The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-25 00:00:00

No. 1,379.1 [No. 5, EXHIBITION EXPRESS.]

THE

EXHIBITION
EXPRESS,

FOR THE WEEK ENDING
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23.

PROGRESS OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

The last seven days have been infLential on the
progress tithe Great Exhibition. The portion of the
Crystal Palace which lies to the west of the great
trampt may now be regarded as complete, the qua-
Sty of work which meatus to be accomplished in that
division of the building being inconsiderable, and
chiefly ornamen a
tal in chracter. The glazi of the
roof and ends of the tramept is also very nearly
finished. The supply of glass throughout the week
was abundant, lied there are at present only small
portions of roof left uncovered. Great progress has
been also made in setting up the gallery bind-rails,
and, with the ricer ion of the flooring of the north-
eastern compartments, but little heavy work is now
incomplete in.any part of the building, either inside
or outside.
The Executive Committee have definitively ar-
ranged the exact l‘calisation of the productions of the
United Kingdom, as divided by them into thirty
sections. 'these silt cetropy the whole of the space
westward of the central transept. Of the thirty
clews, four embrace raw materials; six, machinery,
and mechanical and philosophical instruments and
coottivancers; nineteen, manufactures of as other
descriptions ; and there is one section for sculpture,
models, and piratic art. The rapidly-approaching
completion of the structure compels immediate atten-
tion to the important question of the opening of the
Exhibition on the let of May. About one-half of the
ewe required for the display of the articles included
is the groups above enumerated, or, in otter words,
upwards of 2:4,000 square feet of exhibiting ground,
has been usigmed to machinery, at rest and in motion.
If a committee, eomposad of the ablest engineers of
the day, were remind, within the short vacs of two
months, to bring to completion a great public
work —another Portsmouth I tocklard, for instance—
they would shrink from the undertaking, however
extencee might be the resources of labour, skill, and
ability at their command, if they were riot seemed
of the energetic support of all who were to be asso-
ciated with them in consummating the proposed
object. It is calculated that the energy, skill, and
labour which most be called into requisition before
the enormous aggregation of machines fur which
* places have been taken" in the building in Hyde-
park, are securely and effectively sit up, will be
little less than would be required in the case
which we have just supposed. If ponderous
fly-wheels and huge iron shafts and boilers
could be roiled by band into titer places, their
arrangement would be easy enough ; but when it is
recollected that they are manageable only by appliances
of purchase and lever, it must be admitted that the
period of time allowed for their ere ction in the build-
ing is too limited unless exhibitors strenuously co-
operate with the Executive Committee. Exhibitors,
therefore, who have at heart the success of the Exhi-
bitim, and the proper display of their own produc-
tions, will forward their goods as early as possible,
and i very such exhibitor would do well to recollect
that, whither their machines be caplets or incom-
plete, or absent altogether, the ixuioition will emit
for no man, bet commence cn the Ist May.
The Executive Committee have also marked oat
the boundaries of the spaces apportioned to foreign
mafiosi. Eastward of the central transept the pro-
ductions of the following countries may be looked for
—France, China, Switzerland. Norway and Sweden,
Belgium, North Germany, Zoliverein, Russia, Aus-
tria, the United States, Abrabia and Persia, Italy,
Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Portugal, and Spain, and
Ilenmaik. The first-class refreshment-court will be
situated in the transept ;the second-class refreshment-
court in the north-western ; and the third clams is the
north-eastern compartment of the bedding.
With respect to the prices of admission to the
Exhibition, gratuitous admission has been recently
advocated, and Mr. Peaton'e letter on this sub-
ject will be found in another column, but the
it:co-see nil eyes which forbid tl.e adoption of
such a uwllnure are obvious. No set of gentlemen
c Add b- found willing to undertake the responsibi-
lity of guarding the building and its contents against
the laws on of the thousands of idle and dissolute
perwris with whom, on inch terms of admission, it
would be chiefly tilled, to the exclu.ion ed
the industrious and well conducted. Govern.
ment interference would also become indispensable,
and a clog of the most objectionable kind be
imported thereby on the progress of the undertaking.
The Exhibition is now advancing with a smoothness
ad rapidity utterly unattainable under a system of
mere formal government routine. leave the Execu-
tire Committee unfettered, and the thing will doubt-
less be successful. Throw them on government funds,
and gave rnmental aid would cripple the whole affair.
'fhe Exhibition was to be carried out by public en-
terpriee and by voluntarily supplied fonds; to that
the Commission is pledged, and by that pledge they
must stand.
It is still to be regretted that no plan on a large
sale for the accommodation of artisan visitors to
London has yet ban projected, with the single ex-
ception of the Canvasses at Pimlico. The necessity
for such establishments will make itself felt at the
eleventh hour, and the arrangements will then in all
probability be earned out imperfectly, and is pro-
fitably to speculators than if the arrangements were
made at one*.
On Tuesday last Prince Albert made an inspection
of the building, and sebeepiently presided at a meet-
ing of the Royal Commissioners. Tuis was the first
meeting held at the offices which have been fitted up
in the building, and the Commissioners present on
the occasion wire Earl Granville, Lord Overstone,
Sir C. Lyell, Sir R. Westssmott, and Messrs.
laboachem, Cubitt, and Gibs -a. Prince Albert, accom-
panied by the other commiseimere, was conducted
over the various works in progress by the members of
the Executive Committee. In pursuing his exami-
nation of the exterior of the building, he took occasion
to survey it from that portion of flu park which ad-
joins the bridge over the Serpentine. The ground
there is higher than that on which the building stands,
and the eye can embrace at a glance the whole of the
north front and the details of the roof, the view being
interrupted only by the few intervening trees
which border the ornamental water. At the
meeting of the Commissioners a very elegant design
for cut-iron railings, to surround the exterior of the
building, was adopted. This new railing is to be
substituted, at the request of the police commission-
ers, for the dwarf posts which it was originally in-
tended to set up, and some of which, looking neither
useful nor ornamental, may be seen at present near
the main mamma The new railing will be 61 feet
high, and will be placed ate distance of about d feet
from the outside of the holding.
Numerous inquiries have been made of the Execu-
tive Committee respecting the extent to which
counters will be furnished to exhibitors by the Com-
mie.imers ; and the manner in which they have dealt
with the question has thus far been productive of
general satisfaction. The Executive Committee have
undertaken to furnish a plain deal counter in ell
these cases where an exhibitor doee not cars either
to exercise his own taste in displaying his articles, or
to use the power of reguletiag the amount of vacant
space immediately surrounding them, as he might do
by buildlog up steps or shelties, and affixing brackets,
bat is content to have his articles laid out on a plain
deal counter, of some uniform width and height. " It
must be obvious (urge the Executive Committee)
that it will be impomible to determine what
sat of counters w he thus adopted for
each clam, or the Waal position Of them,

until they are made acquainted with the
extent to which exhibitors purpose to avail them-
selves of the privilege of gratifying their own
taste, and arranging their articles in their own way.
The principle which will guile the Executive Com-
mittee, is stated to be, first, to leave every one to
please himself, subject to general control ; and thee,
to act on behalf of those who are indifferent, 3nable,
or decline to act. It has been already explained that
vertical, wall or partition specs m be obtained by
suspending frebr.c.s over lines, and by hanging
draperies from the girders. In all canes where the
Executive Committee is called upon to provide vertical
space, and where these means will suffice, they will be
adopted. But until the articles Rre ii.en and actually
deposited in the building, the Executive Committee
declare they will not be able to define to what extent
they will provide more substantial modes of obtaining
vertical space.
Several documents have been issued by the Exe-
cutive Committee daring the week, for the purpose cf
elucidating the general principles laid down for tho
guidance of exhibitors. Incessant vigilance is re-
quired to prevent overcrowding in the spaces assigned,
and to en vie: mistakes which, if allowed to prevail,
would mar the effect of the Exhibition.

Every wtek thus helps forward the great work,
and already we may anticipate the day when the
coming maltitudee will be present amongst us.
Southey pictires some such seen* :

- -
00111D11111d W.ll, forth
Amos, the people, biddies old sad young,
Husband and +O., the nude,' and the Maui,—
All the collected multitudes of Ad,—
Here to rapeir, sad hold high festival.

ilithrr they emits, the old am sad the boy,
Husband sad wife. the mutt, ►ad the slave,—
Hither they cuss. From yomder high tower top
The lAtteet of the Palace, Shaded looked
Dews os hie tribe : their taste vs yonder made
It we like the coastline billows of the us;
Their tread sad voices like the owes roar,—
One Jeep coorusios of tomultous sounds.

WHAT FOREIGNERS ARE DOING FOR THE

GREAT SHOW.

Turning from further present consideration of the
building loci its arrangements, let us see what pro-
gress has been made abroad for supplying it with
contents.

It seems p:obable that many of the products of
foreign countries and our colonies, however scienti-
cally interestieg,will contribute little to the beauty and
picturesqueness of the Exhibition. Castor oil from
Trinidad may be a remarkably fins produce of its
kind ; zinc and paper, salt and soda, coal and coke,
may have peculiar characteristics in different coun-
tries, and be a moat interesting study to the con-
noisseur, but the general public may be less pleased
with them. These reflections are induced by
the 'perusal of the mass of lists describing the
produce of the different countries coming to
England. Hitherto, so far as those lists have been
published, raw material seems vastly to preponderate
in them. How far this result will appear must, of
course, depend much on the eliminating power of the
authorities in foreign countries. Let us hope that
tie rim material department will not contain many
specimens like that great coal with which we aro
threatened. Exaggeration in magnitude, or the con-
trary extreme, seems likely indeed to be, in many
instances, the sole claims of certain articles to notice.
Thus a bundle of nails, so small that theycan scarcely
be seen, will be one great curiosity. We shall have a
small "happy familj ;" stuffs made of fibres picked by
industrious Hindoos from rejected cotton husks;
and fabulous productions, so thin that they shall be
hardlT",-:!""ble. But the Ellltputian will oe thrown in
the shade by the Brobdignagian productions. Not
only shall we have a gigantic coal and other ponderous
and large curiosities from England, but we notice
front francs an enormous decanter of cut crystal
without a flaw. This wonderful thing is of such
dimensions, that three perrens of ordinary hcinht may
sit with tree inside and eat a succulent dinner on a
round table s yard in diameter. A double ladder
nerves to bring people up and down out of this
decanter, which, if it have glum s to match, must also
poisess a larger person than the Spanish giant or Mr.
Carus Wilson to drink cut of them. Lest this may
seem to be a fable, we hasten to state that this
huge bottle has been manufactured at the glass
foundry of the Rue St. Sebastian, in Paris,
that internally its hi ight from the base to the shoulder
is three yards, and the circumference at the paunch
nine yards. The stopter weighs 40th., and the whole
decanter 12 cwt., and it is capable of containing no
hse than eight hectolitres and a half of wine. Some
curious experiments hare been made with the voice
inside this gins receptacle : the effect of a song on
the pcoele outside is described as something unearthly.
Our professors of acoustics will be puzzled. We shall
have, too, a great specimen of French calligraphy,
being a copy in old missal style of M. Dupin's paw
gyric on Sir Robert Peel. Cm we not beat that by
calligraphic reproductions of Lord John Russell's
letter to the Bishop of Durham. Meissen, in Saxony,
is to furnish us the largest looking-glass on record,
all encased in a porcelain frame. Meissen, however,
dem not rest its claim on the mere size of its prods.-
Roes, it seems that it intends to rival S4vree in ite
porcelain ware. in addition to the mirror, it sends
us an imitation of a camelia japonica bush, with
buds and blossoms in all stages. Two mighty
vases will also be exhibited, with a variety of mime
articles ; one of the vases is in the rococo, and the
other in the antique Greek style. Berlin and several
Silesian and 'Thuringian manufacturers are also cot
peting in this department.
Tne well-known houses of Gutheil and Krirnmeleis
at Dusseldorf, Wesenbeld of Barmen, and Mathes sand
Weber at Daisburg, are among the competitors.
Germany is very rich in the varieties of earths used
in the different branches of pottery and the porcelain
manufacture. March, of Ctiarlottenberg, announces'
specimens of vases, statues, and ornaments; and Boob,
of Siebenbrann, will send mosaic table:e.
The iron inlaid ornamentation of Berlin will be well
worth inspection, and the jewellery of Hesse manu-
facture amply repay examination. Pianos, too, will
be sent from Germany. These instruments differed of
old most widely from our English ones—the keys
yielding easily, and the touts being very much
smothered, even up to the highest notes of the scale ;
there have been alterations of late years, and we may
be able to judge of the value of these instruments as
compared with our own.
A magnificent bronze casting will be sent, at the
instance of King Maximilian of Bavaria. from the
royal foundry at Munich cad &stereo-chemical painting,
the colours of which are fixed by means of a vitreous
coating, laid on by Fuch's process. A handsome fimr-
seated caleehe, from the manufactory of lisleugebier,
who gained the prize at rha Berlin Exhibition of
1844, is also on its way hither.
The linen manufacture of Germany will be repre-
sented by 83 exhibitors. It is remarkable that, as
will be found on comparison of the numbers given
below, the precise branch of textile manufactures
which gives employment to most hands* in Germany
should 'seclude fewest competitors in the present is.
stance. Tne German linen manufacture will, however„
contribute specimens of its produce in every stage of
preparation, from the dressed flax to the finest webs.
Hand-spun yarn and twine are announced from
Hieper aid Bielefield, and machine-spun specimens of
the same from Waldenberg atd Freiburg. Canvass,
will be sent from the same places, and also from Wel-
lentrap. Ticking and damask are announced from
Frankfort, Erfurt, Dusseldorf, &c.; handkerchiefs
from Griefenberg, in Silesia; and Batiste kerchish
from Bielefield; sail-cloths and engine-hose frINII
Earth and Hornpipe. Fine white goods, blonde.
point lace, and embroidery, will be mint from Ribes-
etoek and Schnelberc ; and Brussels lace frem Dresden.
Proceeding from the linen to the cotton manufac-
tory, we have Turkish red yarn announced from Dussel-
dorf and Elberfeld ; and sewing cottons from Barmen,
and Engelakirchen; coloured prints, jaconels, and
curtain cloth from Berlin, Chemnitz, Augsburg, Eil-
lenberg, and the Prussian Lower Rhine. Many of the
exhibitors of these articles have been distinguished