The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-02 00:00:00

f,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JouRNALs.

Fkon TUE MOE": ING
TIMES.-1 ,vas yesterday a the like
of which has never happened before, and which, in the na-
ture of thisgs, can never be repeated, They who were so
fortunate as to see it hardly- knew what most to admire, or
in what form to clothe the sense of wonder, and even of
mystery, which struggled within them. The edifice, the
treasures of nature and art collected therein, the assemblage,
and the solemnity of the occasion, all conspired to suggest
something even more than sense could seas or imagination
attain. There were many there who were familiar with
magnificent spectacles ; who had seen coronations. fetes, and
solemnities; but they had not seen anything to compare
with this. In a building that could easily have accommo-
dated twice as mars-, twenty-five thousand persons, so it is
eompitted, were arranged in order round the throne of our
Sovereign. Around them, amidst them, and over their heads
was displayed all that is useful or beautiful in nature or in
art. Above them rose a glittering arch far more lofty and
spacious than the vaults of even our noblest cathedrals. Oa
either aide the vista seemed almost boundless. Under it was
enthroned a youthful matron, the Queen of this land,
surrounded by her family, her Court, her Ministers;
by the representatives of other countries, and by al
who had any share in the suggestion or management of this
great undertaking. The minister of religion was there to
ask a blessing on the work; the song of loyalty and the
anthem of praise rose from the whole assemblage. This is
but the bare enumeration of particulars. which to those who
were present made one vast whole. It was felt to be more
than what was seen, or what had been intended. Some sawin it the second and more glorious inauguration of their
Sovereign ; some a solemn dedication of art and its stores ;
some were most reminded of that day
when all ages and
climes shall be gathered round the throne of their Maker;
there was so much that seemed accidental and yet had a
meaning, that no one could be content with simply what ho
saw. A taste of no common order had contributed to the
illusion, not to say the reality of the scene. The fresh foliage
age of two lofty elms dwarfed by the height of the dome, the
numerous tropical plants that served to tell the extended
reign of the Sovereign whose throne they adorned; splendid
fountains, and the brightness of the decoration, all contributed
to an effect so grand and yet so natural, that it hardly
seemed to be put together by design, or to be the work of hu-
man artificers Such has been the ceremony of the Ist of
May, the subject of such long anticipations and so many ap-
prehensions. Fortune has at length favoured the coura-
geous and persevering little band who originated and resolved
to carry through this undertaking. If in the result we see
even more than they were conscious of designing, and
if we sometimes suspect that they looked too exclusively or
too much to the mere advancement of art, we cannot, on
the other' hand, be blind to the great industry and judgment
they have displayed. We say it advisedly—we believe that
the Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition have had
more than the usual proportion of difficulties to contend
with. So vast a building was not to be built and adapted
for the purpose ; so many exhibitors were not to be invited
and provided for; so many objects were not to be accepted
and arranged ; so many smaller affairs were not to be
dispatched, without an amount of hard work and harass
which it is fearful to think upon. Good temper and
honesty, diligence and method, have overcome them-
all. all. It is true that some of our principal exhi-
bitors and nearest neighbours have found themselves
sorely belated. The Ist of l 1 ay has surprised not a few
who refused to give the Englishman credit for his pro-
verbial punctuality. The grand avenue of the nave, indeed,
is even more than sufficiently stocked and decorated.
