and ingenuity for the benefit of themselves and others, instead of being restrained by arbitrary restrictions and customs which confined them and their posterity, to one round of business from which no deviation could be made.

I have not attempted a critical comparison between the industrial products shown, which would illustrate, very satisfactorily, the capabilities of the respective countries, as developed in the Exhibition. It is very desirable that this should be done by some one qualified for the work, and who devoted himself specially to it. Should this be performed with care, and the results given to the world, it will, doubtlessly prove one of the most practically useful lessons which can be drawn from this collection of the products of the world.

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There are lessons, however, to be drawn from this Exhibition which will prove highly useful and important to the United States. In all that relates to the first principles of design, in the various branches of arts and manufactures, we are very deficient as compared with many› of the Continental Nations-and this remark also applies to Great Britain, to a very considerable extent. The great superiority of several of the Continental Nations, and of India, was most obvious to every careful observer. In some of the nations, schools of design have long been in existence, and the beauty of their designs in various manufactures and fabrics, was most striking as compared with others. The Indian Department also furnished: specimens of art certainly equal, if not superior, to any thing on exhibition. That an improvement will be most favorably developed in the manufactures of England, as well as in this country, I think cannot be questioned. Evidence of this has already appeared in England, since the close of the Exhibition, as the following notice of the selections made from the Exhibition for the Government School of Design will show.

It is said, "The Indian display has, as might have been expected, contributed most largely to this collection. The best eastern skill in muslins and other textile fabrics, has been secured for the instruction of our designers. Specimens of metallic inlayings,

enamels and earthen ware have been purchased to teach gracefulness of form and harmonious arrangement of colors. The objects selected from India, promise to exercise a most favorable influence upon our industry, in a large number of departments. Next to India, selections have been made chiefly from France-enamelling from Sevres for the instruction of our potters-and textile fabrics from Tunis and Turkey, and ornamental hardware from Belgium.”

I shall be greatly disappointed if many of our citizens who were there, interested in the manufacturing establishments of this country, have not availed themselves liberally of articles exhibited, which will enable them to give new beauty and finish to their fabrics, and successfully, to compete, eventually, with the manufactures of any other nation.

In all that pertains more especially to the domestic and industrial pursuits, in which the great masses of every nation are interested; lessons will be taught through the exhibition, to the nations on the Continent and the Eastern world, that will eventually, though probably not as rapidly as in the former case, advance these nations who are evidently greatly deficient, and whose citizens at the Exhibition, for the first time probably, were made fully conscious of the extent of their deficiency. The exhibitions from Great Britain and the United States will prove most instructive to these nations; and the large orders which were given for articles for these various countries, showed that they were appreciated, and that an effort would be made to introduce them into practical use where heretofore they were entirely unknown. The representatives from the agricultural society in Normandy, one of the best cultivated portions of France, selected ten varieties of plows from those on exhibition by Starbuck, of Troy, and they assured me that they anticipated more advantage to their district of country from the introduction of these implements than from any other cause connected with the Exhibition. The same may be said of Switzerland, where our implements were taken, as well as various other portions of the Continent. This is rendered more probable, as the demand for our implements from various portions of Europe, has very largely increased since the close of the exhibition.

The exhibition has very favorably demonstrated, that our Institutions are admirably adapted to the development of the talent and ingenuity of our citizens, and the testimony given by a leading Journal in England, is appropriate, in elucidating this fact.

The writer, in speaking of the contributions from the United States, at a late day of the Exhibition, after dwelling at length upon the very different character of the contributions from the continent, and from England says: "Their industrial system, unfettered by ancient usage, and by the pomp and magnificence which our social institutions countenance is essentially democratic in its tendencies. They produce for the masses, and for a wholesale consumption. There is hardly anything shown by them, which is not easily within the reach of the most moderate fortune. No Government favoritism raises any branch of manufactures to a pre-eminence which secures for it the patronage of the wealthy. Everything is intrusted to the ingenuity of individuals, who look for their reward to public demand alone. With an immense command of raw produce, they do not, like many other countries, skip over the wants of the many, and rush to supply the luxuries of the few. On the contrary, they have turned their attention eagerly and successfully to machinery, as the first stage in their industrial progress. They seek to supply the short comings of their labor market, and to combine utility with cheapness.

