The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-27 00:00:00

THE EXHIBITION OF 1861

As day after day slips by, each one bringing us
nearer to the first of May, the truth begins to ooze out
that the Exhibition building is very much behind-
hand. Even the warmest friends and admirers of
Messrs. Kelk and Lucas now admit this fact, and
apologise for it by alluding to strikes and other
unavoidable difficulties. The formal delivery of the
building on the 12th of February was little more
than an empty oeremouy ; and if the contract had
been lees like a trading partnership between the
asseenissioners and the contractors, there can be no
doubt that a heavy fine would have been exacted.
So much advertisement and credit boa been got out
of this building over and above its market price, by
most people concerned in its construction, that the
bast the exhibitors and the public can do is to de-
mand that it shall be thoroughly finished by the
day of opening. Not a shaving—not • stray ten-
penny nail should be tolerated in the way of the
Exhibition. The capital and influence of the
managers and contractors have been practically un-
limited, the weather has been unusually favourable,
and the result ought to be a chronometer-punc-
tuality at every stage of the work. At present nothing
like this very moderate excellence has been attained,
although ample time and means have been at hand
to attain it. Dates are either dimegarded, or else
pushed forward two or three weeks further into the
year, and the whole organization is thrown out of
order becauee the contractors have over-estimated ,
their capabilities. Much work has been done, and I
well dune, much is being done every day, but much
inure remains to be done ; and nosensible exhibitor
thinks of delivering his precious goods in the present
condition of the building. Packages crawl slowly
in, but not from home exhibitors, and the 12th of
March, instead of the 12th February, will be quite
early enough for a comfortable and seem* delivery.
The ground may be surveyed as fast as it is boarded
and marked out, and the oases planned and made,
but at this point the most impetuous exhibitor will
be wise to stop. Some of the figures laid down in
red paint by the eager sappers and miners, in the
same week that the Commissioners took possession,
are nearly half rubbed out by brick-dust and the foot-
steps of hurrying workmen. Many of these figures
in the galleries seem to have been planned so
as to dam up the thoroughfare, notwithstanding
the official announcement that half the floor-space
is reserved for pusagee. The assistants of the
French Cominismouers are mapping out their
court with a due regard to the circulation of
visitors, and with that eye to general effect for
which they have a European reputation. We trust,
however, that they will not attempt to carpet their
apace, as they originally intended, for the open
boards would cut through the thickest velvet pits
in a week, to say nothing of the dirt and Brompton
gravel-mud which the carpets would receive like
door-mats.
The movement of the staff to temporary quarters
In the eastern transept Picture-gallery, as most
people expected, is very like an official repetition
of the Crimean disasters. Influenza, neuralgia,
rheumatism, and a hundred kindred evils, deuce
wildly on the east wind up the open stone stair-
cases, into the damp unfinished rooms, and round
the devoted heads of the unhappy clerks and
superintendents. Every second man has got a
snuffle, • cough, or a thickness of pronunciation
not calculated to help him in transacting business.
The official deem, in many cases, is full winter
travelling costume, and the whole thiug would
be ridiculous if it were not so ill-timed and un-
necessary. The preening affairs of the colonial
department--dealing with the greater pert of a
kingdom on which the sun is never supposed to
set—ere disposed of in a couple of uncarpeted
garrets not larger than a bathroom without • fire,
or even a gas jet. Bid generalship is shown
everywhere in alien mean and ill-considered arrange-
ments, and if large schemes had not a vast power
within themselves of self-management, the Exhibi-
tion would certainly suffer from such ir-regulation.
The northern courts are half boarded over ; the
fixed scaffoldings in the transepts are being rapidly
knocked down ; the nave is half painted, with a
good but rather gaudy effect ; and when this work
completed the high travelling scaffold, with its
two hundred tone of timber, will be taken to pieces
and removed. The eastern and western domes are
rapidly approaching completion, and probably about
the 7th of March the labour of taking their scaf-
foldings down will commence. Under uo circum-
stances can they be possibly cleared away
until the end of next month, and then
the raised floorings and daises will have to
be put down. If any delay should occur in
removing the dome scaffoldings, it will be mimed
by the painters, who under Mr. Crane's direction
will have to decorate the inner roof of the domes.