EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
149 
clous than real—one that might apply about "as well to Aus¬ 
tria, Kussia and Sweeclen as to us, of whose goods there re¬ 
quires to be quite as much handling as of ours. But if it 
were true that it requires more effort on our part to lay down 
our minerals, agricultural products, machinery and manufac¬ 
tures at London or Paris than is required of those other coun¬ 
tries, have we not a triple inducement—the desire to learn 
wdiat we can of the older nations—the desire to teach them 
some things which, by reason of our isolation and the vastness 
of opportunities in this new world, we have been stimulated to 
invent or discover in advance of the rest of the world—and 
last, but by no means least, the desire to acquaint the over¬ 
grown populations of the Old World with the immensity of 
our resources, the native magnificence of our country and the 
glory of our free institutions, and thus induce an influx of im¬ 
migration and capital to our shores ? 
To all who were familiar with the facts, it was apparent 
that even the very partial exhibition of American industry of 
1851, conferred a great advantage on our manufacturing in¬ 
dustry ; and, accordingly, when it became public through the 
timely announcement of the Eoyal Commission, that Great 
Britain proposed holding a still more and complete and uni¬ 
versal exhibition than the first, the purpose was at once fixed 
in the minds of the active and progressive men of this country 
to make the International Exhibition of 1862 an occasion for 
such a demonstration of the resources of our country and the 
genius and energy of our people as would fairly represent us 
before the enlightened nations of the world. 
But, unhapily, just when the moment lor action had come, 
the thunder-bolt of war fell upon the country with a sudden¬ 
ness aud a violence that, for a time, irresistibly turned the 
thoughts of both people and government quite away from the 
arts of a peaceful industry and forced them into the unwoilted 
channels of a destructive energy. The consequence was, that, 
notwithstanding the preliminary steps already taken early in 
1861, by the appointment of a home commission to make ar- 
