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was formed. One great guarantee of this was the support of Prince Albert, who had never been known to lend himself to any mean or party purpose. He believed that the result of such an exhibition would be a better feeling between master and man, the employer and employed, the capitalist and the labourer. It was intended that every man of work should feel that he had a real interest in the scheme, whether he followed at the plough, worked at the loom, or whatever else his occupation might be. Let them carry their minds back to the Ancient Briton and consider how he dressed himself in skins, how he painted his body, how he ate his food, and how he hid himself in caves. Then let them consider the descendants of that man — how they learnt to build themselves commodious dwellings; how they took the paint off their bodies and put it on their clothes; how they carefully dressed their food, etc. Let them make this comparison, and they would own that the contrast was great indeed between the Briton in the days of Julius Caesar and the stout, well clad yeoman of the reign of Queen Victoria. Only some few years ago 12 miles an hour was considered to be rapid travelling, but now the railway carried us fifty. In the reign of Elizabeth, notes were dispatched under the wing of a pigeon, but in these later days we had the electric telegraph, which wingged (sic) a message round the world in a few minutes. Some of these were made to print, while it was asserted that others were carried to such a pitch of perfection that a tune played at one end of the wire could be heard at the other end [Laughter]. One great benefit expected from the Exhibition was the comparison of ideas. A man would hear and see what he never dreamt of before, and would thus derive valuable information. Improvements would follow this interchange of ideas, and would make themselves felt in all that ministered to the comfort and adornment of human life. As an instance of this he would mention the French exhibitions, commencing in 1798. In 1844, a distinguished person, addressing the king of the French on the great progress which had been made in the arts and Sciences since those exhibitions commenced, dilated upon the distillation of salt water, the perfection of iron-casting, the improvements in the modes of warming and ventilating, the researches of metallurgy and chemistry, the manufacture of dyes and pigments, the increase of national resources, the production of sugar, silk and flax, and the amazing advance in the manufacture of those machines by which other machines were made, and by which the stubborn metal was subjugated to the use of man. Now, if such were the results of the French exhibitions in 1844, what might we not expect from an exhibition in 1851, open to all the world? In their general aspect such exhibitions were highly conducive to the encouragement of industry, thereby adding one more check to the progress of crime, and putting to flight that mother -