THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
407 
missioners,” must cease to moralize, and take the world as we 
find it, encased in brick and stone. We must cast an inquiring 
glance into the Courts and Annexes — each an exhibition in itself 
— and endeavour to note the progress of the sciences. To do 
this as completely as our space permits will be our aim, and 
with this view we invite our numerous friends and contributors 
to send us then impressions, then Notes oe the Exhibition. 
THE AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT DEPARTMENT. 
BY HOWARD REED. 
In 1851 we well remember to have turned, with something 
of disgust, from the magnificent department where Russia 
displayed her malachite furniture, rich mosaics, and splendid 
tissues of gold and silver, to the bales of cotton, the maize, 
and pickled pork of America. They were strikingly opposed 
to one another, and it required some minutes before we could 
appreciate the force of the contrast. The sumptuous display in 
the one represented the gratification of the few; the vulgar 
but practical essentials in the other represented the comfort of 
the many. In the one we beheld the luxurious adornment of 
the palatial residence ; in the other the solid comforts of cot- 
tage homes. As we gazed on the one, we beheld the means by 
which the land from Canada to the Mississippi had been sub- 
jected, cities raised as by enchantment, deserts peopled in a 
season, the whole country knitted together by iron ways, which 
cross the track of the Indian still fresh amid the dead leaves. 
The other spoke of popular stagnation, and recalled the he 
with which Voltaire flattered and lulled Louis XV. in the midst 
of his court. 
Cette splendeur, cette pompe mondaine 
D’un regne heureux sont la marque certaine. 
There will be found the same revulsion of feeling in favour of 
this pioneer force in the Eastern Annexe of the International 
Exhibition, although one does appear to be leaving all that is 
beautiful behind when penetrating the tunnel by which it is ap- 
proached. When the mind is fully awakened to the utility of 
agricultural machinery, to the important part it plays in the 
subjection of the waste, the culture of much of the raw 
material which constitutes our wealth, and the production of 
food which supports man while he creates out of the raw mate- 
rial substances which contribute to our comfort or the forms 
which gratify our taste ; the charms even of high art will be found 
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