154 Sir Robert Kane on the 
On the Uses of Industrial Exhibitions ;—The Great Indus- 
trial Exhibition of 1853, and its influence upon the Deve- 
lopment of Industry in Ireland. By Sir Ropert Kane, 
F.R.S., M.R.LA. 
At this time, when the impressions produced upon our 
minds by the beauty and splendour of the Great Industrial 
Exhibition are still so vivid, and that its well-merited success 
forms still the subject of hearty and universal congratula- 
tion, as well for the character of our country, as for the libe- 
rality of the eminent individual to whom its arrangements 
were chiefly due, it may not be considered out of place that 
we should endeavour to lead the public to bestow some 
thought upon what the Exhibition really signified, and avail 
ourselves of the interest with which all connected with it is 
invested ; to refer to the practical uses which may be derived 
from such industrial demonstrations, and in fact to recal the 
attention of the public from the mere fact of the Exhibition 
to the objects which the Exhibition was founded to effect. 
For we have full reason to believe that a very large pro- 
portion of the visitors to the Exhibition were led by previous 
habits, or by the architectural and artistic illusions of the 
scene, to regard the Exhibition rather as a show than as a 
study—to look upon it not so much as a lesson as a lounge 
—to consider it decidedly better to have the military bands 
in the building than in the square, where they should go 
away if it rained—and to regard the examining of the objects 
as a concentrated form of shopping, without any implied 
necessity to buy. But none of these constituted the object 
for which the Exhibition was opened. The opening of the 
Great Exhibition of last summer had for its aim the demon- 
stration of the great industrial force which Ireland could 
bring forward at this time, and its comparison with the in- 
dustrial capabilities and results of the sister kingdom, and of 
foreign countries, thereby that we might see palpably and 
impartially manifested wherein we may fairly and indispu- 
tably claim pre-eminence or credit, where we were powerless 
or incapable, and that by careful and accurate comparison of 
our own position as to materials and means, as to skill and 
