EXHIBITION OF 1851.

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under which they at present exist as a corporate body. Having thus obtained a legalstatus, they found themselves in a position to enter into the necessary contract forthe erection of the Building, and were also enabled to procure from the Bank ofEngland an advance of such sums as they required on the personal guarantee ofcertain individual members of the Commission, and other well-wishers to the under-taking. The sums so advanced from time to time by the Bank of England ,amounting in the whole to £32,500, were repaid, with interest, on the 22nd ofMay last, out of the receipts at the doors, after the Exhibition had been open forthree weeks.

In the Charter thus granted, however, no provision was inserted to meet the caseof a surplus remaining after the expenses should have been defrayed, and accord-ingly when, at the close of the Exhibition, it was ascertained that the money in thehands of the Commissioners exceeded their liabilities by a very considerable amount,they found themselves under the necessity of bringing the circumstances of the caseunder the notice of Her Majesty, and of representing to Her that they had not, asthen constituted, authority to decide upon the disposal of their surplus funds. Inconsequence of this representation, Her Majesty has been graciously pleased, by aSupplemental Charter bearing date December 2nd, 1851, to authorize the Commis-sioners to prepare a scheme for the application of the surplus, in accordance withthe expectations which were held out to the subscribers at the time their aid wassolicited, and to lay the same before .Her Majesty. The Commissioners havetherefore proceeded to the preparation of such a scheme, by the appointment of aCommittee of their own body, which is now engaged in making the necessaryinquiries, and they hope shortly to be in a position to submit a plan for HerMajesty’s approbation.

Having thus briefly traced the history of the several changes which have takenplace in their position from the time of their first appointment as a Commission ofInquiry, the Commissioners will now proceed to state generally the nature of thearrangements they adopted for the transaction of their business; they will then givea summary of their proceedings, in fixing the extent of the Exhibition, providing aBuilding, and arranging and opening it to the public,—adverting also to some ofthe most important of the questions which they had to decide in the course of theundertaking; and will afterwards endeavour to lay before Her Majesty, in a conciseform, such accounts of the number and character of the articles exhibited, the prizesdistributed, the number of visitors to the Exhibition, and other particulars, as maygive a fair view of the results of the undertaking.

Arrangements for the Transaction of Business.

The Commissioners.

The general business of the Commission has been transacted at meetings (c x "ceeding fifty in number) held at first in the Palace of Westminster , and afterwardsin the Exhibition Building in Hyde Park, of which Meetings full Minutes havebeen preserved.