“I cordially concur with you in the prayer, that by God’s blessing this undertaking may conduce to the welfare of my people, and to the common interests of the human race, by encouraging the arts of peace and industry, strengthening the bonds of union among the nations of the earth, and promoting a friendly and honourable rivalry in the useful exercise of those faculties which have been conferred by a beneficent Providence for the good and the happiness of mankind.”

But we must draw to a close. There were many other incidents on which we could willingly linger, as illustrative of the views we had always indulged of the character and tendencies of the great experiment. The union in one edifice of such an unprecedented number of human beings, was itself a most imposing and magnificent spectacle. The Queen appeared to feel this. As she stood in a position to command a view of the vast spaces of the building, all of which were densely filled, she seemed impressed with a sense of awe at the sublime spectacle, and could not help, even during the reading of the address of the Commissioners, partially withdrawing her attention from them, to steal a glance at “the splendid spectacle by which she was surrounded.” That spectacle, however, partook of the tender, the beautiful, and the domestic even, as well as the sublime. Into it, the Queen and her illustrious Consort came, each leading by the hand one of their children! Up and down, through and amongst that mass of people, they moved together in the same manner. Pomp and state were in some degree laid aside, and the sovereign, for the time, seemed to have become one with the people. She was received with affection, as well as loyalty; and appeared to enjoy and to acknowledge her reception, not so much as a crowned Queen, as a happy woman, an elated wife, and a loving mother! It must have been the most wonderful hour in the whole life of Prince Albert,—that hour of the opening of the Exhibition!—intense must have been the feelings with which he looked on the realization of his great idea; the end of so much anxiety; the commencement of the harvest of so much hope! Everything was propitious. The sun in the heavens shone down upon the scene with unwonted brightness, as if He who “sits in the centre” thereof, approved the undertaking and blessed it from on high. There was not an accident of any sort,—nothing for one moment to excite alarm, to produce panic, or occasion apprehension in the mind of the assembly. In spite of the tens of thousands that filled it, in no part of the edifice was there crack or strain, the indication of weakness, or any sign of insecurity. The outdoor crowds, instead of being disposed to rudeness or riot, or capable of being excited to tumult and rebellion (!), would seem to have been more than usually pacific; a sort of restraint appears to have been upon the worst even of those who congregate on such occasions; for, on the following day, there were no cases of either quarrels or robberies such as ordinarily attend state pageants and civic processions. The royal Patrons of peace and industry retired from the scene in which they had developed a new phase of royalty, and read a new lesson to kings, amid the benedictions and prayers of the multitude with whom they had met and mingled. They could not but retire happy and glad; grateful to God for what they had witnessed, and what they had done; and, in the fulness of their emotions of devout thankfulness, like David, perhaps, “returned home to bless their household.” As it is not likely that anything will occasion a greater gathering of the populace in the parks, in connexion with the Exhibition, and as the ceremony of the opening has given such a glow of cheerfulness and confidence to the public mind, it is to be hoped that the many prophecies and prognostications of evil, which some have indulged in, will now cease, and that all will unite, by cordial sympathy with the great object, and fervent prayer to Almighty God, to seek the realization of those peaceful, patriotic, and world-wide results, which many of the wise and good hope that “the Great Exhibition” may be an instrument in the hand of Providence to secure, and which as Englishmen, Christians, and lovers of our kind, we ought all constantly and earnestly to pursue. In this way, every devout man may help to hasten that anticipated FUTURE, some of the general characteristics of which we have endeavoured to deduce from the Scriptural motto on the books of the Exhibition. Of that period a pregnant and impressive type was presented in the opening ceremonial, when, in the bearing of all the nations of the earth, representatively present in the spacious edifice, there rose up,—to the praise and glory of that God, “whose is the earth and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein,” and to whom we are indebted not only for “all the blessings of this life,” but for “the means of grace, and the hope of glory,”—the grand, solemn, prophetic song,—

“Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.

King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah!”

With the following stanzas, descriptive of the different parts of the scene thus reviewed, we here close our pleasant labour:

THE GATHERING OF THE NATIONS.

“A peaceful place it was but now,

And lo! within its shining streets

A multitude of nations meets: