DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3004#0049
THE PARIS EXHIBITION.
ARTISTIC, INDUSTRIAL, AND COMMERCIAL RESULTS
OF THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION OF 1855.
BY GEORGE WALLIS,
Head Master of the Government School of Art, Birmingham, and Deputy Commissioner
of Juries in the Great Exhibition of 1351.
F the Great Exhibition of 1851 brought
the industries of Europe " face to
face," and broadly illustrated their
excellencies and peculiarities, the
Universal Exposition of 1855 makes us
acquainted with the more detailed
features of each specialite, and we are
enabled to realise in a far more ac-
curate manner the position in which
they stand in relation to each other, as
well as recognise their aspirations
and wants.
We shall not condescend to look at
this question as one merely affecting British
supremacy in manufactures. This is the
vulgar notion of the mere pedlar, and it is to
be regretted that it prevails to a greater ex-
tent than people are always willing to
acknowledge. He who looks at a question
like this only so far as it affects himself, will
find that his expedition after " wool" will
end in his being "shorn." The real question at
issue is how far all are benefited by a compa-
rison of ideas, of modes of action, and of results.
The claim of any country or any people to an exclusive right in
the pursuits of industry, or supreme intelligence in its application,
is quite as doubtful as the claim of any individual to universal
knowledge, or the undisputed possession for all time of any invention
or discovery : for though human law may recognise, and wisely
so, the exercise of an exclusive privilege, limited as to time and
conditions of use, a higher law must ever enforce the great prin-
ciple, that all the powers of man in their varied uses and develop-
ments are given for the general good of the human family, whilst
the puny policy which is ever clinging to exclusive advantages
alone, will find itself thrust to the wall by a wider and more
sympathetic course of action, arising out of the expanding tenden-
cies of the human mind.
The development of any idea will ever be according to its utility :
for however much its very existence as an ultimate fact may be
endangered and postponed by the selfishness, the peculiar idiosyn-
cracies or the mal-versions of individuals or of nations, its growth
must inevitably depend upon how far it is calculated to be per-
manently useful to mankind as a whole.
Industrial and artistic Expositions are amongst the most marked
manifestations of the active mental and physical progress of modern
times, and whether we view them from the point which has
hitherto characterised the previous efforts of the French, as a
periodical display of national progress, exclusively confined to
the exposition of the industry, science, and the arts in France, as
an old country and a leader of civilisation ; or look at them from
the humbler stand-point of those "state fairs," which have grown
up with, and presented themselves as symptoms of a more recent
state of society in the United States of America; we are compelled
to acknowledge their value as adapted to both conditions. Extending
the merely national display of France, and the more circumscribed
provincial gatherings of America, to the international arena
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, we realise in a still more marked
degree the uses of the great elements of comparison thus instituted ;
and whatever might have been the relative faults of administration
and execution in the Universal Exposition of Paris of 1855, its
realisation as it stands finally before the world, is at once a triumph
for Art, Science and Industry, and a further evidence of how much
men may benefit themselves by a cosmopolitan effort directed
towards the promotion of the higher material interests of their
fellow men. The aggregation in 1855, of industrial progress in
France since 1849, wisely extended to a free invitation to all other
countries to display in what relation they stand to each other in the
field of manufacturing and mechanical science, cannot fail to reflect
back upon the future products of the French people a large amount
of that knowledge which other nations have from time to time
gathered in its more exclusive displays; whilst the triumphs of the
larger field of comparison must be doubly dear to those whose suc-
cess meets with recognition in a competition so honourable to all con-
cerned. We shall not stop here to inquire, whether these individual
competitions and rewards are sound in principle, healthy in action,
or conducive to the true interests of Art and Science as applied to
industry, since, however, much experience may have led us to
conclusions by no means favourable to the practice, yet in France, at
least, custom may be pleaded for its observance, and there can be
little doubt that in the earlier progress of its periodical exposi-
tions the selection of a certain number of exhibitors as being
worthy of special recognition for extraordinary efforts, or the
display of great skill, had its uses. It is equally clear too, that
under more matured developments the abuses have been both
serious and numerous. To this point we shall recur in due course,
since the future success of these periodical displays must depend
very largely upon clear views of their ultimate action upon the
commerce and industry of nations, and their influence upon the
minds of those by whose skill, mechanical, artistic, and scientific,
the works exhibited are to be produced.
In the Exposition of 1849, France missed the opportunity of first
setting the example of an international comparison or competition
which could not have failed to have largely influenced the present
position of its numerous industries,—special and general. Proposed
by an enlightened policy, it was rejected by a short-sighted
exclusiveness, the error of which was afterwards but too obvious,
since from the Exhibition of All Nations of 1851 the most important
results are now acknowledged to have flowed. Thus to compensate
in some degree for the exclusiveness of 1849 in the matter of
industry, France is now thrown open to a world's competition
in the dearly cherished question of Art in its highest manifestations,
and adds to the Palace of Industry a Palace of the Fine Arts,
open alike to all comers. The efforts of the painter and the
sculptor, as evidences of progress in the higher departments of
human pursuits, promotion of intellectual instruction and pleasure,
are on this occasion so much the more broadly associated with
the industrial utilities of life, and the chain of human efforts in the
direction of creative power, becomes so much the more completely
illustrated.
