18531 



DUBLIN EXHIBITION. 



253 



Til-: Dub!i:i Great Industrial Exhibi ion. 



The Inauguration of Ireland's first Great Exhibition of the 

 productions of her own and other nations, took place at the ap- 

 pointed time,^aiid passed o!T with brilliant success. The weather 

 was nios: pivpitious, and the assemblage brilliant. The central 

 hall — upwards of 400 feet long, as we ha\-e said — was left clear 

 for the company, wdiich filled from end to end. There must 

 have been at least 15,000 people present; including the Lord 

 Lieutenant, the representatives of the Church, the Bene'-, the 

 Bar, the University, the i^vmy, and the Corporations and Guilds 

 of Ireland, — besides u large number of visitors from England, 

 Scotland, and other countries. The liall was hung with upwards 

 of 150 heraldic binners: — which added much toihe picturesque 

 appearance of the whole. 



The music was in itself a great triumph. It was of a high 

 character and performed with marvellous accuracy ; and the effect 

 of the 800 performers, vozal and instrumental, aided by the great 

 organ, was sufficiently power Tul to fill the building, without be- 

 ing marred by that superabundance of noise which often spoils 

 the effect of the finest compositions and execution. 



The exhibition itself, it must be confessed, was somewhat hidden 

 by the ceremony which was to usher it to the world— the means 

 overlaid the end. The object of the exhibition is, the practical and 

 useful : — that of the inauguration was, the introduction to high 

 society, with a \iew to give it that stamp which i-ecommends 

 both men and things so forcibly to the public. It is to be hoped 

 that some day the Useful and Beautifid may walk hand in hand, 

 independantly, through the world, — that an order of merit will 

 rank side by side with orders of nobility : — but those who have 

 the management of Industrial Exhibitions or of any other great 

 public displays must take the Avorld as they find it at present, 

 and use the means which are common to all. 



The main body of the Exhibition was tar from complete on 

 the opening day, — but the managers had wisely prepared a 

 great treat for their visitors in the Picture Gallery. The collection 

 is perhaps the finest that has ever been seen of the works of 

 modern and especially of living ai'tists. The room is 325 feet 

 long by 40 broad, and already contains nearly 600 pictures. 

 Many more have yet to be hung ; and an additional gallery, 

 about a quarter the size of the present, is in preparation for the 

 remainder. The Belgian and English shcools are most fnlly re- 

 presented ; next to these, the German ; then, the Dutch ; and lastly 

 the French. The foreign collections were made by Mr. lioney, 

 the Secretary, with the assistance of the Emperor of the French, 

 the King of Prussia, and Dr. Waagen, the King of the Belgians, 

 andthc Dutch Government. The English pictures have been 

 contributed by private in;li\-iduals, — including Her Majesty and 

 Pi-in.-e Albeit; and several of the finest productions of the Eng- 

 lish school have thus been brought before the public for the first 

 time for m;iny years, amongst which may be mentioned Hogarth's 

 ' Gates of Calais' and 'Last Stake' — Landseer's ' Bolton Abbey' 

 — Wilkie's 'Rent Day' — Borker's 'Woodman' — Daiiby's 'Deluge' 

 Mulready's 'Wolf and Lamb' — Etty's 'Rape of Proserpine.' A 

 late number of water colour drawings and prints are placed on 

 screens in this gallery, — and the centre is occupied by sculpture. 

 The most remarkable of this last, perhaps, is the 'Boy and Dolphin' 

 attributed to Rafficlle, The sculptors of Ireland make an excellent 

 show. This division of the Exhibition must alone draw a very 

 large number of \isitors, for such a collection of works of Art 

 is not likely soon again to be brought together. 



One end of the Fine- Art Gallery is devoted to mediteval exhi- 

 bition ; which is in process of being arranged by Mr. Hardman of 

 Birmingham, and will include painted glass, iron, brass, and silver 

 work, ecclesiastical fittings and \'estments, wood carving, orna- 



mented tiles, &c. The ceiling is co\eied with ecclesiastical 

 emblems. The department is considerably larger than that in 

 Hyde Park, and will be much more complete in design and 

 arrangement. The contents of this department, whatever may 

 be its faults and peculiarities, may teach the people of Ireland 

 an important lesson upon Ornamental Art. The value of the 

 articles is very considerable ; but that value resides not in the 

 costliness of the raateriids, but in the artistic labour wdiich has 

 been expended on them. The Irish liave a feitile fancy and 

 great aptitude ; and this portion of the Exhibition may dispose 

 them to produce articles of ornament, as the Art workmen of the 

 middle ages did, by the application of taste and skill to materials 

 of comparatively little worth, — and to avoid imitating our heav}-, 

 costly, and often inelegant, pieces of plate. 



A glass case in the Picture Gallery containts a collection of 

 memorials of Edmund Kean : — including a sword and box pre- 

 sented to the Tragedian by Lord Byron, and another sword 

 given to him by the people cf Edinburgh, with the play-bills of 

 his first and last performance in London, — the characters and 

 dates being, Shylock in 1814, and Othello in 1833. In addition 

 to these, there are, a dagger which belonged to Henry the Eighth 

 and the hat of Cardinal Wolsey, from the Strawberiy Hill 

 collection. 



There will be a fine collection of East Indian and Chinese 

 articles — contributed by Her Majesty, the East India Company, 

 the United States Service Museum, the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 the Society of Arts, and several private individuals. The stand- 

 ards taken in China and the guns captured at Sabraon and 

 Goojerat by Lord Gough, attract much attention. 



The most important sections of the collection to Ireland, how- 

 e\'er, are those wdiich are self-derived, and which represent her 

 natural resources or the industry of her people. One of these is, 

 a collection of Irish Marbles — not merely cabinet specimens, but 

 good practical examples — exhibited by the Royal Dublin Society, 

 in whose grounds the Exhibition building, as our readers wid 

 remembei', stands. The Exhibition, in fact, although entirely 

 independent of the Society, has taken the ]5lace of the triennial ex- 

 hibition which that body had held regularly since 182 1. Its last 

 exhibition, that of 1850, was indeed thrown open to all the world ; 

 but no trouble was taken to obtain contributions from abroad ; 

 and the space w-ould not have permitted many foreign articles to 

 have been introduced. On the 24th of June last, Mr. Dargan 

 made the liberal offfer to put down £20,000 for a grand Exhibi- 

 tion on condition that the Society would permit the building to 

 be erected on their lawn. This was readily agreed to. Mr. 

 Dargan's expenditure has grovai to nearly £100,000; and the 

 building has increased in the same ratio, until it has covei-ed not 

 only the lawn and gardens, but also the court in front of the 

 Society's house, which it completely surrounds. The Marbles 

 exhibited by the Royal Society form part of a much larger col- 

 lection which it is now making, and for wdiich a new museum 

 is to be erected. For this purpose the Society have set aside 

 upwards of £2,000, — subscriptions have been made to the extent 

 of £800, — and Government has promised a grant of £5,000. 

 The object in view is very important to Ireland. At present, for 

 want of the neci-ssary stimulus, the working and conveyance of 

 the native marbles are both costly. — but there is no intrinsic 

 cause wdiy they should remain so. The Society intend to furnish 

 their entrance hall with architectural fittings worked in Irish 

 marbles. A door-case in fine red marble, two large tables in 

 green Connemara, and a fount in black marble, are included in 

 the collection now shown. - There can be no doubt of the value 

 of such efforts as these. The native marbles of L'eland are very 

 beautiful, — some of them quite unique; and if the Exhibition 

 draws attention to them, and leads to improvements and greata' 



