658 
The Proposed American Exhibition. "November, 
freely admitted that, as the “ Manchester Textile Re- 
corder ” has it, we have a population “ in this over-crowded 
country who must eventually seek in other lands the means 
of subsistence they are unable to obtain here.” It may also 
be true that there is British capital which is unable to find 
remunerative investment within the narrow limits of the 
United Kingdom. But does it follow that either our surplus 
labour or our surplus capital must he drafted off to America? 
This consideration brings us to the particular point of time 
selected by General C. B. Norton and his colleagues for 
their undertaking. We all know that it has been officially 
announced through H.R.H. the Prince of Wales that in the 
year 1866 there will be held at South Kensington an exhibi- 
tion for bringing before the home-public the productions and 
the resources of those portions of the British Empire which 
we still call by the chilling names of colonies and depen- 
dencies, and which too few of us have yet learnt to regard 
as portions of our home, part and parcel of the birthright of 
the British people and their socii. The avowed purpose of 
this exhibition is to attract both capital and labour to 
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Dominion, and 
capital, at least to India, the West Indies, &c. These 
regions are, taken collectively, far vaster than the United 
States, and certainly not inferior to them in the extent and 
variety of their resources. The objects of these two exhi- 
bitions are therefore diametrically antagonistic. The one is 
seeking to draw our labour and capital away to an alien 
land, whilst the other seeks to retain them within what is, 
strictly speaking, a part of our country. The American 
exhibition seeks to increase our (import) trade with the 
United States; the colonial exhibition seeks to extend both 
our import and export trade with the “ colonies” and India. 
It is self-evident that the success of the one implies, pro 
tanto, the failure of the other. It is no less evident to which 
the sympathies of every true Briton must be given. 
I do not know, and I have no right to assume, that the 
promoters of the American exhibition were already aware of 
an intended colonial exhibition when their scheme was first 
announced, in which case they would have been guilty of a 
grave aCt of international discourtesy. But in any case the 
coincidence is to be profoundly regretted, and I am far from 
concurring in the opinion of “ The City ” that England is 
“ the most favoured nation,” and that “ we must consider 
ourselves very fortunate.” All that remains is to strain 
every nerve to render the Indian and Colonial exhibition the 
more attractive and the more telling of the rival displays. 