After the example set so worthily by England in 1851, it would
have been as contrary to the genius of the French people as it
would have been inimical to the be3t interests of France, to have
continued the exclusive system which had characterised former expo-
sitions. With so little to fear in the way of competition in all those
specialities to which the industrial energies of her manufacturers
and citizens had been so long directed, it must have been evident
that by bringing examples of those products of human skill more
especially adapted to the immediate necessities of mankind ; but
■which in many instances, if not absolutely neglected by the French,
have received so little attention that the manufacture still remains
in a very primitive condition; and placing these in a prominent
manner before the people, immense service must result to the
commerce, if not to the manufactures of France. For it is
unreasonable to suppose that with so true a perception of the
fitness of things as usually characterises the French people, that
they could fail to see the value either of largely improving their
own methods of production in these every-day utilities, or at once
see that it would be for their interest that such economic arrange-
ments should be made in their future supply from those countries
best able to produce them, as should ensure their extended use for
the promotion of social comfort and industrial well-being of even
the humblest classes. Nor would the views of the statesman or the
political economist end here, since each would inevitably perceive
that the benefit would be a double one to France, inasmuch as in
all those things which her natural resources enable her to produce,
(and they are numerous enough to render the result a matter of
certainty,) she would command an extended and well-secured
market in other countries, instead of the limited and precarious
one which ever follows hostile or unreciprocative tariffs. Naturally
and industrially France has much to offer in the broad markets of
Europe, whilst commercially she has much to gain in opening her
own. In an artistic and scientific sense this has been long
acknowledged, and it required but the extended hand of a wiser
and truer policy, the first and most unequivocal symptom of which
is the Universal Exposition of 1855, to open, to an almost
incalculable extent, a field for her commerce, at once worthy of
her reputation, her position, and her influence among European
nations.
Since 1853, when the invitation to the industrial congress was
issued, England, the ancient rival of France in arms, in manu-
factures, and more recently even in arts, has become a firm and
powerful ally. The old and well defined national pride of two
powerful states has been converted from an individual and
antagonistic, into a dual and reciprocal direction in arms, whilst
the glory of the one has become the pride and the boast of the
other. In the peaceful arts, however, hostile tariffs still separate
the^ two peoples. Restrictive and prohibitive duties, originally
ARTISTIC, INDUSTRIAL, AND COMMERCIAL RESULTS
OF THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION OF 1855.
BY GEORGE WALLIS,
Head Master of the Government School of Art, Birmingham, and Deputy Commissioner
of Juries in the Great Exhibition of 1351.
F the Great Exhibition of 1851 brought
the industries of Europe " face to
face," and broadly illustrated their
excellencies and peculiarities, the
Universal Exposition of 1855 makes us
acquainted with the more detailed
features of each specialite, and we are
enabled to realise in a far more ac-
curate manner the position in which
they stand in relation to each other, as
well as recognise their aspirations
and wants.
We shall not condescend to look at
this question as one merely affecting British
supremacy in manufactures. This is the
vulgar notion of the mere pedlar, and it is to
be regretted that it prevails to a greater ex-
tent than people are always willing to
acknowledge. He who looks at a question
like this only so far as it affects himself, will
find that his expedition after " wool" will
end in his being "shorn." The real question at
issue is how far all are benefited by a compa-
rison of ideas, of modes of action, and of results.
The claim of any country or any people to an exclusive right in
the pursuits of industry, or supreme intelligence in its application,
is quite as doubtful as the claim of any individual to universal
knowledge, or the undisputed possession for all time of any invention
or discovery : for though human law may recognise, and wisely
so, the exercise of an exclusive privilege, limited as to time and
conditions of use, a higher law must ever enforce the great prin-
ciple, that all the powers of man in their varied uses and develop-
ments are given for the general good of the human family, whilst
the puny policy which is ever clinging to exclusive advantages
alone, will find itself thrust to the wall by a wider and more
sympathetic course of action, arising out of the expanding tenden-
cies of the human mind.
The development of any idea will ever be according to its utility :
for however much its very existence as an ultimate fact may be
endangered and postponed by the selfishness, the peculiar idiosyn-
cracies or the mal-versions of individuals or of nations, its growth
must inevitably depend upon how far it is calculated to be per-
manently useful to mankind as a whole.
