The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-05-26
Gbf Daily grssts,,'.


The Great Exhibition.
Royal Inauguration BY the Queen, Prince A. |
bert, Her Majesty's Ministers, the Forsign |
Enlbassadors soith an ossembiage aDithin tho |
Crystal Palace Of 10000 persons.
. The following eloquent and beautiful article is
the leader of the London Times on the morning of |
the opening of the exhibition:
Till this day it has never yet occurred that all |
the nations of the earth should meet by their re.
presentatives, and combine in common act Di- |
vded by seas, by their still wilder passions, by |
language and by religion, the many races of man
kind have been scattered the surface of this |
globe as if over illimiable waste. Reason, in
deed teaches us that proceed from common |
stock and the brief notices of revelation speak ofa
family that increased aud multiplied till it filled
the earth, when 1t perished in its wickedness, and
once one household gathered round one altar, |
the remnant of an old world, and the cradle of |
new one. We are then told in mystic language of |
a gathering and dispersion, since which the |
tribes OF humanity have ever been roaming north |
and south, east and west, over unclaimed sOi- |
tudes, and il was only the other day they could be
said 10 finish the term of their wanderings, and
reach the utmost skirts of the habitable globe
Three or four years sincs the farthest shore Of
the great western continent, sod of earth glls-
tened under the spade, and allured by that brbe,
cities and civilization at last occupy the coast op
posite to long peopled China and Japan. That
seems 10 complete the great circle of humanity. In
The thousands OF years that have intervened be-
tween the first spell Of dispersion, and what seems
in one iis final fulflment, there has never
been any act OF union or cooperation that included
more than one continent in its range. The four
great empires of antiquity made large nroads into
the regions OF barbatism but under the last
and e gealest--tiat of which this island for four
centuries was a province-the north of Europe
was impeneirable forest, India fabulous,
China name, and Africa was only known by a
vague tradition stretch into the southern hemis
phere. The world began again, and command
went forth 10 teach all nations, and gather Them
inio one fold. 1t is not our place to inquire why
that promise is still so far from fulfilled we are
only concerned with the fact. The world is, to
all appearance bopeessy disurited in religion
in politics; and these differences have hitherto
proved fatal impediments TO social combination
Yet, after ages of mutual alienation and dstrIs,
We this day witness ceremonial and work
which, without exceeding the bounds of sobriety,
may be called the act of all mankind. We
sufficiently alive to the danger OF magniying that
act We know how often the greatest tragedies
have been ushered in by morning Of promise We
know that works of art perishable, that
itself Will have end, and that worlds happi-
ness consists not in the multitude and splendor of
lis acquisitions. We feel, too, that tread on
tender ground when We congratulate our species
on any other union than that OF which the sanction
and means are expressly Divine, and the duration
eternity. Yet, as plain matter of fact, be its au-
gurY ever so sinister, or It's meaning ever mis-
chievous, we challenge contradiction when say
that this is the fr. morning since the creation that
all peoples have assembled from all parts of the
world and done common act. Happily that act
is an act Of peace, of love, and of religion. There
are those, we know, who will recoll with pious
horror from v hat they Will think profane exag.
geraiion They will tell thar I've have made
The world our idol. That is question of temper
and sentiment. We only stating papable
fact, aud the interests of truth cannot require that
it be understaled.
Whatever the msgivings which religion and
experience may suggest, there can be no sufficient
reason why We of this generation, who are so for
tunae as witness and take part in this act,
should not enter into It cordially and thankfully.
The spectacle of many, not to say all, nations,
gathered under vast span ranged along one spa
clous vista, and attentive to one august ceremonial
must speak for itself. There is nothing in it, in
the marvels OF nature and OF art there assembled
together, but what the Almighty has made and or
daned; giving a necessity to use it, or faculty
to admire Why should not art have its pomps
and reviews? Other Governments are ever mus
terng their legons, and overawing their neig hbors
or their subjects with the glittering pageant OF
Yet, under this snowy Disguise, what is there
but jealousy, hatred, boodshed and destruction
IL must be superficial and even a morbid taste that
can contemplate with delight the splendid prepara-
tons for carnage. There is such contradiction
between the substance and the outside in this day
review. II is what it Processes to bean amicable
rivalry between all nations which shall contribute
most TO the happiness and improvement OF the
world. Those trophies the spoils OF the fores
or the mine; they the fabrics of the forge, the
glass house, the loom. Those arms are the
weapons by which we conquer the sterility of the
mountain, or the waters of the plain, by which we
build cities and unite them with links OF iron
Those decorations for houses and ou
churches, Everything here is pledge of peace
and shrnks from the rude grasp of war. Why
should we scrupe to congratulate the world tha
it has not met here to trampe down corn-6eld
with the foot of the charger, to stain the driver
with the blood OF the slain, and load the rapit
current with corpses, or even to show mimic war
but to exhibit the fruits of that industry, of tina
skill of that earth which God has given to us al
for common and mutual obi gation
The fact hardly be overrated. As to tn,
feelings 1t will inspire and the thoughts it will tos
ter, that must remain with each mans own soul
We should think there is enough 10 humble prid
and correct extrayagance. 1t is England good Tor
tune be the seat of this great conquest but she
owes it not to the transcendency of her genius tt
the neness of her tase, to the force of her policy
nor to the strength of her arms. fortunately, a
we deem it, for the occasion, the Sovereign 10 b
enthroned this day amid the spoils of the world
no mighty conqueror to constrain the homage an
provoke the jealousy of mankind. Europe has nt
quaied at her arbitration, nor America trembe
at her nod Those far dependencies, on which tn
sun never sets, and which are Justly counted to he
glory, only held on the condition of grown
sefgovernment. 1t is true that her armies hav
been victorious in the East, but only in defence
territory and vindcation Of honor. The monarc
who had " shed blood abundanuy," and had mad
great wars" was not allowed to build a hols
unto the name of God, and the TASK on which /
had sci his heart and for which he had coecte
much material, was hequeathed to ga man
rest, who had " peace and quietness given hi
for this very purpose. Such is the fortune and Il
character OF The Sovereign under whose auspic
this Temple of Peace has been reared and vi
will there receive the homage, not of subject realr
or trembling allies not of princes, captains or Al
bassadors, but Of plain men Of peace, representa-
the industry and lalent Of their fellow citizens
This heing, them in its simplest light the act
the whole word done, by the accidents of n
position aud The favor of Providence on the ban
of the Thames, it is impossible not TO regard
with some degree of awe The public have late
heard, with wonder, of experiment WIN
makes the movement of this planet percepi
found possible TO see the world as it were revolvi
round an object suspended before lis. 1t is
movement of planet, not mere mechanical ro
lion, but an intelligent and moral movement, Wh
We shall in the Exhibition this day inau
rated and that not an ordinary movement,
one marking great crisis in the history OF
world. We will not assume that the occasion Y
be So misunderstood, or SO perverted, as to end
Itself, and not direct the thoughts to a subliI
unity. For our part, we do not see why it sho
not prove the means to vast extension of
kingdom TO which all men owe allegiance. :
profound philosophy of Greece and the impe
policy of Rome, the peace and glores of Angus
and The very lronours claimed for him by his po
all prepared The way for the spread and establ
ment of the Church over the ruins of the old wo
Such may also be the agency of that peaceful
pire which the and sciences esabl
ing over rudeness, ignorance and brutality. If
doubt the agency of such means for the caus
heavenly truth at least let them do their bes