xxii

EXHIBITION OF 1851.

tion is required by the Commission, the Executive Committee aro requested to direct theirimmediate attention to this subject.

“ The Commission will enter into communication with the Royal Agricultural Societies in thethroe parts of the United Kingdom , for tho purposo of inviting tlioir co-operation, and theirassistance in determining whether it bo advisable that so far as agriculture is concerned, LocalCommittees should bo appointed, and on what principle they should be formed.

“ But there are districts and occupations connected, for instance, with mining interests,and with great branches of manufacture not carried on in municipal towns, which might boadvantageously included within tho objects of tho Commission ; and the Executive Committeeis to be requested to consider in what mode their co-operation can be secured, and throughwhat channel tho requisite preliminary communication can best bo made.”

A Committee having shortly afterwards been appointed by the Commissionersfor organizing the collection of subscriptions, several gentlemen were selected bythis Committee to visit the more important provincial towns, and partly throughthe exertions of these gentlemen, partly by means of the correspondence of theExecutive Committee, and partly by the aid of the public newspapers, the necessaryinformation as to the nature of the Exhibition was widely diffused, and Local Com-mittees were ultimately appointed in 297 towns and districts, a list of which, with thenames of their respective Chairmen, Secretaries, and Treasurers, is given in AppendixNo. XL., to which reference will again be made. From the several scientific andcither societies also, to which appeals were addressed, the Commissioners receivedready promises of support, and they must here more particularly record their obligetions to the Royal Agricultural Society, which at a very early period of the Com-missioners’ proceedings adopted a resolution to abandon its usual show of agriculturalimplements for the year 1851, so as to enable the Commissioners fully to developcone of the most interesting portions of the general Exhibition. The gentlemenwho had for several years been in the habit of superintending these annual showson the part of the Royal Agricultural Society were also kind enough to give theirvaluable services in this department to the Commissioners, and were subsequentlyappointed to act as the English portion of the Jury for awarding the prizes in thisdepartment.

Power having been given to the Commissioners by the original warrant for then'appointment to nominate Local Commissioners in any cases where it might appeal'to be advisable, they consulted the Local Committees upon the subject at an earlyperiod, and wherever it appeared to them desirable, with a view to the interests ofthe district, that Local Commissioners should be nominated to represent it, theCommissioners appointed them accordingly. The Local Commissioners subsequentlyafforded great assistance to the Commissioners by conferring with them on tojiics oflocal importance, as well as by representing the feelings of different parts of thecountry on some questions of a general character. A list of the gentlemen whoacted in this capacity will be found in Appendix No. I.

It being in a short time found to be very desirable that a system of personalcommunication should be established between the Royal Commissioners and theLocal Committees, with a view to insuring general uniformity of action throughoutthe kingdom, and to abridging the delays involved in a bulky correspondence, two