The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-18 00:00:00

ehtning

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1849.

In the year 1814 London was the scene of gaiety
aad the centre of attraction. Public enthusiasm was
FXCittd to an almost unparalleled degree, public re-
joicings on a most magnificent scale were matters of
daily occurrence. Day and night the streets were
thronged with gaily-dressed, glad-faced multitudes. The
sober city of London seemed to have been transported
for a while to the banks of the Seine, and the " nation
of shopkeepers" converted into the carnival-lovers of
Venice. Yet, we may be told there was method in
the madness ; such public rejoicings were not only
justified, but called for by public events. A group of
foreign potenates—" the Allied Sovereigns"—were as-
sembled in London, and their presence commemorated
the triumph of " Legitimacy." A legitimate Sove-
reign had been restored, by foreign intervention, to the
throne of his ancestors—to the throne of an unwilling
people, and the Sovereigns of Europe had naturally
• good cause to rejoice thereat. What wonder that
courteous smiles beamed on royal and imperial lips
when tottering crowns were once more firmly estab-
lished on royal brows ! What wonder that a sense of
security thawed the frigidity of courts, and allied
sovereigns congratulated themselves with unparalleled
festivitiesli It was natural that such circumstances
should produce such results—hence the glitter and
the gaiety of London in 1814 ; for in 1814—strange
as it would appear now-a-days—the " commonality"
joined in celebrating the triumphs of kings and
emperors. The festal appearance of the metropolis is
those days of jubilee has become a matter of tradition
—such good old times we never shall see again. Such
was the character of the festival of 1814, such were
the circumstances which then thronged London with
visitors from all parts of Europe. Of a very different
nature will be the gathering which (in all human pro-
bability) will be held in the same city in 1851. The
contemplation of " this picture and that" affords a force-
ful exemplification of modern progress. Peacefully
and almost imperceptibly the great work has been
carried on. Nulla dies sine linea. And now looking
back upon the past we can joyfully contrast what is
with what has been. Once more it is purposed to
summon to the banks of the Thames men of all ranks
and of all nations, but the object is now to celebrate,
not success in arms, but the triumphs of Industry,
Ingenuity, and Intelligence. We do not now desire
to greet emperors, kings, princes, and reigning
dukes, but we proffer our hospitality to the artist and
the artizan. Irrespective of clime or class, we wish
to gather round us the sons of Thought
and Labour men of the cunning hand,
and not the cunning heart—men whose brows
ache not with the weight of diadems, but with the
' nobler load of intellectual wealth. The meeting
which was held yesterday at the Mansion-house was
in all respects of a most gratifying nature. The
LORD MAYOR and the citizens of London, as was
only to be anticipated from the individual character
of the one and the national position of the others,
cordially expressed their concurrence in the proposi-
tion laid before them by the Society of Arts—a
proposition fur which.we are indebted to the sugges-
tions and the untiring exertions of Prince ALBERT.
The Royal President of the Society of Arts, justly
appreciating the national or rather the universal
blessings associated with the progress and develop-
ment of the industrial arts, has proposed the public
exhibition of the best products of those arts on a
scale of magnificence fully commensurate with their
importance. It is unnecessary here to recapitulate
the particulars of the proposed undertaking, which
are already, as far as they are yet decided on,
familiar to all. It is not to particular details, but to
the principle concerned, that we would now refer.
It is the principle which has suggested the
idea that so heartily elicits our eulogiums.
We gladly hail the prospect of an event so
peculiarly appropriate to our position as a commercial
nation. Here, in the face of the world, we give an
emphatic proof of our progress in civilization. Other
nations are enduring the agonies which are inse-
parable from a first attempt at enfranchisement ; and
others, again, are incurring the shame of submitting
to tyrannical commands which bid them imbrue their
hands in wanton bloodshed. Happier than they, our
liberties are so secure that we can turn our thoughts
to the refinements of art and science. Happier
than they„ it is from the occupants of the throne that
we receive the chief stimulus to the development of
popular skill. No matter what the particular site of
the Exhibition may be, no matter who may be the
actual donors of the prize-money, the Exhibition, nay
the very proposition of such an exhibition, is a happy
evidence of the times we live in and a yet happier
omen for the future. The lot of man is
labour. Labour converts ,the savage into the
citizen labour gives beauty to the ex-
ternal world, and health and happiness to
individual life. In the nineteenth century shall the
toiling brain or the toiling hand bring a blush to
their owner's cheek ? Not so. The labourer is
worthy of his reward, and that reward is the aP P r
bation of his fellow-men. As affording apublic,
and, moreover, a princely recognition of such princi-
ples, the proposed Exhibition is to us, and we doubt
not to the public at large, a source of unbounded
satisfaction.

_
The anti-rent conspiracy in Ireland is extending
throughout all parts of that ill-fated land. The
local journals are filled with accounts of the abduction
of crops. There can be no doubt that in the

southern provinces there is a general determination
on the part of the peasantry to defraud landlords of
their rents, and the moral contagion is spreading even
o the " black north ;" for in Armagh itself g forzni-