1874.] Annual International Exhibitions. 337 
classes selected for exhibition, it cannot be said that they 
were well represented so far as the mechanical part of the 
Exhibition was concerned, although there was a fair display 
of manufactured goods. As regards scientific exhibits more 
care was displayed by the Commissioners in the selection of 
objects, so that fewer trivial articles found their way in than 
was the case in 1871. 
Class II. in the Exhibition of 1873 comprised silk and 
velvet fabrics, steel and cutlery, surgical instruments, 
carriages not connected with either railways or tramways, 
substances used as food, and, finally, cooking and its science. 
One noticeable feature in this Exhibition was a falling off in 
the machinery department, which may perhaps be partially 
explained by the existence of a formidable rival at Vienna, 
where, it may be presumed, most articles worthy of being 
exhibited were sent, in preference to South Kensington. 
This year the industrial arts represented at South Kensington 
include leather, hand- and machine-made lace, civil engineer- 
ing, architectural and building contrivances, sanitary appa- 
ratus and constructions, cement and plaster work, heating 
by all methods and kinds of fuel, bookbinding, and foreign 
wines. The mechanical exhibits are—machinery for lace, 
leather, bookbinding, civil engineering and building, and 
such as are included under the head of recent Scientific 
Inventions. 
At best, the present Exhibition cannot be said to be in 
any way an improvement upon its predecessors ; in some of 
the classes it is very poorly represented, and upon the whole 
it decidedly lacks interest. Indeed, a visit to South Ken- 
sington is quite sufficient to prove, to the most casual ob- 
server, that these annual exhibitions are gradually dying 
out from natural causes. 
The great International Exhibitions have grown at so 
rapid a rate that it is very clear that they could not long be 
continued, upon their original basis, in consequence of the 
vastness of the buildings required for their reception. But 
in endeavouring to limit their proportions by spreading them 
over seven years, their interest has also diminished in pro- 
portion, not only to the visitor, but equally so to the exhibitor, 
and hence the cause of their failure. In a recent letter to the 
“Times” newspaper (Tuesday, June g), Dr. Forbes Watson 
entered in some length upon the great question of Exhi- 
bitions, and, while admitting the failure of the present 
organisation, he recommends that instead of endeavouring 
to make them popular, class exhibitions should continue to 
be held, under a revised system of arrangement and manage- 
