240 MISCELLANEOUS. 



but by the employment of skilled labor, a ton of iron converted into steel, and then 

 manufactured into -watch springs, becomes of enormously increased value ; so it 

 will be wherever art is introduced, and a greatly increased value will be given to 

 the material employed. It should comprise a selection of specimens of ancient 

 art, of all ages and from every country, which may serve as types to be studied by 

 our artizans and workers in metal, ivory, wood, stone, or other material. It must 

 be a Fine- Art Exhibition, because in England fine art is an extensive industry 

 peculiar in its characteristics, and was excluded from our former Exhibition. The 

 Exhibition of Industry and Art in Paris, and more recently of Art at Manchester) 

 has proved that the public of this country will appi-eeiate and support such collec' 

 tions if brought together for their instruction, and it is needless to attempt to show 

 that if a high class of music is introduced as a feature, it will be listened to and 

 sought after at a time when it forms, more than ever it did in this country, part of 

 the education of almost every child. The Exhibition throughout must aim at 

 teaching some lesson in each of its departments, so that we may look back upon it 

 hereafter as the point and period in industrial progress from which we may date 

 the increased commercial prosperity and improved social condition of the people 

 of England. That such will be the result of the Exhibition of 1861, if carried out 

 in its integrity, and upon the basis put forward by the Society of Arts, we cannot 

 doubt ; and looking forward to its realization, we commend it to the hearty support 

 of our readers and the public both at home and abroad. 



WHEKE IT SHOULD BE. 



The Society of Arts, in proposing to hold another Great Exhibition of the Indus- 

 try of aU Nations in 1861, has not yet put forth any statement in reference to the 

 site upon which it proposes to place such a collection. Does it by its silence on 

 this point imply that the Ci-ystal Palace, or the buildings recently erected at 

 Brompton, in an extended form, are to receive the collection ? The former, we 

 presume, is not probable, as it cannot be thought that the Crystal Palace Company 

 would give them the use of its building, unless at a heavy rental, to which would 

 have to be added the cost of all but emptying it of much of its present contents, 

 which when effected would not render it capable of affording facilities for the same 

 brilliant display and bold effective arrangement of goods as did the building in 

 Hyde Park. Neither do the Crystal Palace and other Railways connected with 

 it, afford the necessary facilities for conveying to an Exhibition, held at Sydenham, 

 such large numbers of visitors as frequented the Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851' 

 Inconvenience is at present experienced, when not more than thirty-five or forty 

 thousand persons visit the Crystal Palace on gala days ; and it is known that more 

 than one hundred thousand entered the Hyde Park Exhibition and left it, without 

 inconvenience, in a single day ; and it is necessary to provide for a maximum num- 

 ber. With reference to the buildings at Brompton, they are already filled with 

 specimens of all kinds, and are constantly used in connection witli the schools of 

 the Educational Department of tlie Government and the Department of Science and 

 Art, and cannot, we imagine, be cleared out for the purpose of temporary exhibi- 

 tion ; nor are the buildings there erected of sufficient extent or of a character suited 

 for a great international display and world's fair of industry, science, and the polite 

 arts. Where, then, is the Exhibition to be held ? Is a new building to be put up t 



