The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-03 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 3, 1867.

Sir Robert Napier proceeds to Scinde to-day on
an inspection.
Four Europeans—Greeks and Italians—are in
custody on a charge of murdering three native
money lenders and wounding a fourth.
The municipal engineer has promulgated a
scheme for wet docks in Bombay, which has been
laid before the government, and is approved of by
the merchants of Bombay. Cotton and piece
goods markets are quiet. Money is easy, but dis-
trust prevails. The public health continues good.

THE PARIS EXHIBITION OF 1867.

(ram( OUR sexclAL CORRZSPORDIRT.)

There is turmoil in the Exhibition contract world
again. There are to be no posters in the Exhibi-
tion building, and therefore nobody can or should
have a contract for them. The Imperial Commis-
sioners are wrath over the statement that has
appeared in English advertising columns to the
effect that a certain firm has the monopoly of paste
' and paper for the English department within the
building. The truth is that posters are to appear
only on the park boundary palings, and in a long
gallery that stretches by the western line of
the grounds. The COMIIIiIIII3OII9OI will be delighted
to be rid of contractors and contracts. The schemes
and plots for the pettiest monopolies may make an
amusing chapter some day in Exhibition history.
Again, there appear to be mysterious complications
about the plan for admitting the public to the
building immediately. Tickets are to be sold
to see the progress of the " installation "
the great discomfort of exhibitors and foreign
commissioners. Already the journalists whose duty
is to chronicle the shifting aspects of the works are
put to an inconvenience. Their passes are no longer
available. Some arrangement will no doubt be
made for their admission; but they, together with
the exhibitors, will be sorely plagued by the pre-
mature appearance of the public. Moreover, the
charm of the opening day will be lost. Who cares
about the performance if he has attended all the
rehearsals, and seen the costumes cut out and
stitched together, and helped the boys into the legs
of the basket elephant t Of Exhibition theatrical
matters, by the way, I will make a note. The
theatre in the park will not be the great enterprise
that was conceived many months ago. The thea-
trical managers who were concerned in it have
" pondered well." It is certain that the manager
who has a theatre well within the fortifications is
not a very cunning fellow when he sets up a rival
establishment to his own on the Champ de Mars.
The Exhibition theatre, then, will not be a
serious competitor to the Paris theatres. It
will just afford miscellaneous theatrical enter-
tainment to the visitors who may choose to spend
their evening in the park. These will reach for-
midable numbers. Th e provincials will be carried
direct from their homes within the Exhibition
boundary. They can pass a long day in the gal-
leries, and a fresh, amusing evening in the park,
and return home without having passed the Exhi-
bition gates, except in the railway station. To
this large class of visitors the local theatre will be
a treat.