Industrial and artistic Expositions are amongst the most marked
manifestations of the active mental and physical progress of modern
times, and whether we view them from the point which has
hitherto characterised the previous efforts of the French, as a
periodical display of national progress, exclusively confined to
the exposition of the industry, science, and the arts in France, as
an old country and a leader of civilisation ; or look at them from
the humbler stand-point of those "state fairs," which have grown
up with, and presented themselves as symptoms of a more recent
state of society in the United States of America; we are compelled
to acknowledge their value as adapted to both conditions. Extending
the merely national display of France, and the more circumscribed
provincial gatherings of America, to the international arena
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, we realise in a still more marked
degree the uses of the great elements of comparison thus instituted ;
and whatever might have been the relative faults of administration
and execution in the Universal Exposition of Paris of 1855, its
realisation as it stands finally before the world, is at once a triumph
for Art, Science and Industry, and a further evidence of how much
men may benefit themselves by a cosmopolitan effort directed
towards the promotion of the higher material interests of their
fellow men. The aggregation in 1855, of industrial progress in
France since 1849, wisely extended to a free invitation to all other
countries to display in what relation they stand to each other in the
field of manufacturing and mechanical science, cannot fail to reflect
back upon the future products of the French people a large amount
of that knowledge which other nations have from time to time
gathered in its more exclusive displays; whilst the triumphs of the
larger field of comparison must be doubly dear to those whose suc-
cess meets with recognition in a competition so honourable to all con-
cerned. We shall not stop here to inquire, whether these individual
competitions and rewards are sound in principle, healthy in action,
or conducive to the true interests of Art and Science as applied to
industry, since, however, much experience may have led us to
conclusions by no means favourable to the practice, yet in France, at
least, custom may be pleaded for its observance, and there can be
little doubt that in the earlier progress of its periodical exposi-
tions the selection of a certain number of exhibitors as being
worthy of special recognition for extraordinary efforts, or the
display of great skill, had its uses. It is equally clear too, that
under more matured developments the abuses have been both
serious and numerous. To this point we shall recur in due course,
since the future success of these periodical displays must depend
very largely upon clear views of their ultimate action upon the
commerce and industry of nations, and their influence upon the
minds of those by whose skill, mechanical, artistic, and scientific,
the works exhibited are to be produced.
In the Exposition of 1849, France missed the opportunity of first
setting the example of an international comparison or competition
which could not have failed to have largely influenced the present
position of its numerous industries,—special and general. Proposed
by an enlightened policy, it was rejected by a short-sighted
exclusiveness, the error of which was afterwards but too obvious,
since from the Exhibition of All Nations of 1851 the most important
results are now acknowledged to have flowed. Thus to compensate
in some degree for the exclusiveness of 1849 in the matter of
industry, France is now thrown open to a world's competition
in the dearly cherished question of Art in its highest manifestations,
and adds to the Palace of Industry a Palace of the Fine Arts,
open alike to all comers. The efforts of the painter and the
sculptor, as evidences of progress in the higher departments of
human pursuits, promotion of intellectual instruction and pleasure,
are on this occasion so much the more broadly associated with
the industrial utilities of life, and the chain of human efforts in the
direction of creative power, becomes so much the more completely
illustrated.
After the example set so worthily by England in 1851, it would
have been as contrary to the genius of the French people as it
would have been inimical to the be3t interests of France, to have
continued the exclusive system which had characterised former expo-
sitions. With so little to fear in the way of competition in all those
specialities to which the industrial energies of her manufacturers
and citizens had been so long directed, it must have been evident
that by bringing examples of those products of human skill more
especially adapted to the immediate necessities of mankind ; but
■which in many instances, if not absolutely neglected by the French,
have received so little attention that the manufacture still remains
in a very primitive condition; and placing these in a prominent
manner before the people, immense service must result to the
commerce, if not to the manufactures of France. For it is
unreasonable to suppose that with so true a perception of the
fitness of things as usually characterises the French people, that
they could fail to see the value either of largely improving their
own methods of production in these every-day utilities, or at once
see that it would be for their interest that such economic arrange-
ments should be made in their future supply from those countries
best able to produce them, as should ensure their extended use for
the promotion of social comfort and industrial well-being of even
the humblest classes. Nor would the views of the statesman or the
political economist end here, since each would inevitably perceive
that the benefit would be a double one to France, inasmuch as in
all those things which her natural resources enable her to produce,
(and they are numerous enough to render the result a matter of
certainty,) she would command an extended and well-secured
market in other countries, instead of the limited and precarious
one which ever follows hostile or unreciprocative tariffs. Naturally
and industrially France has much to offer in the broad markets of
Europe, whilst commercially she has much to gain in opening her
own. In an artistic and scientific sense this has been long
acknowledged, and it required but the extended hand of a wiser
and truer policy, the first and most unequivocal symptom of which
is the Universal Exposition of 1855, to open, to an almost
incalculable extent, a field for her commerce, at once worthy of
her reputation, her position, and her influence among European
nations.
Since 1853, when the invitation to the industrial congress was
issued, England, the ancient rival of France in arms, in manu-
factures, and more recently even in arts, has become a firm and
powerful ally. The old and well defined national pride of two
powerful states has been converted from an individual and
antagonistic, into a dual and reciprocal direction in arms, whilst
the glory of the one has become the pride and the boast of the
other. In the peaceful arts, however, hostile tariffs still separate
the^ two peoples. Restrictive and prohibitive duties, originally