DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1312#0123
72 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
portance of the principles of reciprocal dealing, by which the peculiar advantages of one
community may be interchanged for those of another; finally, an enlarged field for
commerce and the infusion of a more liberal spirit into commercial transactions, by which
commerce will grow, and with it civilisation and peace be extended as the connecting bond
of the whole human family."
"We further cite the opinions of the press in the following article on
THE EXHIBITION AND ITS MANAGEMENT.
• " If the novelty of the undertaking occasioned the promoters of it to be altogether
unprepared for the vast success, in a pecuniary point of view, which has attended it, so
it may excuse them for many errors of omission and commission, by which the oppor-
tunities which such an undertaking might have afforded, have not been turned to the very
best account; and if we now proceed to review the management of the executive of the
Great Exhibition, it is simply by way of providing a lesson of experience for the regulation,
of future undertakings of the kind which may occur in this country or elsewhere.
Many of the sins of the executive may be traced to the simple fact of their want of
means in the outset, and their doubt as to the amount of means which the sympathy of the
public might place at their disposal. The project had to work its way into the favour and
into the pockets of the public, and that against a strong tide of prejudice and opposition.
And in this they had still a double task: they had to promise an alluring exhibition
to the sight-seeing publie, and they had, at the same time, to canvass the manufac-
turers and producers for contributions in aid of the general display j and we know that,
in very many instances, it was not till the very last moment that the local committees
succeeded in inducing proprietors of goods to send them in, and then it was very often
done as a personal favour to the energetic agent. In the midst of all this doubt and
struggle it was that Mr. Paxton's letter came out, which to all the world seemed very
like a tender of resignation of business on behalf of the whole body; and by many of the
Mrs. Candour and Backbiter families was exaggerated into an actual declaration of
bankruptcy. Added to this was the rumour that the building itself was not water-tight,
and could not possibly outlive the heavy rains at that time prevailing.
"In this critical position of affairs, the press, whose agents had been admitted to
the inside of the building, and who reported its actual condition, and its gradual furnish-
ing forth with goods of all sorts, from all parts of the world—the press, we say, came to
the rescue of the apparently devoted enterprise; and many British producers, who had
hitherto held aloof, found themselves forced or shamed into sending in contributions to
compete with those so abundantly transmitted by foreign rivals. One little month of
tolerably fine weather,—one little month of newspaper spoon-feeding, changed the whole
aspect of affairs. Season-tickets were eagerly bought; and when it was announced that
her£Majesty would give her solemn sanction to the great principle involved at bottom
in the project, and honour the "World's Industrial Congress by inaugurating its proceed-
ings in person, the public, as publics will, became worked up to the wildest pitch of
excitement—and filled with anxiety to obtain ingress within the walls of the Crystal
Palace, which now promised to be fashionable. And here the commissioners committed,
or meditated the commission of, two grave errors, one upon the other; though they
were fortunately prevented from carrying either into execution by the loud and unanimous
voice of public opinion, and the good sense and good feeling of the Queen and the Prince
Consort. The one was the proposal that her Majesty should inaugurate the greatest
public institution of modern history in private, attended only by the commissioners and
a retinue of beef-eaters and policemen in private! Let those who recollect the vast and
animated assemblage, which cheered and roared with ecstasy when the Queen of ' Merry
portance of the principles of reciprocal dealing, by which the peculiar advantages of one
community may be interchanged for those of another; finally, an enlarged field for
commerce and the infusion of a more liberal spirit into commercial transactions, by which
commerce will grow, and with it civilisation and peace be extended as the connecting bond
of the whole human family."
"We further cite the opinions of the press in the following article on
THE EXHIBITION AND ITS MANAGEMENT.
• " If the novelty of the undertaking occasioned the promoters of it to be altogether
unprepared for the vast success, in a pecuniary point of view, which has attended it, so
it may excuse them for many errors of omission and commission, by which the oppor-
tunities which such an undertaking might have afforded, have not been turned to the very
best account; and if we now proceed to review the management of the executive of the
Great Exhibition, it is simply by way of providing a lesson of experience for the regulation,
of future undertakings of the kind which may occur in this country or elsewhere.
Many of the sins of the executive may be traced to the simple fact of their want of
means in the outset, and their doubt as to the amount of means which the sympathy of the
public might place at their disposal. The project had to work its way into the favour and
into the pockets of the public, and that against a strong tide of prejudice and opposition.
And in this they had still a double task: they had to promise an alluring exhibition
to the sight-seeing publie, and they had, at the same time, to canvass the manufac-
turers and producers for contributions in aid of the general display j and we know that,
in very many instances, it was not till the very last moment that the local committees
succeeded in inducing proprietors of goods to send them in, and then it was very often
done as a personal favour to the energetic agent. In the midst of all this doubt and
struggle it was that Mr. Paxton's letter came out, which to all the world seemed very
like a tender of resignation of business on behalf of the whole body; and by many of the
Mrs. Candour and Backbiter families was exaggerated into an actual declaration of
bankruptcy. Added to this was the rumour that the building itself was not water-tight,
and could not possibly outlive the heavy rains at that time prevailing.
"In this critical position of affairs, the press, whose agents had been admitted to
the inside of the building, and who reported its actual condition, and its gradual furnish-
ing forth with goods of all sorts, from all parts of the world—the press, we say, came to
the rescue of the apparently devoted enterprise; and many British producers, who had
hitherto held aloof, found themselves forced or shamed into sending in contributions to
compete with those so abundantly transmitted by foreign rivals. One little month of
tolerably fine weather,—one little month of newspaper spoon-feeding, changed the whole
aspect of affairs. Season-tickets were eagerly bought; and when it was announced that
her£Majesty would give her solemn sanction to the great principle involved at bottom
in the project, and honour the "World's Industrial Congress by inaugurating its proceed-
ings in person, the public, as publics will, became worked up to the wildest pitch of
excitement—and filled with anxiety to obtain ingress within the walls of the Crystal
Palace, which now promised to be fashionable. And here the commissioners committed,
or meditated the commission of, two grave errors, one upon the other; though they
were fortunately prevented from carrying either into execution by the loud and unanimous
voice of public opinion, and the good sense and good feeling of the Queen and the Prince
Consort. The one was the proposal that her Majesty should inaugurate the greatest
public institution of modern history in private, attended only by the commissioners and
a retinue of beef-eaters and policemen in private! Let those who recollect the vast and
animated assemblage, which cheered and roared with ecstasy when the Queen of ' Merry