The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-13 00:00:00

Metropolitan and Provincial Working
Classes' Exhibition.

Last evening the Industrial Exhibition which has
been open in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, for
the last 10 weeks, and which has attracted more
than half a million of spectators, was formally
closed. Lord John Manners, M.P., presided at
the ceremony, and was supported by the Council
and other leading promoters of the undertaking.
The floor and galleries of the vast hall were well
filled with an audience chiefly composed of the
working classes, but also including persons of other
social grades, as well as both sexes and all ages.
The building was tastefully decorated with flags
and banners, and altogether the scene presented was
one of a truly animated and even imposing descrip-
tion. The programme for the evening was at once
ample and varied. It commenced with the perform-
ance, by Mr. C. F. Davies, on Willis's Great Exhi-
bition organ, of a pirited triumphal march, spe-
cially composed for the occasion. Then, on the
Chairman ascending the platform, the choir of the
Tonic Sol-fa Assoc tion sang the Old Hundredth
Psalm very impressively ; after which the Rev. C.
Boutell proceeded to read the report of the adjudi-
cators. In this document these gentlemen state
that, in awarding the prizes, they based their judg-
ment "not on intrinsic merit alone, but also on the
circumstances and opportunities of the producer, and
the promise or suggestion of future improvement"
offered by his work ; and they thus sum up the
general character of the Exhibition .
" We feel bound to state that, with certain honourable
exceptions, the objects exhibited do not attain to great ex-
cellence. The chief deficiencies are in those important
qualities which result from well-directed study, and in ori-
ginality of design, the offspring of independent thought.
At the same time there are abundant evidences of patient,
laborious perseverance, of earnest assiduity, and particu-
larly of technical skill and manual dexterity, which give
promise of more decided excellence in future Industrial
Exhibitions."
Mr. W. J. WArrs, the secretary, next read the
report of the Executive Council, from which it ap-
peared that the undertaking had realised, with com-
plete success, the original idea of the promoters--
. namely, that it should be a Workman's Festival,
and become a means of providing rational recrea-
tion and profitable amusement for the working po-
pulation of the metropolis at a merely nominal cost.
The report also stated that—
" Since the opening of the Exhibition, about 550,000
persons had entered the building, and of these upwards of
half a million have paid for admission. Of children ad-
mitted free there have been 3,092 belonging to the Sunday
schools, 401 to the parochial schools, 3,992 to the ragged
schools, and 1,559 to other schools. Concerts, oratorios,
organ performances,lectures, gatherings of various societies,
a flower show, and other entertainments, have been given
in connection with the Exhibition. . . . Although the
Council are in a position to meet their estimated liabilities,
besides expending the sum of £BOO on prize medals, certi-
ficates, and mementos for exhibitors, it must be borne in
mind that a large proportion of the labour bestowed on the
undertaking has been rendered gratuitously, and that the
singers, musicians, lecturers, agents, and others have, in
most cases, tendered their services without remuneration.
Ono of the most pleasing features of the festival has been
the nightly influx of working men, who have brought their
wives and families to share their pleasures, for they knew
that here nothing would be permitted but what might be
seen and heard without raising a blush or offending the
most sensitive. There have been awarded special prizes in
money to a considerable amount, 81 silver medals, 115
bronze medals, and 185 certificates of honourable mention
making a total of 441 exhibitors out of 1,455 who have '
re-
ceived marks of merit."
The next part of the programme was "An Ode
to Labour," written by Mr. J. Plummer, and set to
music by Dr. Spark, of Leeds, expressly for this Ex-
hibition, at the inauguration of which it was per-
formed by a very powerful choir. It was now re-
peated at the closing ceremony in a very effective
mariner by about 1,000 voices. Both the music and
the words are productions of considerable merit, and
their execution, it need hardly be said, elicited warm
and even rapturous plaudits from all parts of the
hall.