R E P O R T

OF

VISCOUNT CANNING,

President of the Council qf Chairmen of Juries,

OX PRESENTING THE AWARDS OF THE JURIES TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION.

Having had the honour of acting as President of theCouncil of Chairmen of the Juries, it falls to me to laybefore your Royal Highness and ller Majesty's Com-missioners the Reports of several Juries upon the subjectssubmitted to them for examination, and the names of theexhibitors whom they have judged entitled to rewards.

In doing so, it will be convenient that I should statebriefly the Principle upon which, by the authority of HerMajesty’s Commissioners, the Juries were constituted.

The various Subjects included in the Exhibition weredivided, in the first instance, into Thirty Classes. Ofthese, two were subsequently fouud to embrace fields ofaction too large for single Juries, and were thereforedivided into Sub-Juries. This increased the number ofActing Juries to Thirty-four.

Each of these Thirty-four Juries consisted of an equalnumber of British subjects and of Foreigners. The BritishJurors were selected by Her Majesty’s Commissioners fromlists furnished by the Local Committees of various towns,each town being invited to recommend persons of skilland information iu the manufactures or produce for whichit is remarkable. The Foreign Jurors were appointedby authorities in their own countries, in such relativeproportion amongst themselves as was agreed upon bythe Foreign Commissioners sent here to represent theirrespective Governments.

In the event of a Jury finding themselves deficient intechnical knowledge of any article submitted to them,they were empowered to call in the aid of Associates.These Associates, who acted as advisers only, without avote, but whose services were of the greatest value, wereselected either from the Jurymen of other classes, or fromtHe lists of persons who had been recommended as Jurorsbut who had not been permanently appointed to anyJury.

Each Jury was superintended by a Chairman, chosenfrom its number by Her Majesty’s Commissioners. TheDeputy-Chairman and the Reporter were elected by theJurors themselves.

Such was the constitution of the Thirty-four Juriestaken singly. They did not, however, act independentlyof each other, inasmuch as they were associated into sixGroups, each Group consisting of such Juries as had todeal with subjects in some degree of kindred nature; andbefore any decision of a Jury could be considered as final,it was required that it should be brought before theassembled Group of which that Jury formed a part, andthat it should be approved by them.

The chief object of this provision was, that none of thei many Foreign Nations taking part in the Exhibition

should incur the risk of seeing its interests overlooked orneglected from the accident (an unavoidable one in manyinstances) of its being unrepresented in any particularJury.

Each Group of Juries received the assistance of aDeputy Commissioner and of a Special Commissioner,appointed by Her Majesty’s Commissioners to record itsproceedings, to furnish information respecting the arrange-ments of the Exhibition, and otherwise to facilitate thelabours of the Juries composing the Group.

It was further determined by Her Majesty’s Commis-sioners that the Chairmen of the Juries, consisting ofBritish subjects and of Foreigners in equal numbers, shouldbe formed into a Council; and that the duties of theCouncil should be, to determine the conditions uponwhich, in accordance with certain general principlespreviously laid down by Her Majesty's Commissioners,the different Prizes should be awarded ; to frame rules toguide the working of the Juries; and to secure, as far aspossible, uniformity in the result of their proceedings.

These are the most important features of the systemupon which the Juries found themselves organized. Iwill now refer briefly to their course of action.

The Council of Chairmen , in proceeding to the dischargeof their duties, were met at the outset by a seriousdifficulty. Her Majesty’s Commissioners had expressedthemselves desirous that merit should be rewarded wher-ever it presented itself, but anxious at the same time toavoid the recognition of competition between individualExhibitors. They had also decided that the Prizes shouldconsist of three Medals in different sizes; and that theseshould be awarded, not as first, second, and third in degreefor the same class of subjects and merit, but as markingmerit of different kinds and character.

The Council of Chairmen found, to their regret, that itwould he impossible to lay down any rules for the awardingof the three Medals by which the appearance at least ofdenoting different degrees of success amongst exhibitorsin the same branch of production could be avoided,Accordingly, after fully explaining their difficult}* toHer Majesty’s Commissioners, they requested, as a courseby which it might be materially diminished, that one ofthe Medals might be withdrawn.

Of the remaining two, they suggested that one, thePrize Medal, should be conferred wherever a certainstandard of excellence in production or workmanship hadbeen attained—utility, beauty, cheapness, adaptation toparticular markets, and other elements of merit beingtaken into consideration according to the nature of theobject; and they recommended that this Medal should he

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