498 International Exhibitions. [Oct., 



choice ; and perhaps the hest collection altogether was that from 

 Belgium, the chief portion of which was contained in a separate 

 building erected in the park. In statuary the French and Italians 

 were almost without competition, scarcely anything of this class 

 having been sent from England, and it will be sufficient here to 

 state that the richest treasures from the museums of each of the 

 former countries were to be found in the Exhibition. 



Photography, hardly known in 1851, occupied no small space 

 within the building. The positions obtained by salts of silver, or 

 by the carbon process, have recently been much improved ; and the 

 productions of enamels, one of the most interesting applications of 

 Photography, has made great progress; but one of the chief 

 improvements is that of the heliographic process, by which Pho- 

 tography may be converted into processes of printing by means of 

 ink, either on metal or on stone. Although a positive and satisfactory 

 mode of fixing photographic pictures in their natural colours on 

 paper has not yet "been invented, coloured pictures have been 

 obtained on paper, when, until last year, they could only be pro- 

 duced on metal. 



A very general improvement was noticeable in furniture and 

 decoration ; but with the exception of one or two individual pieces 

 of furniture, the merits of different countries have been more 

 evenly balanced in this than in any other branch of labour. The 

 principal improvements are due, to a great extent, to the employment 

 by manufacturers of distinguished artists, whose co-operation has 

 introduced art and good taste into the manufacture. 



In porcelain the French and English are almost the only large 

 manufacturers. And although the French claim the first place, 

 they themselves admit to great improvements in the manufacture of 

 Faience from the introduction of the methods employed in England. 

 The substitution of coal for wood in the baking of porcelain in 

 France has led to a reduction in its price, and great improvements 

 have been introduced into the art of decoration through the cromo- 

 lithographic process. The French, and indeed nearly all the 

 continental porcelain, is of the pate dure variety, whilst the 

 English alone manufacture the famous j)dte tendre sort. The 

 colours also of some of the English porcelain may truly be said 

 to have been unsurpassed in the Exhibition. In clear cut-glass 

 the English remain unsurpassed, and in imitations of the Yenetian 

 and Bohemian, the products of England compare, not unfavourably, 

 with specimens of manufacture from those countries. 



In Telegraphy there has been a good deal of quiet progress 

 going on since 1862. In Submarine Telegraphy more has been 

 achieved since 1862 than in all the years that preceded it; and in 

 consequence of the experience thus gained, engineers have, almost 

 without exception, discarded cables completely iron-sheathed, and 



