The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-28 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 28, 1867.

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

(now on MCIAL oownszownre.)

Wonders have been wrought during the put week
in the building and in the park. When I last wrote
the decoration of the main avenue had not been '
commenced, and the French department was in al
state of torpor. It is still the most backward part
of the Exhibition. Barely half of the French goods
were in the building on the 20th. But now the
great iron blind that closes the main entrance is
drawn down, and the main avenue is wholly given
up to the decorators and to the builders of trophies.
The nimble, quick-witted, artistic French workmen
are contriving columns of graceful proportions in
woodwork. The stained glass windows are being
set up with magical quickness. The moulders and
painters and plasterers alter the aspect of this the
main thoroughfare almost every hour. The roof
Is effectively picked out in red and white. The first
exhibitor on the line of this main avenue was Min-
ton, with some brilliant and massive samples of the
Majolica and Palissy ware, which brought this
house so much honour and profit in 1856. The
transformation which the main avenue of the park
leading from the chief entrance to the Pont d'Jena
has undergone in a week is equally astonishing.
About the Emperor's tent parterres have been sud-
denly raised and fine shrubs have been planted.
Two eagles of colossal proportions guard the steps.
The English testing house, or cottage, opposite, is
in strange contrast to the eastern form and colour
of the imperial pavilion. This English cottage,
however, is a most interesting and valuable little
exhibition in itself. I may add to the information
I have already given respecting it that throughout
the Exhibition period experiments in heating, light-
ing, and cooking will be incessantly carried on
within it. In front of it is a row of plinths, upon
which noble samples of Minton's ware are placed,
and make a gay effect. These plinths were con-
trived and perfected almost in an hour. Half a
dozen packing cases were tilled and turned over,
and then a skilful plasterer covered them, so that
they have now the appearance of solid, shapely
stone. Behind the cottage an exquisitely beautiful
terra-cotta building is in rapid course of erection
over the English boiler-home. It is impossible to
conceive anything lighter or more graceful than the
spiral columns that support the roof, and make an
open corridor whence visitors will be able to seethe',
boilers. Every part of this house in terra-cotta is,
sharply and most delicately moulded. Never were
boilers so elegantly housed before. The terra-cotta
work is by Blanchard, of Blackfriars. Among the
new British erections in the park are some soldiers'
model barracks, stables, and mess-room, and a
scaffolding 150 feet in height, on the summit of
which a lanthorn with electric light is be to put up
by the Trinity House.

In the English section of the building there is
remarkable progress every day. First and foremost
are the printers, publishers, and collectors of books
and papers. The South Kensington authorities have
employed the Rev. Mr. Brookfield and Mr. Charles
Collins to make a complete collection of the perio-
dical literature and books published in 1866. The
collection is now set out in the British gallery, and
it makes a wonderful show. The newr papers alone
fill four broad alcoves. The books pnl lished in the
year exceed 5,000 in number. In th collection
there will be the first or second volume ~f the Times,
by which the foreigner will get an idea of the pro-
gress of periodical literature in England. Theeol-
lection includes a complete series of specimens of
parliamentary printing • in short, samples of every
kind of publication through which the government
communicates information to the public. This
compartment will discover to the world the prodi-
gious mental activity of the English people. There
is an observation which I hasten to set forth as re-
fleeting honour on our race, and as pr•nring the
great progress all classes of Englishmen have made
in taste and in morals within the last twenty years.
In this vast collection of printed matter, which in•
eludes everything that English presses put forth
last year, there are not more than forty pages of
indelicate matter ; and there is not a single blasphe-
mous work ; for blasphemy and indecency have
ceased to pay in print. South Kensington has
good reason to be proud of this feature in the Exhi-
bition. _ _

Some of the popular printers and publishers arc
ready in their places. The chief feature of Day
and Son's stall is a tine chromo-lithograph of the
marriage of the Prince of Wales. Messrs. Cham-
bers are in position opposite Messrs. Bradbury and
Evans. The handsome case of the latter firm is
to be crowned with a figure of Mr. Punch. Oppo-
site the printers and publishers is a little court, to
be called the British Art Manufacturers' Court.
Messrs. Blashtield are making a great show herein,
and the Architectural Pottery Company have put
up some rough mosaic work. The English are very
strong in terra-c tta ; but there is little hole of
creating a French market for this beautiful work, 1,
since French architects and decorators have at their
disposition a soft stone which can be worked with
the greatest ease, and is cheaper than terra-cotta
can be made. Behind the British Art Manufactu-
rers' Court is the English picture gallery. The
most is made of the little space (not more than half
England had in l 855) given to British artists. The
water-colours and drawings are being hung on
stands, to occupy the centre of the gallery. But
the hanging is retarded by tho presence of work-
men and the clouds of dust. The English authori-
ties have made the moat of their art space, and have
enlivened the appearance of it by emblazoning the
names of great English artists upon the walls above
the pictures. In the Indian department a magni-
ficent group—conflict between a lion and tiger—
stuffed and disposed by the well known Edwin
Ward, has been uncovered.
The activity in the southern section of the park
is now prodigious. It is handed over to hosts of
gardeners. Every night processions of immense
trees make their way to the Champ de Mars, and
the snot that was a shapeless bog yesterday is a
shrubbery or a grove to-day. Serpentine walks
are being traced and gravelled, and the planting out
is going on on an immense scale. A few days ago
the Austrian beer-house, and Messrs. Gousset and
Rourk, in the French department, were the only
purveyors of refreshment on the outer circle of the
building. But now the cafes and beer-rooms, and
baths, are to be counted by the dozen. The beer
of Munich is competing with that of Vienna and
of England. Allsopp's yellow placards are in every
direction. This firm have the beer monopoly of
the most important French places, and of the Swiss
buffet. The proprietors of the French bars appear
to keep their eye chiefly upon English visitors, and
to be still possessed with the idea that the true
Briton is as prone to plum-pudding in the dog days
as he is at Christmas. On one French bar there is
a horrible speckled mass that the poorest London
cookahop would repudiate, surmounted with the
inscription, "real plum-pudding." This dreadful
libel on our English dish is in the close company of
a shrivelled, shabby lump of meat inscribed • real
roast beef." I have no doubt that the cosmopolitan
genius who advised the French restaurateur to cater
for John Bull in this fashion imagines that he will
attract hereby the flower of the English visitors.
At the risk of breaking my neck I have made the
tour of the cellars and kitchens under all these re-
freshment places. The barrels of beer, the hun-
dreds and thousands of dozens of bottles, the great
kitchens, the fierce ovens, the crowds of pastryoooks
and scullions, the oellarmen flitting in all directions
with a candle at the end of a stick, make a world
underground already. The main supply of beer is
in the immense cellars of Messrs. Allaopp. The
hogsheads are in rows by the hundred. There are
two other British " refreshmenting" features that
ppear in all the refreshment departments—via, the
ickle stands of Crosse and Blackwell, and Huntley
and Palmer's biscuits. The latter firm have made
a special Exhibition biscuit flavoured with vanilla,
packed in tricolor boxes, and called the Napoleon