The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-05-22

lates to progress in the great race OF mankind
towards the highest possible attainments in all
that constitutes the true grandeur OF nations,
we should have no misgivings in meeting the
first powers of the civilized world. But we
must confess that we have had an uncomtorta-
BILE feeling of inferiority in going across the
Atlantic to meet all Europe at great exhibit
lion of industrial products in Hyde Park; and
the first reports from the glass palace of the
great show fully justify our apprehensions. If
it had not been for the seeming discourtesy to-
wards great nation, to whom we are bound
more closely than to any other people Of the
earth. and with whom we hope ever to remain in
the friendly and beneficial relations which now
exist between us, we would have been glad
If our Government and people could have ig-
nored the Great Exhibition altogether 1t is
great show of snowy articles, and we have
nothing of the kind TO exhibit which cannot be
excelled by our friends across the water. A
great power like ours should not play Sc
cond fiddle at an assemblage of nations; it
would be better not to appear there at all than
to appear at disadvantage. Fancy articles
do not make any very impressive appearance
in statistical tables by the side of the great sta
plies that are essential to human happiness;
but, ON the other hand, when it comes to an
exhibition, meant to captivate the eye, fancy
carries the day before utility, and bales Of
cotton, Jumps of ore, barrels of flour, hogs
heads Of tobacco, and other aggregations of our
materials, are completely obscured by such tri-
fles as enamelled snuff-boxes, ormou clocks and
painted vases. To form perfectly correct idea
of the kind offigure Columbia would cut by the
side Of her elder sisters Galia, Britannia, Germa-
MIA and Italia, at fancy fair, it was only neces-
sary to look over the last quarterly report of our
imports from Europe, and see what bales and
boxes of fancy merchandise, of articles of luxury
and taste, we had been exchanging millions of
value in raw products for during three months
A nation that imports every thing that minis
tiers to the refined taste Of an educated people,
cannot, as matter of course, have any thing
Of its own of the same kind, to exhibit. In
every department of industry which calls only
for the exercise of the inventive faculties of
heroic perseverance and physical force, I'M
nations Of the earth. In building ships and
steamboats,, in the manufacture of all kinds of
labor saving machinery, in cultivating the soil,
constructing bridges, railroads, and canals, and
in making agricultural implements, no people
can excel us. But in the graces, the elegan-
cies, the concentrations of art manufacture, we
are sadly, shamefully, and needlessly behind
all others. Since we commenced writing these
remarks we took up the Philadelphia Ledger,
and our eyes lighted upon the following words
from the pen of its intelligent correspondent
observer" who, being foreigner, may be
supposed to speak candidly and without bias:
Gin about twenty years from now Europe will
be just civilized enough and educated enough to
furnish competent critics for the great works with
which America will astonish the world
We have not the least doubt of the sober
truth Of this seemingly wild exaggeration,
which, TO the thoughtless visitor at the Great
Exhibition, would appear like the raving of a
madman. 1t is little remarkable that only
last evening we heard young artist, who had
Just returned from four years. residence in
Europe, say very nearly the same thing.
America" said he, ''has got to produce the
greatest artists that the world has yet known.
They may not come this year, nor the next,
but they must come in the natural order of
things" The observation was elected by an
allusion to the drawings of young man who
had just come from an interior town for the
purpose Of improving himself in his art. The
time must come, and that at no very dis
tant period, when our helpless dependence upon
Europe for all articles that come under the head
of art-manufactures will cease, and we shall be
in reality what we have long and fallaciously
boasted ourselves, an independent people,"
We may boast Of our Independence as much as
we please, but while we are dependent upon
Great Britain for the books we read, and upon
France for the finery we wear, our indepen-
dence is rather an imperfect article.
Looking upon our greatness as nation, the
rank we occupy, the respect we can command,
and the wealth we possess, the commissioners
of the Great Exhibition allotted us space in the
glass palace commensurate with our preten-
sions. But, alas for our reputation! we have
not half filled the room allotted, and our con-
trlbutlOns to the great show are rather dispar-
agingly spoken Of by all the London journals
If our confessed inferiority in art shall have the
effect to arouse the pride Of the people, and
cause them to look for the reasons that have
thus far kept us inferior, and will, unless RENE
died, keep us so in all time to come, we shall
be- very glad of our humiliation in Hyde Park.
Every American who attends the Great Exhi-
bition, We have little doubt, will return home
a sturdy advocate of protection to American in
dustry, and of all laws calculated to foster
develope, and encourage American art and
American literature. We have now health,
youth, freedom, and riches, and twenty years
hence, when we shall have been taught little
more sefrespect, we shall be producing works
which Europe will be just civilized enough
and educated enough TO criticse, but not to