The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-13 00:00:00

THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

The receipts at the doors yesterday amounted to
1,9001., and marvellous to relate, the sum of (3/.
was realised by the sale of season tickets. Accord-
ingto the police returns the number of visitors was

17,959. -
Although, in compliance with the original design
of its projectors, the Great Exhibition has itself only
an ephemeral existence, it is satisfactory to think that
the most ample and complete records will be preserved
of its character and details. Few events have at-
tracted such an amount of contemporary publicity.
The pen and the pencil have both been incessantly at
work in perpetuating its industrial triumphs, and when
all the material vestiges of the display are removed
from our eyes, it will still live in a form the most va-
luable and enduring. The repc tts of the juries in each
class will obviously prove an important repertoire of
facts and observations, and the information which has
been collected in newspapers, in periodicals, and in
other channels of instruction, may also be turned to
excellent account, but it is to the illustrated Cata-
logue that we must look as capable of being made
the most complete and satisfactory work of reference
hereafter on the great incle-erial iegeant of 1851.
That publication norrapptoaches its completion; it
three parts of it have already appeared, and the fourth
will soon be ready. It is intended that it shall be is-
sued in three volumes, the first two of which will be
dedicated to the products of Great Britain and her co-
lonies, while the last embraces the contributions of
foreign eountries. As far as our exhibitors are con-
cerned the work is complete, and from the portions
that have already been given to the public we are en-
abled to form a pretty fair estimate of its character
and the style of its execution. Of all literary labours
that of getting up books of reference is, perhaps, the
most tedious and the most thankless. The bare name
of a catalogue kills the interest of the most indefati-
gable book worm, after the collection of objects to
which it was intended as a guide has ceased to be
accessible. The present, however, is an exceptional
case, and iii-predict for the Illustrated Catalogue of
the .Great► Exhibition a standard reputation, and a
large share of public patronage when the grass
has once more grown over the site of the
Crystal Palace, and the great event of this
year has become a thing of the past. From un-
avoidable causes, the contractors, Messrs. Spicer
and Cloves, are only completing the last pages of
their work as the spectacle to which it relates is about
to close; but they need be little alarmed at such a
consideration. It has an enduring interest in the
mass of valuable information of almost every descrip-
tion which it contains. To put the industrial pro-
ducts of the world under a glass case was a won-
derful feat to perform ; but here we have a still
more extraordinary example of condensation, partly
executed and in process of successful comple-
tion. The Great Exhibition is reduced within
the compass of three not very unwieldy
volumes, and to the intellect in all respects, and
in most important respects to the eye its features and
significance are preserved. Every object in the col-
lection will be found noted down and described with
the amount of particularity due to it. The prompt-
ings of partiality and the infirmities of judgment
are equally excluded from ,this unbiassed re-
cord. An extensive series of illustrations is made
to embrace every object worthy of elucida-
tion by the artists' power, and in order that the in-
structive character of the work may be fully sus-
tained, annotations written by men of the highest
qualifications are introduced to explain processes,
point out the character and uses of objects, and deve•
lop in brief terms the rationale of the more remark-
or least understood branches of human industry ;
with these features of interest the popularity of the
Illustrated Catalogue when completed seems secure.
It will prove a complete literary type of the original
to which it refers, opening up sources of amusement
or instruction to every class of taste, and proving
equally at home on the drawing-room table, handled
by fashionable dilettanti in the study, pored over by
the scholar or the man of science, at the merchant's
desk as a book of constant referezne —in the factory,
the foundery and theworkahop, as a repertoire for de-
signs, and as highly suggestive for future progress.
A more pleasant work to dive into during an idle
hour can hardly be imagined, for wherever it is taken
up there is something new and striking, and worthy
of attention. The necessity for condensation renders
prosing impossible, and the classification of subjects
secures an agreeable variety of subjects without
