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THE

CONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDING.

Had circumstances determined that the present industrial position of England The presentshould have been represented by the building alone, while other nations should tEn ofiLfiandhave been allowed to indicate the scope of their resources by a display of choice building, m wellspecimens of all the varied branches of productions to which their efforts had of characteristics oflate years been directed, it is singular to remark how few elements, essential to erc ' uens ’her commercial success, would have been lost sight of. The courage of her both personalcitizens would have been manifested in the vastness of the scheme, their energy,determination, and strength, in the surprising rapidity with which every operationhad been carried on.

The happy condition of the liberty of the subject would have been attested a mi social,by the circumstance of its having been in the power of the people alone to willthe existence of so vast a structure; while the fact that the whole expenses hadbeen provided for without in any way trenching on the national resources,would have evidenced at once the wealth and the spirit of enterprise common toevery class of society.

That it should have been possible in any country to have so speedily collected Evidence given bysuch a vast quantity of materials, without previously sounding the note of prepara- extent of nationaltion, would have furnished strong evidence of the abundance of its native resources, production ofand conveyed some faint idea of the extent of the stores of raw material keptever ready to supply the exigencies of sudden demand. That that raw materialshould have been moulded into forms so various, so complex, and so original, inso short a time, would argue that such a result could alone have been effectedby the natives of a country in which a knowledge of the principles and practiceof mechanics and machinery had been long deeply studied and widely diffused. Machinery,

The facility with which the machinery employed must have been brought tobear upon the masses of raw material supplied, would have evidenced a power toproduce, and to elaborate matter into manufacture, of the very highest order; Manufactures,while the grace with which the charm of decoration has been superadded, to soutilitarian a structure, would have served to show, that mindful as the English habitually are, of the practical and economical, they are by no means indifferent a„d objects ofto the beautiful in the Fine Arts. Fine ^ rls '

Whoever had been enabled to trace through every stage the progress of the organization ofExhibition Building, from the first order given by the contractor, to the issue of operation in sup-the final directions for its opening, would have had an opportunity of realising the p y ’ tvelopedperfection to which the practice of connecting commercial co-operation in supply,