The Express.
London, England, 1864-10-19 00:00:00

ght erllrtoo.

TO COR.IMPONDINTS.
Advertisements Intended for The Express" London Evening
mast be at the Oaks, 10, Boaverinetreet, by Two
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RATMAIMIIT.

THIS irrramo. MADEMCTSZLLI-156 BRUM ISM Mamma
Howe and Farren : Mesdames lisatrke and AngeL—PRESINTRD
AT COURT. Leese. Buckskin, tows, and Braid : Mesdanbes
Snowdon, Griffith, and ILL—And BACCHUS AND ARUM%

PRINCESSE.
nue Emile* BORN TO GOOD LUCK Mr. D. Warm.
and THE STREETS OF LONDON. Mews. Vining, J. W. Ray,
D. other, D. Murray, J. Nelson, H. forreeter, and H. Mellon ,
Mn. H. Marston, Mimes Barnett and Gwynn.

=MURCIA.
TBIB Evniii. THE IR/THEWS DYING CHILD. Wra.
Lane —Singing by Madame Plson.—THE DUMB BOY OF THE
MILL. Mans. C.lltephaa.—Anit THE WILL AND THE WAY.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON.BRIDOE.
TI DAT Morning. di. Mn....Atternooo. lb. Um.
Toggagow blaming. 6A. lia....Attarsoaa, db, tisa.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19.

THE second of the Industrial Exhibitions
which have been lately instituted in London has
just been opened in the Agricultural Hall at
Islington. The first, as our readers may remem-
ber, was held in the Lambeth and Southwark
district, and between the productions of the heavy-
handed workers in iron, in pottery, or chemical
manufactures, who so largely congregate on the
Surrey side of the river, and the delicate fingered
watchmakers, jewellers, or carvers, whose head-
quarters are in Clerkenwell and Islington, there is
enough of distinction to make the comparison
interesting. Yet in both regions individual taste
breaks out, and the works which form the chosen
recreation of the mechanic are often so dif-
ferent from what his trade might suggest
as to prove that in every rank of life there is
the same inexorable and perverse fate which
sometimes makes a soldier • barrister, •
mighty hunter • divine, or • born poet
an engrossing clerk. No student of human
nature can examine without profound sympathy
these records of the struggles of innate taste and
inclination against the force of external circum-
stances. Nor can anyone who remembers how
many of our greatest names in art, in science, or
in literature have been owned by those who had to
cultivate their talent under all the difficulties of
alien pursuits, or who thinks even how many of
the inventors who have made for us our national
wealth and power have had to work out their im-
mortal ideas in the intervals of labour at some
very different trade, refrain from watching with
deep interest the humble efforts which may be the
first struggles upwards of a Housaru, a DAVY,
or a Warr. More than interest, however, belongs
to such Exhibitions as these. They form at once
an encouragement and guide to genuine ability,
and a repressing influence on the mere fancied
tendency of mind to which many are apt enough
to give way. They afford not merely an opportunity
which the judicious patron may avail himself of
for discovering and assisting real merit, but they
have the still greater advantage, not dependent on
my patron, of teaching the artist himself by the
influence of comparison and example. His fame,
if he deserves it, will spread from the street to the
parish, perhaps even to a large section of the
metropolis, but be will be in some measure able to
judge for himself, when his performance is plac:d
alongside those of his rival; whether he deserves
his credit even in his street, and what he has to
do if he would extend it further ere the next Ex-
hibition opens. We ourselves/, as a:nation, have
profited incalculably by the self-measurement and
the self-teaching which our Great Exhibitions ren-
dered possible. Our manufacturers compared
their works with their rivals' at home and
abroad, saw their own deficiencies, and set to
work to remedy them. So will the poor North
London or Surrey artisan, comparing the loved
employment of his leisure hours with the produc-
tions of others, gain knowledge of his weakness and
of his strength--discover, perhaps, that he has
aimed beyond his powers, or find th►t he has
powers which will make him superior to others
when subjected to stricter training and more care-
ful cultivation.

No doubt, however, after all, the cases of real
genius, or even of special ability, are rare ; and
though these Exhibitions may a little smooth its
path, they cannot create it. Their chief general
use, then, is that they beget and foster an interest
among many persons in pursuits which are more or
less pure and elevating. It is trite and obvious enough
to remark that the hours cannot be spent in the
public-house or the singing-saloon which are ab-
sorbed in making a model, • bit of machinery, or
a drawing, however rude. But there is more than
this negative vu-tue in such occupations. There
is the cultivation of steady thought. The majority
of the articles exhibited are not the result of that
rule of thumb dexterity which is acquired
by constant practice in a regular trade.
They are rather a breaking away from such mere
manual routine, and even if professional skill has
been employed in their elaboration, still the idea is
generally novel, and the arrangement o: parts to
carry it out has demanded continual effort of the
mind. Now, happily for us, we seldom find the
faculties awakened in one departnient without
rousing in some degree the rest. The ingenious
constructor of a model house or ship—to take the
very lowest description of art exhibition—is far
more likely to be disposed to learn to read than
one who has never had inclination to do more than
work at his daily task and eat his daily dinner.
So, as reaching the mind through that channel by
which access is easiest, and rousing tho intelli-
gence through that chord to which it will first
respond, we are glad to see institutions esta-
blished which give direction and encouragement to
such methods of filling up leisure hours.
It was, very properly, on this aspect of the
Exhibition that Earl RUSSELL, in the short but
cordial addresses with which he opened it, chiefly
dwelt. No man has better right than he to refer
to such themes, for the best hours of his life were
spent in the promotion of measures whose object
was, and whose effect has been, to break off the
legal shackles in which • selfish and bigoted oli-
garchy bad bound the minds of men. One who
has so largely helped to give his fellow-country.
men religious freedom, local self-government, and
political power, may most appropriately urge on
those who as yet stand outside the limit of some