The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-11-15
Award Of Prizes a, the worlds Fair.

or to u paradoxical morality which comedies to
JOHN license that is denied to others2
Award of Prizes NJ the Worlds Fair.
The close of the Great Industrial Exhibition
in London has been attended with one result
which, we imagine, must have been antici-
pated by the commissioners and jurors, viz, an
immense deal of grumbling at the awards of
medals. Considering that there were more
than eighteen thousand exhibitors, and but
three thousand eight hundred and fifty four
medals, of which one hundred and seventy
only were council medals, it must inevitably
| happen that some meritorious exhibitors would
be compelled to leave the Glass Palace minus
the honors to which they were entitled The
commissioners must have found themselves in the
uncomfortable position Of successful party after
Presidential contest with not a 1.-THE Of the
| ''spois' necessary to award those whom they
thought entitled to remembrance for their ser
| vices. For our own part, we do not feel inclined
to grumble at the share of medallion hOnors
which fell to our own countrymen, so far as
their number is concerned, although it strikes
us that little more discrimination should have
been shown in their bestowal. For instance,
Captain ERIcssoN's 'pyrometer," one Of the
most remarkable among the scientific inven-
tons exhibited, and his caloric engine, the cost
| of which was five thousand dollars, were
awarded only jury or prize MEDAL while
medal of precisely the same value, and con
ferring precisely the same degree of honor, was
bestowed on American exhibitor of a "well-
made shirt" One of our correspondents, in a
| letter from London last summer predicted
that the United States would receive FIVE
of the highest class medals, which was the
number bestowed; but then they did not
chance to fall ON the articles predicted to re-
ceive them. However, Captain ERIcssoN re-
ceived an honor which, we imagine, did not
alight upon any other of the exhibitors; one of
his pupils, Mr.. Fox, not only received a coun-
Gil medal for not unimportant part Of the Ex-
hibition-beng nothing less than the building
in which it was held-but the order of knight
hood. So, while the master, with his import
ant and costly scientific inventions, obtains no
thing but bronze medals, such as were be-
slowed upon the exhibition of "broom,"
pail" "cane," and ''shirt," the pupil,
who invented nothing, obtains gold medal
aud the honor of knighthood.
One of our countrymen missed the great
medal by not having his articles on exhibition
in season. The Illustrated .Netcs, in noticing
the carpets in the Glass Palace, says:
within the last few days we have examined
specimens of the best Brussels carpet of the quail
| { ity known ive-framc, woven by steam power,
| by Mr.. Bigelow, of the United States. This in
vention will very rcvolutionize the trade.
{ Mr. Bigeow has achieved what has often been at
tempted without success, and produces first rate
article, which, if it had been sent to the Exhibi-
ton, would have obtained for him tho great me
9 dial, only granted to the inventors inprovers
of a manufacturing process"
| Ii this invention Of onr countryman's is des-
tined TO revOlutonize trade, we hope that the
revolution may inure TO our own benefit, and
not be made to destroy the particular branch of
manufacturing industry to which it is applied,
that has but just began to be established among
us. Under our existing tariff laws it will
doubtless prove another instance of the inven-
tive genius of our country being used for the
benefit of our great rival, and to the detriment
of ourselves.
! The French nation carried off the largest
number of medals, after the English, as was to
be anticipated, but they were nearly all gained
by articles of purely artistic value. In this de-
partment we Of course could hope for nothing;
| but there is no reason why we should not; and,
with the aptitude shown for the higher
branches of art by our countrymen, there is no
more need that we should remain inferior to
France and Germany, In our fine-art manufac-
lures, than in building ships, making machine
ry, or cultivating the soil. Nothing is wanting
to ensure our independence of foreign work
shops and foreign artists but that requisite de-
gree Of protection which has enabled us in
every case where it has been given to excel all
the other nations of the earth.
One of the senseless arguments often made
use of by English writer's, and which we have
often heard even. Americans repeat, in favor of
a monarchical government, is, that republics are
unfavorable To the growth of art and refinement;
and, to our modification, the United States are
continually held up as a proof Of the assertion.
A writer in the last number of BLdckw0od's
Magazine exclaims:
"Vive la despotismsi (alluding to the arc de
PEfois in Paris,) every inch Of il lie owing to mo-
nRrchy. Republics build nothing, if VIC except pri
sons and warehouses. They proyerbially
squalid, bitter, and beggarly. What has America,
with all her bOasting, ever built but warehouse or
a conyenticle;"
it would be easy enough to reply to such
ISLANDERS; but there is much truth in them.
The truth, however, is not innate, but acct
dental, and local. Yet, while we continue TO
deny protection TO our artists and manufac-
turers, and the benefit Of an nternational copy
right to our authors, we must be content to be