Brompton in 1862, the Dublin Exhibition in
1865, and the Paris Exhibition in 1867—
the last being the greatest ever held in any
country, both in the vastness of the building
and the number and value of the articles
exhibited. Next came the Amsterdam
International Exhibition of 1869, small
compared with the others, but creditable to a
country having so limited an area as
Holland. And now, if present promises are
to be followed by due fulfilment, we are
to have a series of annual international
exhibitions in a new building at South
Kensington, the first to take place in 1871;
each collection to be international in
character, all foreign and colonial countries
being invited to take part in it; but each
to be limited in range, by selecting some
only among the various branches of
industry to be illustrated.

To France seems to be due the credit of
having been the first to introduce industrial
exhibitions on any considerable scale,
relating either to one particular country, or
to one city or district in that country. The
first was held at Paris in 1798, just when
France was changing from Jacobinism to
Napoleonism: it consisted chiefly of articles
of art manufacture, borrowed for the occasion
from wealthy owners, and not contributed
by manufacturers. Another was held
in 1802; and for the next half-century
such exhibitions were held at intervals of
three years, except during certain periods
of political interruption. By this means
the French, and the Parisians especially,
became accustomed to the sight of objects of
art manufacture, which (there can be little
doubt) has contributed towards the
cultivation of artistic taste among manufacturers
and workmen. In England the industrial
exhibitions (setting aside those of
an international character already adverted
to) have been of two kinds; they have
related either to some particular town or
district, or to some particular trade or
branch of manufacture; indeed, some of
them have been limited to one district and
to one trade. The Cornish Polytechnic
Society for a long period held annual
exhibitions of everything relating to the mining
of copper and tin, specimens of the ores
and products, and models and drawings of
the machinery. Manchester has held more
than one exhibition of cotton and
machinery, Leeds of cloth and flax, Birmingham
of metal goods and trinkets, Dublin of
poplins and other Irish produce, Liverpool
of articles of commerce, and so on. Cork
had its local exhibition in 1852; and,
indeed, most of the chief towns in the kingdom
have done something in this way. Some
of the towns of Holland, France, Belgium,
Italy, and other foreign countries have, in a
similar way, had their local exhibitions of
industry once, if not more frequently.
One of the best of its kind was the Havre
Maritime Exhibition of 1868, where
everything relating to the sea and the river,
the boat and the ship, the fish and the
fish-nursery, the aquarium and the marine
plant, the sailor and the fisherman, the
net and the hook, was very pleasantly
illustrated. And another (although our
distance from it shut us out from much
knowledge of it) was the recent Moscow
Exhibition, peculiarly national or
ethnographical in a Slavonic sense.

The workmen, the journeymen, the
operatives, the mechanics, the artisans (call
them which we may), receiving weekly
wages for their weekly labour, had scarcely
anything to do with the organisation of the
several exhibitions above noticed. If not
set on foot, supported, and managed by
governments, these industrial displays were
commenced by town councils or
municipalities; if not by them, then by the leading
manufacturers of a particular locality,
men who were able to subscribe a fund to
meet preliminary expenses, and who could
lend beautiful specimens of workmanship
out of the ample stores in their shops,
warehouses, and showrooms. It is
obviously a difficult thing for working-men to
organise and carry out any scheme of this
kind. If their time be worth (say)
sixpence an hour, it becomes a serious matter
for them to devote many hours to such
a project. If only the hours after work
be devoted, there must be many helpers
and many evenings before much progress
can be made. A Working-Man's Industrial
Exhibition may be interpreted in two
ways; it may either mean an exhibition
planned and maintained almost wholly by
working-men; or it may mean an exhibition
fostered and guaranteed by persons of
ampler means, but for the express purpose
of identifying the actual workman with the
excellence of the work produced, instead of
allowing the honour to go (as it usually
does) to the employer or the shopkeeper.
It may be well to glance briefly at what
has been done, under both these aspects, in
past years.

In the spring of 1864 was opened the
South London Working Classes Industrial
Exhibition—rather a lengthy designation.
It was held at the Lambeth Baths, the
large swimming-bath being cleaned out,
and made to do duty as an exhibition-