The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-11-17
The world. Fair.
From ias London Times. October 20.


than three million visitors. The arrivals from the
continent during the whole psriod OF the Exhibit
ton did not exceed, it ID said, lO,OOO; and II as
also said there were not more than 1000 names
entered on the American visitors book; but oil our
own people very fair proportion came from the
manufacturing districts III the midland and north
counties, and other still more distant parts OF
the empire, Now, how did they come! Had 1t been
proposed thirty wears ago, or twenty five years
ago, to get up exhibition IN London, on the
speculation that three million persons would come
up to il, and half million OF money would be
taken at the doors, the most practical men of the
day would have laughed the proposition to scorn.
When it rumored during the struggle on the
Reform bill that fifty thousand men from Birming-
ham about to present petition in person,
great authority asked, "Where will they find
shoes?'' Every body must remember what difficult
~ it was to move u few score persons few score
miles In that age Of stage coaches, wagons, and
canal boats. When a manufacturer brought a nun
dred men as many miles across country 1t WAS
thing to be remembered, sort OF Eolic migration;
and the annual concourse OF strangers described oy
our school books at the great fair OF LEIPZIG almost
exceeded belief, though hardly amounting toone du
day Mt the Exhibition. Thirty years ago we doubt
if there were ten coaches day from Manchester
TO London, including three routes; and as the
stage coaches only took fifteen passengers and
the mails only nine, the existing capabilities OF
transport did not exceed one thousand through pas
sengcrs a week. The actual number fell very lar
short The capabilities of all the other great roads
were very rnYch lees. What, then, would have
up two millions OF people 10 town, within twenty,
three weeks, from an average distance oil hundred
miless AS the great stream did not set III TIL the
hrst week OF June, the average weekly arrivals OF
provincial visitors from that day was about n hun
dred thousand. Thirty years ago we doubt whe-
Their all the public conveyauces centering IN the
metropolis were capable OF a tenth OF that number.
1t is evident, then, that the Exhibition would have
been impossible in those days. and Prince Albert,
MIR. Cole, MIR. Paxton, and Messrs. Henderson and
Fox. would have been thought very proper subjects
for Bedlam.
Railroads have literally paved the way for the
Exhibition. The artisans of Birmingham have
achieved their threatened march to the metropolis
on shoes OF iron; and, as 1t happens, they are by
no means the most remote or the most numerous OF
our visitors. There have been times in history,
and those not very remote, when the roads and
conyeyances, the beasts Of burden and the ship
ping OF country, were seldom surveyed ana
summed up, except for the purpose of calculating
how many men could be conveyed in given time
TO the work of destruction. Would the roads bear
the passage of heavy artillery? Was there forage
for cavalry and wagon horses! Were the rivers
fordable did there exist the materials for tenn
porary bridges? A Caesar Napoleon had a
wonderful faculty for mastering the physical re-
sources of a country with a view to that great ex-
hibition, pitched battle We will not venture TO
say how many an embryo Napoleon is turning an
evil eye the rail, and calculating its capacity
for military traffic, but hitherto its mission has been
happily peaceful How much more may be done
in the way of peace-how far what has been done
this year may be repeated every year-how Tar the
railway companies may now be enabled to lower
their fares to meet larger traftlc-and how lar 1t
may be the interest of the metropolitan railway
companies to provide, at their own expense, OBJ
jecs of attraction in the metropolis are among the
great questions suggested by the marvellous sue
cess of this experiment. Next TO the Exhibition IT.
self, and the numbers brought to il by the rail
ways, the next most striking fact of the year is the
extraordinary profit that has flowed into their ex-
hausted exchequers.
Prior to the opening the Exhibition the increase
an the traffic of the eight metropolitan lines over
the corresponding period of last year amounted to
El66,O37, or 905 per cent. The increase III the
other lines of railway in the United Kingdom up
TO that date amounted to E3059O4 or Ia 80 per
cent. During the twenty three weeks of the Exhi-
biton very great change took place in these pro-
portions, for instead of the traffic on the metropo-
Titan lines being only per cent, as at the COM
mcnccment Of the Exhibition, it gradually rose to
IS per cent, while the traffic the other lines OF
the United Kingdom, which was l4.39 at the COM
mcncement, gradually reoeded to S.42 per cent.
The total increase on the railways of the United
Kingdom for the seventeen weeks ending May
3, amounted to f46l94l, and for the twenty
three weeks ending October III, to FL l07 $50; OF
which ES2l 1868 the increase on the metropo
Titan lines, leaving but E2S5,3l for the increase
on the other lines. Had the rate of increase dur
ing the first seventeen weeks Of the year continued
during the twenty three weeks of the Exhibition,
the increase for that period would have been G26f,
$50, which, deducted from ES2l 1868, the actual
increase, above stated, leaves 1851 ,4S3 as
the extra receipts from the Exhibition COM
pared with those of the corresponding period OF
1850. IL thus appears, that immense as have been
the receipts of the Exhibition ITSELF the receipts OF
the eight metropolitan lines from the same source
have been greater. Nay, it is evident that it would
have answered their purpose to defray all the ex-
penses of the Exhibition, and hand over the whole
of the E505 900 received for admission, &C., to the
Royal Commissioners to be applied as they please.
Al this suggestion is too late for this year, 1t 10 In
good time for another, and for many more yet to
come. Notwithstanding the great reduction OF
fares made by all the railways TO meet the general
class of visitors that reduction may be carried still
further, rather the accommodation given for the
same fares may be greatly increased, and yet leave
a handsome profit to the companies Further, we
beg to suggest, whether it will not answer the pur
pose of the metropolitan railways to contribute to-
wards maintaining periodical and even permanent
attractions OF the same sort; SUCH for example, as
would be implied in the notion of winter garden
used occasionally for entertainments and exhibit
lions. or course it would be ridiculous to expect
that 80 great an occasion that we have witnessed
could be sustained but something less scale,
and varying from year TO year, might answer the
purpose
The total increase of ES2l 1868 for the twenty
three weeks ending October ii is divided among
the metropolitan lines in the following proportions;
. The Eastern Counties, ELS, $50; Great Western,
&l62,723; Great Northern, El76,537; London and
Northwestern, t259,0l London and Blackwell,
E7,249; London, Brighton, and South Coast,
E29,63I; Southwestern, EST ,06S; Southeastern,
ESl 800. Though considerable part of this in
crease has been absorbed in additional expenses,
still there can be doubt that the railways have
received the lions share of the profits. Nor has
the Exhibition traffic been accompanied with a
positive loss of traffic in other directions, except in
few special instances. The aggregate traffic OF
all the railways of the United Kingdom from Jan
uary to October IL is greater than that for the
same period of last year by less amount
than 81 5Sl 604 and nearly three millions greater
than that for the same period of lSf9. To what
extent the expenditure of the Exhibition visitors
has been withdrawn from other objects it is diff
cult to say but it is certain from the returns of the
Board of Trade and the tables that the gen
eral consumption of imports and excisable articles
has been greater than usual this year 1t also salts
factory to know, arc informed from various
quarters, that the money spent on the Exhibition
by its provincial visitors has been generally rather
saved beforehand than borrowed at the time; SO
that we need not apprehend reaction such as
usually follows an improvident expenditure.
LETTERS OF CALvIN.-The publication of the vol
umc of the hitherto unpublished letters of Calvin,
it seems, has been delayed, and is still embarrassed
The minister of public instruction, under Louis
Philippe, had committed the publication of these
letters to Professor Bonnet formerly OF the college
at Nismes, and dismissed from thence for speaking