In the Rue de la Paix a dense crowd is gathered
morning, noon, and night, before the dazzling show
of that most artistic and fanciful of confectioners,
M. Reinhard Siraudin. He has been wont, now
for some years past, to astonish the Parisians at
Christmas with a new bonbon, and with a show of
dolls of extraordinary price. Last year—for M.
Siraudin has always a happy idea when he goes to
work—the two presiding you*es of his fairy realms
of sugar—were two gorgeous dames habited respec-
tively in the costumes of the First Empire and of
the Second. These painted ladies (I have seen as
much paint on faces outside the window as there is
on the wax-doll within) are not to be put off with
stage jewellery. Paste, forsooth They carry
about their waxen necks diamonds of the first
water. This year the presiding ladies of wax, at
whom all Paris is getting a peep, are representative
ladies. They are works of art, and of a leading
milliner's taste. They have been modelled by
Talrich, and dressed by Mademoiselle J. Baron.
The lady in the long white satin jape, covered with
a short skirt, half white, half red, and studded
with golden bees and silver ships, represents the
City of Paris. The crown on her head, which dis-
plays a vessel in brilliants, proclaims her mission.
She is receiving with due dignity and fitting splen-
dour the lady in the opposite window. This lady
is dressed in a white satin robe, emblazoned with
the arms and colours of all nations. The brilliant
crown upon her head is that of the genius of
Industry. Her waxen' ladyship represents the
Universal Exhibition of 1867. These two gorgeous
dolls, designed to please the thousands of children
of a larger growth who dwell by the banks of the
Seine, share with the " Bonbon Mignon" (Sirnu-
din's sweet invention to welcome in the year 1867)
the attention of the holiday-makers.
M. Dentu's action against the publishers who
have dared to design a new literary guide to Paris
for 1867, is trailing its slow length along, filling
many columns of Le bruit. The plaintiff's extra-
ordinary pretensions do not appear, however, to
have crushed all the spirit of enterprise in his
brother publishers. M. Louis Ulbach is still an-
nounced as the editor of a literary, scientific, and
social book on Paris. Among his contributors are
J. Michelet, Edgar Quinet, Ernest Henan,
George Sand, Thiiophile Gautier, Jules Janin, H.
Rochefort, Dr. Heaton, H. Monier, A. Dumas
file, J. Cbirdtie, Aug. Villemot, and Champfleury.
Victor Hugo has written the introduction. Among
the artists are Ingres, Barye, Daumier, Gerdme,
Etex, Cabanel, Clesinger, Bertall, Bracquemond,
&c. Ingres' drawing is to be the Apotheosis of
Homer. Apropos of this work, M. Gustave Dord
is said to be the only artist who has refused
to appear in the company of his contempo-
rary artistic celebrities. The book on Paris
to which the illustrator of Dante and Tenny-
son has declined to contribute, is not destroyed by
the unwilling artist, or by the pretentious pub-
lisher. The literary men and publishers of Paris
will not believe that the trial which is pending will
end in handing our literary Paris to 31. Dentu for
the year 1867. Why did not the official catalogue
publisher attack MM. Hachette, many months
ago, when they published a guide to the Universal
Exhibition of 1867, compiled from "official docu-
ments" 1 This guide pretends to reserve the right
of translation. It consists almost exclusively of
official information. It opens with a letter from
M. Le Play, dated from the offices of the Imperial
Commission, addressed to the publishers. What
says the spokesman for the Imperial Commission
to MM. Hachette 1—" You have sent me the
proofs of a work you propose to publish
on the Universal Exhibition of 1867, the pre-
paration of which you have entrusted to M. Henri
de Parville. This work appears to me to give a
faithful account of the scope of the enterprise ;
and 1 think it will afford useful information to
exhibitors and to visitors." This letter is dated
January 3, 1866. In December of the same year
we are watching a trial, the object of which is to
prohibit the publication of a work, in which Paris,
rather than the Exhibition, is to be described.
The defendant's advocate has already made good
use of official documents, especially of one in which
the rigime under which the Exhibition of 1862 is
condemned as a mercenary one, that sacrificed the
legitimate ends of an international show of in-
dustry to a dominant idea of a good balance-sheet.
I think all candid men who were admitted to a
knowledge of the government of the Exhibition
of 1862, will agree that much was sacrificed to a
money gain ; that we were not liberal enough in
our regulations, nor generous in our official hospi-
talities. But can it be said that the Imperial
Commission is carefully avoiding our blunders 1
Is it not true that already, three months be-

