The contractors for the greater part of the work were Messrs. Kelk and Lucas, and it could not have been in abler hands. But for the eastern dome the contract was taken by the Thames Iron Company. This dome was begun long before that on the western side; but a "generous rivalry" sprang up between the builders, which resulted in something like a neck-and-neck race between them at last. The work was commenced in the latter part of 1861, and the contractors were bound to deliver the shell of the building, complete, to the Royal Commissioners on the 12th of February, 1862. The contract was kept, and the building handed over on the 12th of February. Applications for space from exhibitors were then invited, and the fitting up of the courts and galleries was proceeded with; but with such numerous and varied interests to adjust, the commissioners could not ensure the same rapid progress as that made in the erection of the building; and a large part of the edifice was still in confusion, heaped up with packing-cases and litter, when the Exhibition was opened on the 1st of May. Thirty thousand persons witnessed the spectacle. The procession of the Queen's Commissioners for opening the Exhibition was formed at Buckingham Palace, and proceeded, fortunately under a bright and sunny sky, to the entrance of the building in Cromwell Road. As was to be expected, neither the Queen nor any of her children was present; but the Royal Family was ably represented by the Duke of Cambridge, supported by the Crown Prince of Prussia, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other august personages. The Lord Mayor of London lent his historical presence to the ceremonial, coming in great state, with a suite of aldermen, common-councilmen, and City officers, in seventy carriages.
The Exhibition was like an enormous bazaar, containing everything that the fancy and the invention of all countries had at any time taxed themselves to produce for the use and the enjoyment of men. According to the ground-plan of the Exhibition building, there was an immense area, in the angle between the southern transept and the nave, reserved for the French department; and a curious circumstance occurred in connection with this, which, when one thinks of the later relations between France and Prussia, is not without interest. The French asked and obtained permission to enclose their court, and they accordingly erected high wooden partitions all round it, greatly to the disgust of Prussia, exhibiting in a more limited space west of the south transept. The French were appealed to to reduce the height of their partitions; but the representatives of "la grande nation" would not recede an inch: they agreed with their Emperor that "when France is satisfied, the world is at rest," at any rate, ought to be; and as the partitions perfectly answered the purpose of the French exhibitors, why should they put themselves out of the way for the sake of the semi-barbarous peoples beyond the Rhine?
A few words now as to the magnificent collection of pictures. England had an advantage here over foreign countries; for, whereas it was allowable to exhibit any English picture painted within the century previous to the opening of the Exhibition—and, in fact, the best part of the collection did date from the last century—the foreign collection included, with but trifling exceptions, none but works by living artists. Six thousand works of art, exclusive of sculpture, were displayed in these galleries. Such a gathering of the masterpieces of our best artists—Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Hogarth—was never seen before. The Pre-Raphaelite school, and all the more eminent living or recently deceased artists, with the exception of J. M. W. Turner, were well represented. The productions of the British colonies occupied a considerable area near the eastern dome, and were exceedingly interesting, especially those from Australia and New Zealand, in the curiosities from which there was a large native element that gave a piquant and peculiar character to the display. The Exhibition was closed on the 1st of November, having been open for the period of six months. Yet vast as were the multitudes that daily thronged it, the concourse of visitors did not quite come up to the number in 1851. The total number was found to have been 6,117,450, about 50,000 under the gross number of visitors to the Exhibition of 1851.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The year 1863, on which this history now enters, was one which, so far as England was concerned, was unmarked by political agitation and unclouded by the anxieties of war. There was much distress in Lancashire, owing to the entire or partial stoppage of innumerable looms, till now dependent on American cotton. The world was hunted through by the agents of the great cotton industry, in order to find out new sources of supply, or, by introducing or fostering cotton culture in various suitable localities, to secure at least an increased supply in the future. In India, every road leading down the Western Ghauts was traversed by an unwonted string of country carts, conveying the precious commodity to some port of shipment; still, notwithstanding all that could be done, the supply of cotton remained exceedingly limited, and much of what came was of a very inferior quality. A general subscription, set on foot towards the end of 1862, produced in the first month of 1863 the sum of £750,000 for the relief of the distress, and in April £2,735,000. It was observed that the general trade and industry of the country continued to prosper, notwithstanding the collapse of this one branch of it. Especially in every branch of the hardware trade, particularly in the sale of arms and munitions of war, immense quantities of which were made in Great Britain to the order of both belligerents, an activity was apparent exceeding all former experience. The basis upon which, under the régime of Free Trade, the industry of this country reposed, was proved by this experience to be far broader and more solid than the most destructive storm, so long as it affected only one portion of the field, could seriously impair.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES (1863).
FROM THE PAINTING BY G. H. THOMAS IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION