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It now only remains for mo, in laying the result of our labours respectfully boforo yourRoyal Highness and ller Majesty’s Commissioners, to offer, on behalf of my Colleagues andmyself, our grateful acknowledgment of tho honourable confidence which you have placed inus ; and to express the hope that wo shall bo found to have fulfilled our trust in a mannerworthy of tho noble undertaking in which wo are proud to have boon called upon to bear a part.
Answer of His Royal Highness Prince Albert to Lord Canning ’s Report, &e.My Loud,
Tub Royal Commissioners are much indebted to your Lordship, and to tho distinguishedgentlemen of this and other nations, who have acted on tho Juries entrusted with tho awardof tho Prizes in tho recont Exhibition, for the zeal with which they have undertaken, and thoability with which they liavo fulfilled, tho task which has been allotted to them. Tho Com-missioners are sensible that tho services of those gentlemen havo in many instances beenrendered at great inconvenience to themselves, and at tho sacrifice of very valuable time, andof important avocations. It is with pride and pleasure, that thoy havo noticed in the list ofthose who havo performed this sorvico to tho Exhibition, tho names of men of every nation, oftho most exalted rank, and of tho most eminent reputations in statesmanship, in science, inliterature, in manufactures, in commerce, and in tho lino arts ; of men in ovory respect wellcalculated not only to form a correct technical judgment upon tho merits of tho articles sub-mitted to their inspection, but also to maintain the high character which tho Commissionershave uniformly striven to impart to tho Exhibition.
In no department of the vast undertaking, which has just been brought to a happy close,were greater difficulties to liavo been apprehended than in that in which your Lordship andyour eminent colleagues have given your assistance. On this, tho flint occasion on which thoproductions of tho different nations of tho globe havo ever been brought together for tho pur-pose of comparing their several merits, not only were prejudices and jealousies to havo beenexpected to interfere with tho decisions, but tho nature of the case presented many difficultiesof a formidable character, to tho formation of a judgment which should appear satisfactory toall. The names of tho Jurors, indeed, when once made known, were of themselves a sufficientguarantee for that impartiality which was essential to tho fulfilment of their task ; and, fromall that has come to the knowledge of tho Royal Commissioners during tho progress of theirlabours, they are fully satisfied that every award has been made with tho most careful con-sideration, after tho most ample and laborious investigation, and upon grounds most strictlyhonourable, just, and candid.
Rut although tho high character of tho Jurors would have fully justified the Commissionersin entrusting thorn with tho award of tho l’rizos without fettering their discretion with anyinstructions whatever, had nothing more than an impartial decision been required, there woredifficulties of a vory peculiar naturo inherent to tho task, which seemed to render necessarythe adoption of some regulations that might, at first sight, appear to have been somewhatarbitrary in their character. The differences in tho wants of various nations having noees-’surily impressed their several manufactures with different characteristics, it would seem to boalmost impossible for those who havo been in tho habit of judging tho productions of theirown country by one standard, to enter fully into merits which can only bo properly appreciatedby another standard, since the very points which in the one case appear to be excellences,may in tho other, not unnaturally, bo taken as defects. This consideration, and a knowledgeof tho ovils which wore to be apprehended from any accidentally erroneous decision, in amatter so intimately connected with tho commercial interests of every nation, induced thoRoyal Commissioners to lay down, for tho guidance of tho Juries, those principles to whichyour Lordship has referred.
It would, porliaps, havo been more interesting to tho public, had tho Commissioners in-structed tho Juries to follow the practice which lias usually prevailed in tho Exhibitions ofindividual nations, ami to grant Medals of different degrees, to mark tho gradations of excel-lence among tho Exhibitors ; but tlioy feel that thoy havo adopted the safer course, and thatwhich was upon tho whole most in accordance with tho feelings of tho majority of the Exhi-bitors, in directing that no distinction should be made between their merits if their pro-ductions camo up to tho standard requisite to entitle them to a l’rize, but that all should,without exception, take tho same rank and receive the same Medal.
Tho Commissioners, however, considered it right to place at tho disposal of tho Council ofChairmen a peculiar or “Council” Medal in tho cases to which your Lordship has referred.Important discoveries in many branches of science and of manufactures havo in this Exhibitionbeen brought under tho notice of tho public ; and it seems just that those who havo renderedservices of this kind to tho world, should receive a special mark of acknowledgment on anoccasion which has rendered so conspicuous tho advantages which tho many havo derivedfrom tho discoveries of the few.
The grant of tho Council Medal for beauty of design, and for excellence in tho fine arts, asmanufactures, though made upon a somewhat different principle, is also compatiblewith tho views of tho Commissioners, since in the oases in which it has been given, it does notmark any greater comparative excellence of manufacture, or assign to one producer a higher