fore the opening day, the Paris publishers
and authors, and the French photographers are
smarting under a sense of wrong ? Have not
thousands of photographs of the exterior of the
Exhibition building been seized in the in-
tercets of M. Pierre Petit 1 Is it not ru-
moured that the leading French photographers
lime determined to petition the Council of State
against the monopoly which consigns every artist
and art-manufacturer to the care of M. Petit ?
There are artists who have no faith in the
abilities of M. Petit as a photographer, and would
decline under any circumstances to have their
works rendered by him. For instance, Meisson-
nier, Cabanel, and other artists of high repute,
invariably intrust their works for photographic
reproduction to Mr. Bingham, whose fame as a
photographer, and especially as a photographer of
pictures, is spread throughout Europe. Conceive
the predicament in which this famous art-photo-
grapher is placed by a concession or sale of a
monopoly which prevents his usual clients from
availing themselves of his lens, at the moment
when the reproduction of their works by him is
most likely to prove remunerative. Not only is
he harmed, when he had every right to expect to
reap a rich harvest from his well-earned fame ;
but the interests of true art are harmed also.
People get mediocre works because mediocrity
hay ottglit the exclusive privilege of serving the
public!
Here is another case. Each departmental com-
mission has been instructed by the Imperial Com-
mission to form committees of men of special
knowledge who are to draw up accounts of their
observations in the Exhibition on the trades
which concern them. Overseers and workmen,
again, are to have an opportunity of recording
their opinions on their trades in print. M. de
Parville tellsi the French public that these labours
I will constitute veritable archives, to which future
manufacturers and operatives will refer. They will
be, in short, the most learned and satisfactory
records of the condition of human industry in
1867. Has M. Dentu absolute power over the issue
of these documents 7 If so, they will lose half
their value. They will have authority in future
days only in proportion to the liberty which their
authors enjoyed in composing them.
Every day it is becoming more evident that the
food departments will be the most original, if not
the most striking feature of the Exhibition. To
this department the attention of our neighbours
is keenly fixed. In them, the cooks of foreign
nations will find severe critics. An obscure
paper published here in English has been attacking
the English Royal Commission for its clumsy ar-
rangements in this important food department,
and, at any rate, without any substantial reason.
The uses of this food department should be borne
in mind. The end in view is not the spread of
la rtrinandise, nor the delectation of the Baron
Bruises of all nations. It has a higher and more
useful end. The primary object is to add to our
food stock by studying the food of other peoples.
We want to find where the best and cheapest food
is to be had. In the Exhibition of 1851, the wheat
from Adelaide was described by Dr. Lindley as
"probably the most beautiful specimen of corn
that has ever been brought to market in any coun-
try."
This fact was generally made known by the
Exhibition, and at the same time we were informed
that Adelaide was capable of yielding vast quanti-
ties of corn of this description. The effect of
hybridizing wheats so as to increase the size of the
grain was brought prominently forward by the
Exhibition of 1851. The hybrids exhibited showed
that the quality of cereal crops may be affected,
I like animals and other crops. Here was surely an
important addition to human knowledge with re-
lard M food, which it was as well to spread as
rapidly and broadly as possible. Another
food subject was put forth in the shape of
cakes of typha bead from Scinde and New
Zealand, prepared from the pollen of the
Icommon reed-mace or bulrush of those countries.
This article of food contains an azotized matter,
according to Dr. Lindley, which, mixed with the
starch existing in pollen in great quantities, and
with other matters, will give a real nutritive value
to this curious substance. The dry plantains,
which are an important part of the food of the
mining population of Mexico, were recommended
as cheap, easy to prepare, and exceedingly agree-
able to the palate. This highly nutritive food, it
was shown, which will keep sweet and good for
years, can be prepared in Mexico and sold in
Europe for 3d. a pound. Another important food
question arose, namely—whether the blood of the
animals killed in a great city can be utilised or not.
M. Brocchieri's cakes, and other articles made of
blood, which were exhibited, were unfortunately
named. These blood cakes did not obtain public
favour. There was a prejudice against them, as
there has been for any time past against many varie-
ties of excellent food. At any rate the utilization
of blood was learnedly discussed. Dr. Lindley
concludes, "It is proved that, supposing un-
manured and will Yield threefold then land manured
with bullock's blood will yield fourteenf old ; there-
fore we have direct evidence that the blood of
animals has a very powerful action as manure ;
and it may be more profitable to obtain our food
from it in that indirect manner than to use blood-
cakes prepared after M. Brocchieri's method." Many
will remember the sensation which Mr. Gail Borden's
meat biscuits created in the American department.
It is alleged that ten pounds of this biscuit would
be sufficient for the subsistence of an active man
for thirty days. Dr. Playfair reported it to con-
tain 32 per cent. of flesh-forming principles. The
jury reported it to be excellent in all respects. By
. Borden's process the over-crowded populations
of Europe were promised cheap condensed meat
from Texas and Buenos Ayres. Dr. Lindley was
enthusiastic about it. "It seems as if a new
means of subsistence was actually offered to us,"
he says. " Take the Argentine Republio—take
Australia, and consider what they do with their
meat there ; in times of drought, when they can-
not get rid of it whilst it is fresh, they may
boil it down and mix the essence with flour,
(and we know they have the finest in the world),
and so prepare a substance that can be preserved
for times when food is not so plentiful, or sent to
countries where it is always more difficult to pro-
cure food. Is not this a very great gain ?"

It might be now, had popular prejudice not been
against it. Preserved meats of all kinds were un-
popular about 1851, because some contractors had
failed in their duty. Indeed, the suggestions for
new foods were many. Dr. Gardiner prop
coffee leaves instead of tea leaves, and showed that
they contained exactly the theine which gives value
to tea ass diet. Let us quote the few words in
which Dr. Lindley summed up the effects of the
Exhibition of 1851 on substances used as food :
" The facts thus brought under your notice seem
to show that so far as the subject of food is con-
cerned, the late Exhibition has brought into view
many points of considerable importance. It has I
shown that our Australian colonies furnish the
best wheat in the world, Spain not excepted.
It has shown that the quality of wheat may
Ibe improved to an unknown extent by those
I processes which have been applied to other
parts of the animated world with the best results,
but which have not been applied to cereal crops.
It has shown that there are means by which vege-
table and animal provisions may be preserved
with certainty, and without risk of deterioration,
for a greater length of time than any kind of ser-
vice can require. It has shown that if we are con-
demned to bad cocoa and bad chocolate, if our
chocolate makers cannot compete with France and
Spain, and other countries, it is less because of our
differential duties than on account of the supine-
ness of English colonists, who look to differential
duties as a cloak for their' own slovenly culture.
It has shown that the tea of the Himalaya is be-
coming an important article of trade, rendering it