46 
THE PARIS EXHIBITION. 1867. 
[Nature and Art, February 1, 1S67. 
products. In some cases the effect of these courts 
will be rendered more complete by the introduction 
of oak parquetted floors in the avenues and spaces 
not covered by the cases. Everybody who visited 
the Exhibition of 1862 will remember the admir- 
able effect of the tiled and mosaic floors laid down 
within the courts of some of our great porcelain 
and pottery manufacturers. 
The portions of this section of the building 
devoted to the Foreign commissions, also mostly 
exhibit great activity ; much of the woodwork of the 
Belgian, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Turkish, 
Egyptian, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese courts 
being almost completed, and in some, the Egyptian 
for example, heavy articles of exhibition which 
have to be built up, are being proceeded with. 
In general, in order to obtain as much wall space 
as possible, there are too mauy high partitions, and, 
consequently, in those parts there will be little per- 
spective and effects of coup d’ceil ; but some of the 
commissions, and that of Russia in particular, have 
avoided too much enclosure. The Russian depart- 
ment will be remarkable for its openness and, con- 
sequently, unobstructed view and light ; it stands 
at the side of one of the great radial avenues, and 
its limit is marked by a bold and highly effective 
ornamental wooden railing, cut by hand in the 
peculiar style of the country, the bases of the plain 
iron columns of the building being enclosed in 
massive woodwork corresponding with the railing, 
and mounted on octagonal stone plinths ; but the 
most characteristic constructions belonging to 
Russia are in the pare, to which we shall presently 
proceed. 
The last department at which we arrive in 
making the circuit of the building, commencing with 
France, is that of Great Britain, and that at present 
is an empty space. We know that English work- 
men do not allow the grass to grow under their 
feet when they do begin, but we trust that all our 
preparations are so wel I considered, that commenc- 
ing last we may be ready first ; and, as the space 
devoted to the United Kingdom is the largest by 
far, next to France, we shall be pleased to find it 
not too much subdivided, and, consequently, pre- 
senting a more imposing whole than its neighbours, 
and at the same time presenting a little more 
general design than has usually been apparent in 
our exhibitions ; the jewel is certainly the main 
attraction, but the setting can never be carelessly 
arranged without derogating from the effect of the 
work. The sappers are marking out the floor, on 
which may now be read the names of many well- 
known firms. 
Leaving the Industrial Galleries for the great 
outer Machinery and Process Court, we find 
evidence of the hand of the British Commission, a 
portion of the exterior Alimentary Gallery having 
been taken into the Machinery Court by means of 
a wall beyond the circumference of the latter : by 
this arrangement considerable space will be added 
to the Mechanical department at the expense of the 
Alimentary Gallery, which we presume does not 
require it. The wall will be covered by the 
erections without, so that the general effect when 
all is finished will be in no way interfered with by 
the arrangement. 
The general preparations of the immense Ma- 
chinery and Process Gallery, including an amount 
of Avork which it shows great courage to have 
undertaken in so short a space of time as was 
allowed for it, are almost completed. Along the 
whole of the central line of this court, which, be it 
remembered, is nearly five thousand feet in cir- 
cumference, have been set up two rows of cast-iron 
pillars, not very wide apart, and connected above 
transversely as well as longitudinally with lattice 
girders ; at the sides, a little below the upper 
surface of the girders, are large iron brackets, 
intended to support the driving shafts and pulleys 
for the machinery in motion : and on the top of the 
girders will be a gallery, more than ten feet wide, 
for the convenience of visitors, who will thus be 
enabled to make the tour of this important portion 
of the Exhibition, and view the machinery and 
more prominent processes very advantageously. 
This gallery was a happy thought, for, as the public 
must otherwise have been excluded from this 
central portion on account of the driving ma- 
chinery, it will make a very large addition to the 
means of circulation. There will also be a passage 
below between the columns of the gallery. 
In some parts of the Machine Court, solid 
foundations are being constructed for engines and 
other heavy objects, but not very much has yet been 
done in that way, and a vast amount of work 
remains to be accomplished. The future progress in 
this part of the Exhibition will be greatly aided by 
the auxiliary measures adopted by the Imperial 
Commission ; a temporary railway is being laid 
down around the building and a similar line of rails 
is being placed just within the Machine Court itself, 
and which will also be carried all round : these 
two railways will be connected by means of small 
branch lines at right angles to them and of which 
the turn-tables are being fixed. Pieces of machinery, 
goods, and materials arriving by rail at the station 
just outside of the pare, will thus be carried directly 
into the building to the very spot where they may 
be required. The time that will be saved and the 
interruptions that will be avoided by this arrange- 
ment are most important considerations ; the scenes 
that occur in other parts of the grounds at present, 
where it takes three or four horses to pull a one-horse 
cart out of mud-holes, will thus be happily avoided. 
Without the building the new feature of the 
Alimentary Court with its mile of covered terrace, 
or boulevard, is beginning to assume its intended 
appearance. The whole of the fronts of the French 
refreshment establishments are in place and ready 
for the painter and glazier ; they form two immense 
ranges, and are in all, about eight hundred feet 
long, and thirty-tAvo feet broad. They include a 
grand cafe ; a restaurant on the same large scale ; 
a Diner de V Europe, that is to say, not exactly a 
table d'hote, but a dinner, of which the bill of fare 
and the price are fixed, but which is served at any 
moment; a Buffet de I’Univers, which, if as Avell 
