
Annexe at South Kensington, upon the distin¢ét understanding 
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