114 
STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
left in America. Out of mid-winter, as by a single step, into the month of 
June. Beautiful, verdant meadows and pastures, “ spotted with fire and gold 
in the tint of flowers ; ” sleek, fat Durham cattle, and Leicester sheep lying 
on the banks of beautiful streams and on the velvet knolls, or wading in the 
tall grass; gardeners cultivating their cabbages, beets, onions and beans y 
farmers hoeing their wheat and planting their later spring crops; with cozy 
cottages, handsomer gentlemen’s residences and lordly castles, and new and 
thriving, or gloomy old cities and villages—their moss-grown walls and tur-' 
rets carrying one back a thousand years—all along the way, make the jour¬ 
ney of 205 miles seem at once but a league and the stretch of a continent. 
The five hours and forty minutes occupied in making the rim are soon passed, 
and, ere aware of it, I am in London, the great metropolis of the world. 
Exhibition Palace, May 1. 
Here at last, in this vast temple dedicated to the industrial progress of the 
the world. Crossing Hyde Park, I could hardly believe that its lofty, far- 
distant, crystal domes were parts of one and the same building. Present 
myself at the office of the Royal Commision, where I am cordially received and 
tendered such facilities as are requisite to a pleasant and profitable attend¬ 
ance upon the Exhibition. 
The interior of the palace is at once grand and beautiful the lofty nave 
and transepts not only affording opportunities for. the most impressive displays 
of representive products, but likewise those far-reaching vistas which a build¬ 
ing of this construction alone could give. And then the arrangement is 
calculated to heighten the effect and fill the mind of the beholder with wonder 
and awe, as presenting, not simply a multitude of the most attractive pro¬ 
ducts of all lands, but the great wonderful world itself, in microcosm. 
The long waited for hour of opening was ushered in with a pomp and mag¬ 
nificence well suited to the occasion, and now, with its glitter and glory of 
state pageant, its devout prayer to the Giver of All Good, its sublime music 
by an orchestra of two thousand four hundred singers and instrumental per¬ 
formers, and its thunder of cannon, is numbered with the great events of 
history. 
America is here only semi-officially and occupying one-tenth of the space 
she ought to have filled. Mr. Holmes, the U. S. Agent, has labored zealously 
and made the most of the material at command. Many of our exhibitors 
have been greatly behind in getting their valuable contributions here and 
will probably lose the opportuniy of having them examined by the jifries. 
Why is it that our thorough-going, wide-awake Yankees are everlastingly be¬ 
hind time on all such occasions ? Probably not a few only commenced build¬ 
ing their wonder-working machines after they ought really to have been 
planted in the palace. The trouble is, Jonathan of necessity keeps so many 
irons in the fire that some of them are very apt to burn. He has too much 
to do; while John has too mani/ to do; that’s the difference. 
OFF FOR THE CONTINENT. 
After some two weeks, spent chiefly in the Exhibition, with occasional ex¬ 
cursions into London, which, in itself, is a world condensed, during which 
time there have been such constant accessions to the Exhibition, in the form 
of new arrivals of goods from every part of the world, that it seemed better 
to defer the work of thorough inspection and comparison for a time, I deter¬ 
mined to take a look at the world on the other side of the channel, re¬ 
turning when the Exhibition is fairly ready and the weather better estab¬ 
lished. 
May 16. —Off according to programme, bound for Paris, via Southampton, 
Havre and Rouen. * * Southern counties of England neither so hand¬ 
some nor so well cultivated as the western. Land quite wet from recent rains. 
Crops looking badly. Southampton an uninteresting town. Have taken a 
little steamer, (built after an American model), and am skimming over the 
water of the bay delightfully; passing fortifications, the fine Netley Navy 
