the ancient works; and by Mr. Egg, who
arranged the modern pictures. Mr. Peter
Cunningham's mode of placing the portraits,
affords, by the aid of his catalogue, a biographical
History of England, much more striking
and instructive than that by Granger and
Noble. In truth, the whole Exhibition is, in
itself, a history. The annals of Historical
Art are distinctly written on its walls, that
those who understand its palpable language
may read.

At the same time, it is not difficult to
define popular attractions of the show,
apart from the paintings. They are numerous
and captivating. Three long, well-proportioned
galleries; cases filled with priceless
Art-objects in the precious metals, in ivory
and in wood, and with jewels, bijouterie,
and rare carvings: trophies of warlike
Art composed of arms and armour; an
admirable orchestra discoursing most
excellent music; and, lastly, the moving
spectacle of well-dressed, ever-changing
company, always delightfully sprinkled with
Lancashire witchcraft, which spreads its
incantations (and its ample drapery) broadcast
over the scene.

Few who witness it dream possibly of the
energy and perseverance, the administrative
and executive skill, which, in no more time
than palaces are built in story-books,
converted a cricket-ground into this enormous
and unsurpassed casket of gems. On the tenth of
June eighteen hundred and fifty-six, the two
elevens of a Manchester cricket club played
a match in their own field at Old Trafford, a
couple of miles west of Manchester. Before
the first anniversary of that game was
completed, the ground was not only occupied by
an edifice that would have covered every one of
the twenty-two at his post, including long-
stop and field-scout; but it had been made
the terminus of a railway communicating
with every part of Great Britain, and by
which it was already filled with works of
Art. How, by the first of May in the present
year, these were conveyed and unpacked
without a scratch; how arranged in their
proper places,—the tinyest miniature and
the biggest historical picture, the smallest
signet ring and the hugest suit of armour,—
how registered, ticketed, catalogued and
placed, the executive committee, and Mr.
John Deane, the general commissioner,  can
only tell.

The modest assurance essential to solicit,
from the least accessible people in this land, the
loan of objects they cherish more tenderly and
guarded more jealously than most of their
material possessions; the thousand and one
well-considered details necessary to be
accurately carried out for the packing and
conveyance of these priceless loans; the
precautions necessary for their safe custody and
preservation; the contrivances for admitting
vast crowds of entrants, for feeding them
when hungry, and seating them when tired,
the arrangements for bringing them not only
from Manchester and all Lancashire, but
from every corner of this island, are seldom
thought of, even by the most inquisitive
visitor. He hardly suspects that he treads
over an arterial system of water-supply,
capable of quenching an outburst of fire in
one moment in any part of the building, at
any height, and no fire-engine required.
Although he dines in the refreshment-room, he
little wots of the kitchen, and the cooks, and
the bewildering apparatus capable of producing
a dinner of any reasonable number of courses,
for ten thousand guests at six hours' notice.
He does not suspect the near neighbourhood
of a police barrack, or imagine the acres of
shed, and pyramids of packing-cases so
arranged, that each case shall be promptly mated
with its containee, when the great day of
restitution arrives. In short, he does not realise a
tithe of the clever and untiring pre-arrangement
by which the great Art-Treasures' feat
has been accomplished. Then the expense!
In no other place, could seventy gentlemen
be found to guarantee one thousand pounds
each to carry out an undertaking promising
no hope of profit, but every prospect of loss.
Unhappily, that prospect will be fulfilled,
and these gentlemen will be losers in money,
in consequence of their miscalculation of
support from the working classes; but
they have conferred a distinction on their
city which no money could buy. They have
shown themselves to be true patrons of art.
The methodical, business-like, energetic
manner in which their money has been spent
and their original intentions realised, affords a
profitable lesson to the bungling incapability
with which the simplest state transaction is
mismanaged at head-quarters. The first idea
of the Exhibition was conceived by Mr. Deane
in conjunction with Mr. Peter Cunningham,
and the general details of its management
have been thoroughly superintended (under
the direction of the executive committee
headed by Mr. Thomas Fairbairn junior)
by Mr. Deane; who presents a rare instance of
the union, in one person, of a bold and
comprehensive projector with an exact and able
executant.

In five days from the date of the present
number of Household Words this grand
treasury of art will be closed. In due time
its treasures will be dispersed; the building,
like its predecessors in London and Dublin,
removed, and the cricketers put in possession
of their cricket-ground again as quietly as if
they had awoke from a bright and sparkling
dream after that excellent supper which
usually follows a well-played game. The
effects of the short-lived enterprise will,
however, be permanent; for some of the
seed it has sown will assuredly bear fruit.
Setting aside the sight of so many beautiful
objects enjoyed by a million pair of eyes, the
mere talk and discussion about art which it
occasions, will materially conduce to the