The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-06 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1857

Another Peaceful epoch in the history of this
country was yesterday inaugurated. It was.in-
augurated with unusual solemnity and magnifi-
cence by the ceremony presided over by H. R. H.
The PRINCE, the long and eagerly-expected cere-
mony of the Opening of the Fine Arts Exhibition
at Manchester. Everything upon this really
auspicious occasion appears to have " gone off,"
as a popular idiom has it, "to admiration."
Deputations presented Loyal Addresses ; t.) these
Gracious Replies ware duly returned. Ecclesias-
tical and military authorities assisted together i.t
the celebration—a celebration principally cot.-
ducted by the members of the Special Commission,
aided by those of the local municipality. The
programme of the whole of these deeply interest-
ing and singularly attractive proceedings judi-
ciously, as well as naturally, bore a striking re-
semblance to that which systematised on the me-
morable May-day of 1851. the opening of that
Industrial Exhibition in Hyde-park, which was
at once the prototype and precursor of this Fi❑e
Arts Exhibition in the City of Manchester. And
it was, by analogy, with the same startling con-
trast that upon the former occasion there was wit-
nessed the Celebration of the Industrial Triumphs
of the Human Race in the green " Pleasaunce"
of Fashion hard by Rotten-row, upon the margin
of Mayfair, and within the immediate precincts
of Belgravia ! It was, we repeat, by analogy,
with the same startling contrast that upon the
present occasion there was witnessed the celebra-
tion of the Triumphs of all the more refined and
exquisite Arts of Luxury in the midst of the
reeking chimneys and the roaring factories of
Cottenopolis ! Incidents such as these—incidents
like the Inauguration by the QUEEN upon the Ist
of May, 1851, of the Crystal Palace of Industry
in Abe West End of London, and the Inaugura-
tion, six years afterwards, by the PRINCE, upon
the sth of May, 1857, of the Crystal Palace of
the Fine Arts in the great manufacturing capital
of Lancashire—signalise in a manner the most
significant, as well as the most picturesque, the sym-
pathy binding together some of the most dissimilar
classes in the whole of our motley and complex com-
munity. This, in truth, is what has been called,
for want of a better phrase, Reciprocity. This,
indeed, is genuine Brotherhood. May it prove a
reciprocation fruitful of the happiest consequences
—a fraternal greeting productive of something
better than the mere truce of a passing Holiday.
Industry and Art truly Allied, intimately and
permanently knit together—would constitute not
simply an Epoch in the History of this Country,
but an Era in the Annals of Civilisation.

It is only reasonable—it is not in any way in-
congruous, that England should be the arena of
the world's first aggregate Fine Arts Exhibition.
For, if in Earlier Times Italy has had her
RAPHAEL and her MICHEL ANGELO, France her
CLAUDE and her PoUssIN, Holland her RUBE vs
and her REMBRANDT, Spain her MUB/LIC.O
and her VELA.SQUEZ —has not England in
more Recent Periods had her glories also in the
Victories of Art? And these won moreover

in the highest as well as in the lowlies t