monotony on the one hand, or a miscellaneous
effect upon the other. Illustrations have been
sparingly resorted to in the first portion, which re-
lates to raw materials, but, as a substitute for this,
we have tables and statistics of great value, and a
large mass of information entirely original in its cha-
racter. In the second part, which is devoted to ma-
chinery numerous diagrams and sketches are intro-
duced explanatory of the different objects exhibited.
The chief interest of the Catalogue, however, in this
respect lies in the third and fourth parts, the latter
of which is still unfinished. The three volumes will
contain, altogether, about 1,200 illustrations, and
the greater number of them will be given in the last
volume, which will be dedicated to the foreign half
of the Exhibition. This is the proper course to pur-
sue, for the foreign contributions are those which
it is most important to have sketched. We are
informed that original information of much value
and interest has been commuicated to the com-
pilers of the catalogue, from the different countries
which have taken part in the Exhibition, and that
this will form a prominent feature of the work when
completed. At present, while the public mind is
saturated with the subject, the introductory posi-
tion of the book may not attract the notice to which
it is entitled ; hut when we are able to look back
upon the whole undertaking from a point in the future
and proceed to take its exact measure as an historical
event, we shall not fail to be duly impressed with the
remarkable character of the information there con-
tained. Within the limits of 107 pages are com-
pressed Mr. Cole's account of the way in which the
Exhibition was got up, Mr. Digby Wyatt's descrip-
tion of the Crystal Palace, Dr. Lyon Playfair's clas-
sification of the artificial world, the directory of the
scheme, the list of jurors, and the preliminary notice
of the catalogue by Mr. Robert Ellis, its editor. Mr.
Cole's narrative is especially worthy of attention for
the insight which it affords into the machinery, by
which vast projects like the Exhibition can be suc-
cessfully carried out. Even in this country, where
the principle of association is so thoroughly under-
stood, that machinery must be pronounced to be a
masterpiece of skilful combinations.
Let us recall for a moment its chief incidents. A
small body of men, without any influence of rank or
wealth, and forming the council of what had previ-
ously been regarded as a useless society, conceived,
as early as 1845, the idea of an Industrial Exhibition,
national in its character. After one fruitless attempt,
they engaged in a series of preparatory measures cal-
culated to render their scheme acceptable to the pub-
lic and secure of its support. Four years of indefati-
gable labour elapsed and they had gathered around
their undertaking au amount of support which they
conceived justified them in again bringing it forward.
They had placed it under the direct patronage of the
Crown, and had secured for it, as an appropriate head,
the name and the personal exertions of the Prince
Consort. A Royal Commission was appointed, in
which men of all parties, irrespective of politics, were
included. In the meantime, the views of the pro-
jectors had expanded and they resolved to give their
scheme a cosmopolitan character. The great seats
of our manufactures were successfully canvassed
for aid, and foreign Governments responded
to the invitations given to them and promised co-
operation. Yet even this powerful combination did
not exempt the undertaking from perils that more
than once threatened to be fatal. The question of

ways and means was for some time a stumbling-block
in the path, and the Commission long hesitated to as-
sume the pecuniary responsibilities which, in some
way or other, it was necessary to provide for in con-
sequence of the determination of Messrs. Mundy's
contract. At a most critical juncture Mr. Peto came
forward, and, with a degree of public spirit and libe-
rality which cannot fail to be appreciated, pledged his
name for a startling amount. Then, when other dif•
ficulties had been overcome, the question of a build-
ing presented almost insuperable obstacles. At the
last moment Mr. Paxton and Messrs. Fox and
Henderson rushed to the rescue of the perplexed
Commission, and, after a succession of dangers,
the scheme of the Exhibition was in safety. Had
Mr. Cole's narrative been more detailed, it might
have been rendered still more attractive, but the
author, no doubt, prudently preserved silence on
points which it would perhaps have been indiscreet
to touch upon, and the leading men in the council
of the Society of Arts having gained their object,
are seen quietly resigning to more exalted names the
honour and the glory of an enterprise which thpy not
only originated but rendered practicable by their ex-
, ertions. Of Mr. Digby Wyatt's account of the