1867. J International Exhibitions. 493 



A committee was appointed for the purpose, and a fund subscribed 

 to meet the preliminary expenses ; but owing to the want of 

 sympathy on the part of the manufacturers the project was not 

 then proceeded with. On the late Prince Consort becoming 

 President of the Society, he advised the encouragement of the 

 application of the Fine Arts to our manufactures. A special prize 

 fund was accordingly established, and premiums and medals were 

 offered for the production of manufactured articles of simple form. 

 The first competitive designs were to be sent in to the Society on 

 or before the 15th May, 1846, and the articles rewarded with 

 prizes in that year, together with those sent in for competition in 

 1847, formed the basis of the first Exhibition of " Select Specimens 

 of British Manufacture and Decorative Art," which was opened at 

 the house of the Society of Arts in March, 1847. Very few 

 competitors came forward in 1846, and the Exhibition of 1847 

 would have been a total failure but for two individuals, who made 

 it a point of personal favour with a few great manufacturers to be 

 permitted to select from their stores a sufficient number of articles 

 to make a show. The result was highly satisfactory. Twenty 

 thousand people visited the Exhibition, and the Council arranged a 

 third display, which was opened in March, 1848. This time the 

 contributions from manufacturers were sent in unsolicited, and even 

 forced upon the Society, and upwards of seventy thousand persons 

 visited the Society's rooms. The Society's Exhibition of manufac- 

 tures in 1848 was followed by an Exhibition of pure art, known as 

 the " Mulready Exhibition." In June of the same year, and at the 

 opening of the Society's session in November, 1848, its first exhi- 

 bition of models of machinery was announced to take place in 

 January, 1849. In the spring of 1848 the third general " Exhi- 

 bition of Eecent Specimens of British Manufactures and Decorative 

 Art " was held at the old house in the Adelphi, and this Exhibition 

 was closely followed by a second art display, known as the " Etty 

 Exhibition," which took place in the same rooms in June, 1849. 



In the year 1849 an Exhibition of Manufactures and Art, in 

 connection with the meeting of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, was held at Birmingham with very 

 encouraging results ; and the success of the French Exposition, 

 held during the same year, coming as it did just as the country had 

 embarked on its career of partial free-trade, gave a fresh impulse 

 to the idea of holding a great National Exhibition of British In- 

 dustry. The promoters of the scheme at that time contemplated 

 only a national exhibition, and they asked for pecuniary aid from 

 Government to enable them to carry it out. 



Many have advanced claims, since 1851, to be considered the 

 originators of the proposition for holding universal or international 

 Exhibitions. M. Boucher de Perthes, President of the 'Societe 