Nothing is wanting anywhere to the general view; but when
we leave the broad walk, with its endless succession of mag-
nificent trophies, and pass under the galleries into the nume-
rous by-paths of the Exhibition, we find ourselves sometimes
in vacant areas, surrounded by unfinished cases, unopened
boxes, and preparations which it will apparently take weeks
to conclude. But what of that? It may be unfortunate for
the country that does not come in for the high tide of inte-
rest and the freshness of curiosity; but, even with these de-
ductions, there is already far more than it is possible for any
ordinary man to master within a moderate time. It has been
estimated that thirty visits will hardly be sufficient for those
who wish to " get up " the whole Exhibition, and make the
best profit of this rare opportunity. To visitors of this serious
class it can matter very little whether the subjects of their
thirtieth day's study are already open to the view, or are hid-
den in packing-cases. The partial backwardness of
the exhibitors, then, is as little to the injury of the
result as it is to the disparagement of the Commissioners,
who have done their own part in good time. Their success
to the last in minor arrangements is evident from the fact
that 25,000 ladies and gentlemen yesterday assisted, with
comfort, at a grand ceremonial, that a multitude of several
hundred t housand persons surrounded the building without
any disorder, that a string of carriages, reaching from Char-
ing-cross to Kensington, set down their occupants easily and
quietly, and that, in a word, hardly a blow was struck or a
temper ruffled during the whole day. Such a result reflects
credit on the character of the country, and proves the deep
fund of good nature and self-government in the mass of the
people. It is not to be expected that all will equally enter
into the sentiment which seems to us proper to such a spec-
tacle. There are those who will see nothing but glass and
iron in the building, men and women in the myriads that
visit it, and cotton or silk in the fabrics exhibited.
We expect to hear it called an overgrown bazaar,
or a vast advertising machine. We will appeal, then, to
sense as well as romance. On the very lowest view of this
Exhibition it is an opportunity of learning the products of
different regions, and the manufactures of different peoples,
that we could not have hoped to enjoy, and which will not
soon be repeated. Everybody who has to do with teaching
—nay, everybody who wishes for information himself, knows
the comparative unprolitableness of mere reading or hearing.
The ear is slow to receive and quick to lose information.
The eye apprehends quickly, and retains a long hold. Then
here, at all events, if we have nothing else, we have a vast
collection of specimens, with manuals arranging and describ-
ing them. All nature and art are brought under our survey,
and an area of twenty acres is made, as it were, an epitome
of the whole world. As a mere lesson in industrial and so-
cial geography, the opportunity is invaluable. We do not
see why every child whom its parents can bring up to town
should not take lessons at the Exhibition. But in this
branch of knowledge it is not uncommon to find grown up
people as ill-informed as their own children. All ages,
therefore, will find it to their advantage to go to school for
the season in Hyde-park.
CHRONICLE.—Many words never accompany deep im-
pressions. He who, whether in actual life, or in its more
truthful dramatic representations, is stirred to the inmost core
of feeling, cannot afford to talk ; and it is only after a great
whole, either of action or emotion, has had time to settle
down—at the loss, perhaps, of somewhat of its picturesque,
hower vague, entirety—that we can coldly count up what
has combined to produce its influence. It were better, then,
for ourselves if we were not called upon so immediately to
satisfy the very reasonable inquiries of others as to the suc-
cess of the opening of the Great Exhibition yesterday. For
ourselves personally. it were safer merely to speak of that
success as complete and unbroken, and then to withdraw to
its deep and pleasant memories with something of that joy
with which, as we are told, a stranger intermeddleth not.
Because merely to allude to the more obvious and prominent
elements in the triumph of yesterday's pageant would be
comparatively easy easy, since its true grandeur
lies in what scarcely meets the eye or ear. It
asks not much to dilate upon the unequalled beauty
of the weather—se curiously falling in with the popular
feeling' about the "Queen's own fine-weather days"—upon
the loyal crowds, and upon the stately throng of those noble
by station and yet nobler by acquirements or gifts—or upon
the scenic beauty of the ceremonial. The success of either
of these singly would present matter for pleasure—their
combination furnishes a more extended gratification. We
May say more. The building itself displayed internal effects
yesterday of which we had scarcely thought it susceptible.
