The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-08 00:00:00

prayer was offered up by th© Rev. W. Fowl:?,
and the Hallelujah chorus sung by the choir.

Yesterday evening the Right Hon. the Chancellor
of the Exchequer went through the ceremony of
publicly closing this exhibition, which opeced with
such eclat three weeks ago, and which was last
night brought to a termination after its brief career
of unexampled and almost unhoped for success.
When this Exhibition was opened on the 14th of
last month it was intended that its curious and most
suggestive collection should remain on view during
two weeks only from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. ; the charge
for admission was fixed at 6d, but after the latter
hour it was reduced to 2d to afford every facility to
the class to which the display was almost solely due
to visit it freely. Such numbers took advantage of
this reduction of price that the hall during some
evenings was so crowded that the doors had to be
closed and further admittance denied. On one even•
ing between 5 and 9 o'clock the turnstiles recorded
the admission of no less than 22,000 visitors, which,
with 6,000 who had paid 6d during the day, made
the total up to 28,000 in all—a number that would
do credit even to a national exhibition. Altogether
the average attendance during this fortnight
amounted to nearly 18,000 per day. With such an
evidence of popularity and success before them, the
promoters wisely reconsidered their first decision as
to closing, and applied to the directors of the Agri-
cultural Hall for its use another week, and by those
gentlemen the new arrangement was at once acceded
to. The week expired last Saturday, and yesterday
the Exhibition was formally closed, after having
been visited by 196,926 persons, exclusive of those
who attended last night, probably 8,000 or 10,000
more. Such a success was so little thought of that at
the outset its most prominent promoters formed a
guarantee fund to cover the losses which were looked
on not only as possible, but probable in the extreme.
These guarantors—the Earl of Shaftesbury, Sir
Morton Peto, Miss Burdett Coutts, and Mr Cox,
M.P.—became liable for an anticipated or probable
deficiency to the extent of £3OO, but now it seems
that, in lieu of a deficit, there is every chance of
there being a surplus of £l,OOO, if not more.
Another most gratifying fact in connection with this
working men's exhibition, and which deserves espe.
cial mention, is that throughout its career not only
has not a single article displayed been stolen or ins
jured, but that not a single police case of any kind
has arisen from it either during the time the Exhi.
bition was open or when its thousands of visitors left
at its close. Yesterday evening, though the price of
admission was raised to is and 2s 6d, every part of
the hall was crowded, and the large orchestra at the
end around the organ was filled with a choir to the
number of nearly 1,000. Beyond some mere formal
arrangements as to the route which the Chancellor
of the Exchequer was to take when inspecting the
exhibition, all remained in the same state as that in
which the public have been accustomed to view it
any time these three weeks past. Considering the
numbers that have been to see it, every part has
been kept wonderfully free from dust or dirt. As a
general rule, the chief industrial objects with which
the exhibition was formed were most carefully kept
in view by the sub-committee, and it is to be hoped
that their success now will enable them to be still
more successful for the future. Next year we hope
their position will be strong enough to enable them
to exercise more rigidly their powers of excluding
unsuitable objects. This is by no means meant to
refer to articles of any kind exhibited by bona fide
amateurs, or to those articles of skilled labour pro-
duced in the leisure hours of regular workmen, and
which are often the most elaborate and highly
wrought specimens of their class. It is such objects
as ordinary articles of furniture sent in from ordi-
nary shops which require thinning down on future
occasions, and their places can be supplied either
by objects which would be willingly lent by South
Kensington, or the works of real amateurs. Oa this
occasion South Kensington lent a small but most
choice collection of works in metals and jewelry,
pottery and porcelain, which were not only conspi..
cuons for their rare artistic and intrinsic value, but
for the skill with which the objects were selected to
set before the assembled amateurs types and designs
for their imitation of the highest class known to art.
Her Majesty also lent from Buckingham 'Palace a
small, but equally fine collection of old porcelain
carvings in ivory, enamels, mosaics, and glass wares,
which were each in their way unique specimens.
These, however, with some groups of stuffed speci-
mens of natural history, sent by Mr J. A. Nicholay,
and a rare collection of antique watches from Mr
Benson, of Ludgate-hill, and the exceptions we have
hinted at, were the only departures from the rule
which made the whole exhibition one of the works
of amateurs. The collection comprised an almost
infinite variety of objects, painting, drawing, and
model. making by far the most popular arts, and
apparently the most successfully practised. It need
scarcely be said that among the drawings and paint-
ings there were very many which would scarcely
bear inspection, but, on the other hand, there were
some which reflscted great credit on their authors,
and some of very high merit indeed. Those which
were so placed as to illustrate the rising skill of the
self-taught artist were exceedingly interesting. It
has been urged by some against works of this kind
that it would be better to hold out encouragement
to the workers in various trades for improvements in
these trades only, and not foster in them the idea
that common e orkmen can ever excel in the paths
of high art. The works, however, which formed the
show at the Agricultural Hall were in nearly every
case the production of the workmen's leisure hours,
and nothing is more certain than that an artisan
does not choose as a recreation that branch of in.
dustry which forms his daily occupation. To those
laboriously employed during the day, dra wing, paint-
ing, or model-making is at once a rest and a plea.
sure, while those sedentarily occupied as invariably
resort to the work of the lathe or the garden to give
them that exercise of body with enjoyment of mind
which none of us can long abstain from with impu-
nity. The models shown in the hall were for the
greater part models of buildings or ships; and here,
too, the same inverse rule of recreation seemed to
prevail—it was so to speak the builder or labourer
who makes his model of the ship, and the shipwright
or sailor who makes his model of a house. Some of
the models were exceedingly good, and in all cases
put together and finished with the minute care
which spoke of their having been a labour of love.
It was a most characteristic and suggestive display.
Those paintings and drawings by labourers, letter.
carriers, and porters,those models in wood and ivory,
turnings and ironwork by clerks who have gone
through their eight or ten hours' work in a close
office, the visible and successful struggle after self-
improvement which all those works suggested, the
labour and self.denial each cost to produce, made
this North London Exhibition one of the most strik-
ing social features of the day, and one of the most
interesting also. It well deserved all the support it
has met with.
Yesterday evening the Chancellor of the E
chequer arrived at 7 o'clock precisely, and was re-
ceived by the secretary to the Exhibition, Mr
W. J. Watts, and other members of the committee,
together with the Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., Mr
Bodkin, Assistant-Judge ; Mr S. Morley, Mr J. A.
Nicholay, Mr Norris, M.P., &o. After making a
circuit of the Exhibition Mr Gladstone was con-
ducted to the platform, where he was received with
much applause, which continued till the Hundredth
Palm was given by the chorus. Mr Watts then read
the report of the committee, which, after referring
to the daily crowded state of the Exhibition, which
made it necessary to keep it open another week'
went on to state the numbers which had visited it,
and the fact, to which we have already alluded,
that not a single instance of disorder had taken
place. The adjudicators had awarded the prizes,
which numbered 81 of the first class, 76 of the
second class, and 179 of the third, or 230 prizes in
all, excluding ten extra works specially recom-
mended for reward.

