EXHIBITION OE 1862. 
173 
manufactures may be said to have been handsomely contested 
by England and France; Bohemia coming in, of course, for 
honors in her peculiar branch of glass manufactures. In. the 
heavier and more substantial class of wares, England undoubt¬ 
edly had precedence ; while, in the class of delicate and exquis¬ 
itely beautiful wares, remarkable no less for design than for 
execution, her rival across the channel held pre-eminence. 
Division Y affords a vast field for comment, but must be 
content with a mere passing notice, in view of the extent to 
which this report has already been carried. 
With the rank that different nations hold in the department 
of Fine Arts the world is already familiar. It is needful, 
therefore, in this place, merely to mark such notable instances 
of progress on the part of a nation or nations as especially 
characterize this period. 
There is a natural order in the development of a nation of 
which no degree of intellectuality of its people can give it inde¬ 
pendence. This law of progress is such that Art, which is a 
product of the highest culture—a kind of blossoming,as of a cen¬ 
tury plant, after long years of preparatory life—develops late, 
if not latest. In this view, it is remarkable that America, latest 
born of all the nationalities, and up to this time so thoroughly 
occupied with the rougher work of clearing up a new conti¬ 
nent, should have been able, thus early, to challenge the oldest 
to a trial of skill in the fields of artistic genius. 
It is nevertheless true, and was so admitted by thousands of 
the best judges of many of the nationalities, that some of the 
finest works in this department were from American hands— 
and this, although her more widely distinguished artists were 
not represented. Cropsey’s “Autumn on the Hudson” and 
Storey’s beautiful marble statue of Cleopatra would have 
been an honor to any nation in any age ; and, had prizes been 
awarded in this department at all, golden honors would, beyond 
a doubt, have fallen upon these magnificent works. 
CONSTITUTION OF JUEIES. 
The juries consisted of the nominees of the foreign com- 