The hard lines and shrunken masses which a metallic con-
struction involved, were hitherto but ineffectually relieved
by the pale and faded colouring which has been adopted;
the ashy tones and consumptive lineaments of the structure
wanted mass and relief. These were at the opening nobly
supplied. The intense scarlet of hangings and uniforms,the
rich crimson of carpets and tapestry, the bright floral par-
terre-like effects of the ten thousand pinks and blues of
feminine attire, the sparkling fountains, the masses of
exotic, flowers, the golden sunbeams flashing at once
on the delicate spring-tints of our English elms and
the heavier greens of tropical palms—these, with the
sparkling of glass, and the more solid polish of metal, ade-
quately redeemed, by their breadth and harmony, the more
prominent defects of the not unworthily called " Crystal
Palace." To this luxury of colours, which our insular eyes
are beginning to uuderstand, yesterday's ceremonial added
the pleasure addressed to the ear. While organ, and choir,
and trumpet announced the Queen's entrance with a rich and
full " God save the Queen," the triumph of the day was the
" Hallelujah Chorus." Never did this noble strain fall at
once upon so many auditors, and—judging from many a
moistening eye and kindling cheek—never, we believe, upon
se many tearts. And amongst much that was otherwise
touching and creditable to the national taste and feeling—
besides the reiterated plaudits which saluted England's great
Duke—besides the bursts of personal salutation which wel-
comed her Majesty's progress, beyond even pealing organ
and swelling anthem—more touching and more spontaneous
was the honest domestic delight which hailed the Queen and
her husband as they joined the procession, holdnag,y the
hand, the Royal mother a Prince of Wales, and lay p COP-
sort the Princess Royal. In herself and • AtCh,,ilt
family the Queen must have felt the best Setlinv
of her Throne ; and never has this security
Deep
more amply displayed than in the 10,4:personal congratuas
lation which was yesterday offered by the tish The
well as by. the Royal Court, to her hlisjefty'si Presence.
artistic effect of the general grouping pieSentea 'at the de-
livery of the addresses was striking. Tabard and helm,
halberd and plume, feathers and diamonds,acarlet and gold,
cannot well fail ; but it was the mass, ands scale, and pon-
derous dignity of the whole, which told. Spenser—vates in
either sense—seems to have actually drawn the more strik-
ing feature :

*

"The room was large and wide,
As it some guild or solemn temple were';
Many great iron pillarsdid b
proilolarf, ando:dkr i
ecdhas
was ha i P
fulle s
dear. n ;
•
A rout of people there assembled were
The
ed massy
Of every soil and nation under sky,
Which with great uproar pressed to draw near
To th' upper part, where was advanced high
A stately siege of sovereign majesty;
And thereon sat a woman gorgeous
7gay,
And richly clad in robes of royalty.
We can well afford to leave the material aspect of the care.
monial in this, its vivid and accurate anticipation; but its
moral significance requires a few words. The semi-senti-
mental historian of the day vaticinates the time when a
civilized New Zealander is to survey the ruins of St. Paul's
from a shattered arch of London- bridge. Be it so. Nations
have their appointed course; and the truest triumphs of
empire are other than physical. It is right, morally right,
that she on whose flag and shores the sun never sets should
—once at least before her, perhaps, inevitable fall—translate
this splendid metaphor into the prosaic language of fact,
that her sons may know what ample duties are entrusted to
them, together with this perilous pre-eminence of sway.
We have now done this—we have summoned not only our
own artists and artizans, but our colonial children from forest
and prairie—from Arctic steep and Indian jungle, to tell us
what manner of men they :have become—what they are
doing for the welfare of fatherland and of themselves—yvPst
rough and strange materials they have struggled wistuave
what shapely products of skill they, and in them we, P
e—encv.
added to the sum of human industry
.and illet 6
And yet we have not done this in ai
spirit of boasting. We have asked all the world
Hyde-park at
not our succ,esses only, but our failures;
andts of !kill in which
this moment displays not a few departmen
inferior to
we may well confess that we are immeasurably
ready
to teach, we at
to waiartnresews,
other nations. If we show that we are ready
vioanniltvyi A
beet
not ashamed to be
the same moment admit that w
taught. If we have an undueo
position been mere'y a
to temper temper this vice. Had. oils,
least one great moral benefit of
it might well have stood as a
faction of English productio festxhhaeer eGarroefa national
i bt
incense prepared
bfor.
the case when we ask all nations and
great pretentious LobegaensdatorgeetoreodurtoTinsuelarer prideg-Tearicfileoautdieonf.
Such can hardly .
languages to this ine
te.recuhceangoef. of
ag ideas
e iytehishagyreeamt
missed
dterthoef
the truths and experience