The committee being very desirous that every
exhibitor should be provided with a suitable
memento, and finding that their financial position
was very favourable, had given directions to Messrs
Petter and Galpin to produce an illustrated memo.
rial, a copy of which would be presented to each
exhibitor by Lord Shaftesbury at the meeting for
the distribution of prizes.

A psrformauce 'was then given on the organ, with
beautiful effect, by Dr. S. S. Weley, after which a

Mr GLADSTO:NE then rose and was g • • ed with
loud and continued cheers. Ho said :—" Ladies
and Gentlemen,—lt may be said with r rest reason
that the series of proceedings be ing to this
exhibition is now completed. We h ye gathered
together within this spacious hall the productions of
the skill and industry of the working men of
northern London, To this demonstration and to the
beautiful spectacle thus offered the feeling of the
public has answered, and the numerous total of
spectators who have hastened from all parts of the
metropolis, as we have been informed tosnight, to
satisfy their curiosity and to improve their minds,
has crowned the labours of the exhibitors with the
most complete success. (Hear.) It is, perhaps, a
vulgar, but yet it is an important consideration,
that in a pecuniary as in every other point of view
the proceedings of this exhibition have reached the
consummation which all its friends
.have desired,
and your Minister of Finance—(laughter)—what-
ever may happen to other Ministers of Finance—
appears before you to-night with the glory of a
surplus in hand—(hear, and a laugh)—and in that
surplus we are to recognise not only a memorial of
past prudence but likewise a promise for the future,
for the way has fairly been opened to show what
things can be done through th© medium of these
exhibitions. (Hear, hear.) But not the least inte-
resting feature in this series of proceedings has
been the tone and temper in which it has been con-
ducted, the humble sense of dependence upon Divine
favour, the acknowledgment that whatever gifts
any of us may possess we owe them entirely to a
heavenly source. (Cheers.) And in the proceed•
inns of to-night you have, by your crowded atten-
dance, borne witness to your emphatic desire that
at the close, as well as in the course of all these
proceedings, honour should be rendered to Him
from whom all honour comes. (Cheers.) Well,
then, ladies and gentlemen, it may be said if these
acts have attained to such completeness, that I as-
sume a function which is officious at the best, in
addressing you after what has taken place, But I
address you at the request of those who have been
your leaders in this important enterprise, and I will
attempt no more in such observations as it may be
in my power to address to you than to give you a
faithful record of the impression which the spectacle
we witness to-night has produced upon the mind
of one who views it from without. Ladies and
gentlemen, it is very easy to find a name for an ex-
hibition like this and for an occasion like this. It
is emphatically the festival and the triumph of
labour. (Loud cheers.) I do not use that word
to draw any invidious distinction between class
and class. Labour is the universal lot of man,
and those who endeavour to escape from labour,
and to convert into a period of mere enjoy-
ment that term of existence which has
been given us for exertion and for' die.
cipline, are recreants to their own destiny and
to the law under which they live. (Cheers.) There
is no honourable, no useful place on this busy teem-
ing earth for the idle man, be his station or his con-
dition what it may ; and I am sure that those who
belong to the labouring classes, properly so called,
will admit that in this happy country it is easy to
point out not only tens and hundreds, but thou-
sands among the very highest in the land, who vie
in their character as labouring men with those who
earn their bread by their daily wages. But it is
with the large and important class comprising the
mass of society that we have especially to do upon
the present occasion, It is to them I refer when I
say that this occasion, this exhibition, has been the
festival and the triumph of labour ? Why has it
been the triumph of labour ? It has been the
triumph of labour for reasons which, in my judg-
ment, it will behove us to ponder. I do not, indeed,
think that we have as yet reached a period at which
any of us can fully comprehend the entire signifi-
cance of exhibitions such as this. They are toe
new, they are yet in their infancy. (Hear.) We
must wait awhile. It will be for us in later years,
or it will be for those who come after ns, to form a
just and competent estimate of their social even
more and much more than their economical effects.
But even now we may see the immense importance
of such exhibitions. Can there be a more interesting
fact than this, that of those beautiful objects which
crowd the walls and the floors of this spacious hall
a very large part—l am told by much the largest
part—are produced not by persons given to that
special kind of production as a means of subsistence
but in the patient development of some other gift
which they pursue and cultivate in their hours of
recreation ? (Cheers.) Now is it not a consoling
truth that even the humblest of our society are not
so absolutely bowed down in this probationary state
to mere mechanical exercise tnat it is beyond the
power of a man to look outside the narrow career
which he traces in his daily toil from morning to
evening, and then from morning to evening again,
—that there is in all classes of society a diversity
and variety of gifts; that human nature, if it
be well used, is a richer and a nobler thing
thrn many of us take it to be ; that few indeed
are those to whom the path of excellence is not
open in one direction or anothersprovided only their
be the diligence and determination which is neces-
sary to pursue it with effect ? (Cheers.) Now,
ladies and gentlemen, one word as to the amuse-
ment which belongs to these exhibitions. The very
production of these works has been in most cases
the amusement of their producers, showing un-
doubtedly a true nobleness of mind, for it is only a
mind which draws its fire from heaven which would
find amusement in productions of such a nature
after the exhausting effects of daily toil. But yet
it is true, and it is another consoling truth, if you
consider that much of our best relaxations, much of
the most effective and most salutary amusement is
derived, not from a simple abnegation and abandon-
ment of toil, but comes from a judicious change of
one employment for another. (Cheers.) But if
there has been healthful and laudable amusement
from the producers of these works in the act of pro-
ducing them, what has been the effect upon those
who beheld them? Let the exhibitors take this
comfort to themselves. They have not only by their
contributions given a satisfactory and healthy bent
to their own energies, they have not only gained
that credit and applause of their fellows which are
among the most gratifying consolations and com-
forts of life, but they have likewise afforded an ex-
ample and encouragement to others, and many a
man, many a woman, many a young child, many a
one who has not heretofore done aught to distin-
guish himself in bettering his condition, in improv-
ing his mind, by developing his gifts by exertions
such as these—depend upon it many such one will
receive the first suggestion, will derive the first In-
fection of such a desire from what they have seen
within these walls upon this occasion. (Cheers.)
Well, again, of the good effected and displayed by
this Exhibition, we have had satisfactory proof.
Thank God, it has not been the first, and I am sure
it will not be the last, although amongst the most
remarkable instances, that it is possible in this
happy country for a vast mass of the population
to meet together, aye, and to meet together
for purposes connected with their recrea-
tion, and at the same time not to need
the control or the coercion of the law, but, and I am
sure I may apply without irreverence the sacred
words, "tobe a law to themselves." (Cheers.) In
the hurried circuit which I have made round this
hall we were accompanied by a force of I think
some four or five policemen, and I learn from those
who had had the management of this Exhibition
that that moderate detachment positively comprised
the entire representation of that most useful force
which has been employed for the purpose of keeps
ing in order the 200,000 who, we are told, have
visited the Exhibition. (Cheers.) Well, ladies
and gentlemen, it is a great and a real and true
sign of social progress—it is much to distinguish
between true Signs of social progress and false signs
—but I say it is a true sign -of social progress
when it can be recorded, as was recorded by your
esteemed and able secretary to-night, that this Ex-
hibition has been conducted, with admission given
at so low a cost to the humblest classes of the com-
munity, without one single attempt at anything
like wilful damage to any object. (Cheers.) But,
ladies and gentlemen, it is not only with reference
to amusement of the best and highest kinds that
such occasions as this should be considered. Im-