The most ordinary commodities are not beneath their notice, and even nursery chairs are included in their collection of "notions." They have beaten us in Yacht building, they pick our best locks, they show us how to reap corn by machinery, and to make Brussels carpets by the power loom. Our coopers will hear with dismay, and our brewers with satisfaction, that by an invention of theirs recently introduced into the Exhibition, one man can do the work of twenty in stave-making, and far more efficiently. Such triumphs do not much affect the mechanical superiority of the mother country, but they serve to show, that while on the one side nations less free and enlightened than ours,

teach us how to throw a luster and grace over the peaceful arts; our own children are now and then able to point out how we can improve and extend them."

I have given these remarks, because they were drawn out by the results of the trial of our implements, which led to a more candid and thorough examination of all we had on exhibition, and elicited this tribute to American Institutions, and the enterprize of our citizens; and it is also the more readily given, as it was the very conclusion, which at an early day in the Exhibition, was presented to a distinguished Journalist, as the one to which he would be constrained to come, when an opportunity was afforded us, of practically demonstrating the value of our implements, which were then untried. It is important also, as showing the great change which had taken place in the public mind in regard to the American quarter, which instead of being the "Prairie Ground," as in derision called, became the observed of all observers.

As a further evidence of the practical character and adaptation of many of our articles to the wants of the age, I give another extract from the same journal, in an article giving an account of the progress made by the British and Americans through the trials of the season. After alluding to the British portion of the contributions, it is remarked of the American, "On the other hand, it is beyond all denial, that every practical success of the season belongs to the Americans. Their consignments showed poorly, at first, but came out well upon trial. Their reaping machine has carried conviction to the heart of the British Agriculturist. Their revolvers threaten to revolutionize military tactics, as completely as the original discovery of gunpowder. Their Yacht takes a class to itself. Of all the victories ever won, none has been so transcendant as that of the New-York Schooner. The account given of her performance, suggests the inapproachable excellence attributed to JUPITER, by the ancient poets, who describe the King of the Gods as being not only supreme, but having none other next to him. 'What's first?

The America.' What's second? Nothing.' Besides this,

the Baltic, one of COLLINS' line of steamers, has made the fastest passage yet known, across the Atlantic,' and, according to the American journals, has been purchased by British agents for the purpose of towing the Cunard vessels from one shore of the ocean to the other.' Finally, as if to crown the triumphs of the year, Americans have actually sailed through the Isthmus, connecting the two continents of the New World, and while Englishmen have been doubting and grudging, Yankees have stepped in and won the day. So we think, on the whole, that we may afford to shake hands and exchange congratulations, after which we must learn as much as we can from each other." In concluding another article on the Exhibition, it is said, "Great Britain has received more useful ideas and more ingenious inventions from the United States, through the exhibition, than from all other sources."

I have given these extracts in preference to any remarks of my own, on the general success of our contributions at this Great Exhibition. They show, most conclusively, what were the opinions of those competent to judge, as it regarded that class of our articles which every American at the Exhibition, familiar with them and our country, claimed as illustrative of our improvements, and as showing the advances which had been made-and this testimony is the more valuable, as given by those who had, at an early day, committed themselves by their published opinions of the meagerness of our Exhibition, and the inferiority of our articles. With a manliness, however, which I found every where among intelligent gentlemen in England, when the trial demonstrated the value of our articles, the amende was made in the fullest and most gratifying manner.

I am fully sensible that, as a country, we have much to learn in every direction, and this has been, to my mind, most clearly shown in the Exhibition; and I shall be greatly mistaken in my countrymen if they do not largely profit by the lessons which this great Exhibition has taught them. Not an intelligent American who visited L.-1852.