The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-01 00:00:00

and trusted that this " cordiality" might long con-
tinue, and, amid loud cheers, observed that " strong
as our arms had been when they were at enmity
with each other, surely they can be equally strong
in the grasp of friendship." The Minister of Marine
was greatly applauded in his address, wherein he
proposed the health of the QUEEN ; and, after de-
livering his discourse in French, he exclaimed in
English—" Peace and good-will !" Taking all
things into consideration, it may fairly be said that
this meeting of the naval authorities in France and
in England has been a complete success ; and it is
to be trusted that the ceremonies will terminate as
auspiciously as they have begun, and no cloud of
disappointment obscure their mightiness and mar
their felicity. It will be a source of satisfaction to
our national vanity if the French can return home and
tell their compatriots that they have enjoyed bright
days and brilliant weather in England. It has be-
come almost a proverb in France that over here we
live in clouds and murkiness of atmosphere, and
therefore it is the more fortunate that a turn should
be given to their thoughts in this direction, and a
better impression prevail of our belongings. It
may be considered a good earnest of the friendly
feelings that animate the two countries when re-
unions of this kind take place, and are celebrated
in so cordial and unanimous a spirit. It outshines
the memory of the past in historic chronicles of the
glories of war and the achievements of naval and
military prowess when we behold the peaceful
appearance of the meeting of the two services,
so long the heralds of defiance and the harbingers
of destruction, but now the delegates of tranquillity
and the champions of progress. It is some time
since the French Emperor exclaimed, " L'Enzpire
c'est la paix," and his words have been considered
enigmatical by some, but most assuredly they were
realised in the spirit and the letter in the celebrations
that have just taken place among the navies of the
two countries, and ratified by the acclamation that
resounded from the seaports and the shores of
France and England.

It is one of the most characteristic features of
English society in the present day that men can
oppose each other with the utmost vigour and
determination on public questions, and yet can
freely meet and shake h.nds in their private capa-
city. The heat and fury of an election contest is
no sooner over than we see Whig and Tory, Con-
servative and Radical, all joining heartily in some
national demonstration or aiding in the celebration
of some local festivity. Such has just been the
case in one of the most noted of our northern
counties, where the opening of the Wakefield In-
dustrial and Fine Art Exhibition has been kept up
as a general holiday throughout the West Riding.
No pomp or ceremony was wanting to the occa-
sion. There were present Yeomanry and Volun-
teers, Foresters and Oddfellows, and every avail-
able body in grand procession. There, too, were
of course the Mayor and the Corporation, the
architect, the contractor, and everybody who had
taken any part whatever in the erection or furnish-
ing of the Exhibition itself from the President and
Vice-presidents downwards. There were bishops
and M.P.'s, lords and ladies, politicians :and artists,
all gathered together to celebrate the inauguration
of what is really an honour and a credit to Wake-
field and its neighbourhood. Art and Industry
divided the honours of the Exhibition between
them, and in both departments Yorkshire men
have shown their wonted energy. Many noblemen
and gentlemen have lent valuable paintings for the
adornment of the Fine Art Gallery, and thus the
artisans of the town will have an opportunity of
improving their tastes by the inspection of REY-
NOLDS; Errv, and GALNSBOROUGH. The works of
art and ingenuity contributed by amateurs, made
by working men out of working hours, form not the
least interesting portion of the exhibition. Lord
HOUGHTON, the accomplished president of the exhi-
bition, referred to this department especially in his
eloquent and impressive address. It is, he said, a
peculiar feature of these exhibitions that they give
the working class the opportunity of exhibiting
works not peculiar to their trades. "Itis a great
thing for a man to feel that he is not a mere machine,
or part of a machine, but that there is something
divine in him, which gives him the power of under-
standing and appreciating other things besides his
mechanical work, and which thus places him in con-
junction and sympathy with higher minds than
his own." All industries, as Lord HOUGH-
TON finely said, are, in one sense, really
arts. There was art in the levelling of
the first canal, and in the shaping of the first canoe,
and it is a great thing for the toiling artisan to be
able to realise, by the aid of exhibitions like the pre-
sent, that his work is really a great and noble thing,
to see the beautiful and scientific whole of which his
department forms, perhaps, only one of the com-
ponent parts, for, as the Archbishop of YORK ob-
served at Wakefield, many of our working-classes
never see the completion of the beautiful things
which they have helped in creating. In an exhibi-
tion like the one now open a man may stand and
admire the machinery, the designs, the pottery
which he has worked at through many weary
hours, without ever realising the strength
and beauty, the utility and elegance of what they
were working at. Like the workers of the old
tapestry, which was the admiration of the world,
they never see the figures they are working, but in
the interest and approval that they now hear ex-
pressed regarding their works they will be able to
appreciate its dignity and importance. The interest
generally felt in these exhibitions prves that we are

.ot so entirely a material nation as our detractors
,ave tried to believe. The middle classes—who
have been styled. a nation of shopkeepers—have
long ago shown that they know how to appreciate
science and art and literature, and that the same capa-
cities exist in the minds of our intelligent artisan class
is amply demonstrated on all occasions like the pre-
sent, by the contributors to the Exhibition and by
the visitors. Such assemblies do good in many.
ways. They refine and cultivate the taste of the
visitors, they break in on the routine of the eternal
work, and enlarge the minds of those who are ordi-
narily too much absorbed in their own material
occupation. They give to the patient and indus-
trious craftsmen so willing to interest his leisure
thoughts and to occupy his leisure hours ; they
afford him an opportunity for showing he is some-
thing more than an automaton constructed to
perform one kind of work and no other, and
they serve as in some degree a protec-
tion against the temptations common to
his position. The model church or steam-engine,
the carving or cabinet work, the painting or glass
work, which has nothing whatever to do with the
daily work, is a powerful antagonist to the tap-
room and the beer shop. Men of all ranks are apt
to become too much absorbed in their daily routine,
and when their routine is merely mechanical it is
especially desirable that it should be broken in upon
now and then. The opportunity of displaying that
sympathy between class and class, which Justice
TALFOURD declared with his dying breath to
be the great want of our social system,
is another !great merit and a :vantage of
these Exhibitions, and the sound sense and
kindly feelings displayed by the speakers at the
inauguration at Wakefield chow that. this rtuTcnie