DISTRESS-OUTRAGES EXHIBITION OF 1862. he did not deny his responsibility as chancellor of the exchequer, but it was not quite so extensive as the honourable baronet had represented it. He was not responsible for the estimates in every department of the government. If he were, the heads of those departments might be abolished altogether. His duty was to see that there was no lavish expenditure of the public money when he had it in his power to prevent it. He had never denied the responsibility of the house or the government. On the contrary, he had always asserted it. The complaints out of doors about taxation were so great that the question required the serious attention of Parliament. To this Mr. Gladstone added that he had to provide £70,000,000 in a time of peace, and he believed that when the right honourable gentleman (Sir Stafford Northcote), or the right honourable gentleman by his side (Mr. Disraeli), took his place they would be able to do it. Sir Stafford Northcote, who was acknowledged by competent judges to be the rising man, steadily climbing upward to the future chancellorship of the exchequer, had been, as we have seen, private secretary to Mr. Gladstone when that gentleman was president of the Board of Trade under Sir Robert Peel in 1843-45. His ancestor was Sir John Northcote, who wrote certain notes on the Long Parliament. Sir Stafford entered the house as member for Dudley in 1855, but in 1857 did not venture to oppose the numbers who had evidently determined to vote for Mr. Henry Brinsley Sheridan the Radical candidate, and so vacated his seat, to be returned in the following year for Stamford. He came to Parliament with a reputation already established, and in 1859 he was appointed financial secretary to the treasury. Associated with several philanthropic and educational movements and justly regarded as eminently trustworthy, he possessed both taste and aptitude for figures, and his friends were not slow in assigning to him the chancellorship of the future. It was said by others that he was more fitted for an actuary or manager of a great bank. These underrated his abilities, probably because he was a monotonous and prosaic speaker, though he was ready and even fluent. At 123 that time he seemed to have but a small horizon, his views were not extensive enough for a chancellor of the exchequer who had to compete with Gladstone, but he had a certain determination of manner, and was a clear financial critic, in fact was much more skilled in minute anatomy of an opponent's statements than in constructing any broad and effective scheme of his own. In 1861 Sir Stafford Northcote was returned for North Devon, and by that time he had completely gained the respect of the house no less for his honourable integrity than for the practical ability which he afterwards had an opportunity of displaying as secretary for the Board of Trade. Notwithstanding the distress which had been felt in London in the previous year, and which was still prevailing in the cotton manufacturing districts, and in spite of some of those signs of want and discontent which took the ultimate form of outrages by those men who sought to carry out the decisions of trades-unions by physical force, the destruction of machinery, and dangerous or even murderous assaults upon fellow-labourers who chose to work without the control of their society; the general prosperity of the country was promising. The death of the Prince Consort had, as we have seen, cast a gloom upon the project for repeating in 1862 the experiment of a great international exhibition similar to that of 1851; but the scheme was not suffered to fall through, and his valuable aid had at least been secured for its inception and the settlement of many of the primary arrangements. Early in 1861 the site of the building had been chosen. It was a large space of ground in front of and inclosing the grounds of the Horticultural Society, and upon the Kensington Gore estate, which was purchased out of the funds arising from the first exhibition. The ground was bounded by four roads: Cromwell Road forming its southern limit, Exhibition Road its eastern, Kensington Road its northern, and Prince Alfred Road its western. The area was much larger than that of the former building in Hyde Park. The length of the space under glass there was 1848 feet and its breadth 408, with 48 feet additional for machinery, or, with the galleries, about 1,000,000 feet of flooring space. The building of 1862 was about half as large again, and this increase was rendered necessary, not only because of the expectation of increased exhibits from various parts of England, but in view of the applications likely to be made by France and our colonies. The design of the building as furnished by Captain Fowke, R.E., differed essentially from those of the former "Crystal Palace." The main walls were of brick up to 60 feet, and though iron and glass formed a considerable portion of the structure, much of the lighting was by means of clerestories through a solid and compact roof. This was necessarily the case in the fine art department, as it had been found that the iron and glass roofs did not give complete security against damp, and as loan collections of valuable paintings, including some of the art treasures from the Manchester exhibition of the previous year, and a number of priceless examples of the works of the great painters of the century, from all countries, were to be included, it was necessary to adopt adequate means for their protection. Five noblemen and gentlemen were appointed under the original patent of incorporation to take the direction; namely, Earl Granville, Mr. Wentworth Dilke, the Marquis of Chandos, Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P., and Mr. Thomas Fairbairn, and they were left to seek efficient advice and assistance in carrying out the work. During the latter part of the time that the building was approaching completion, and even at the opening ceremony and for a little while after the exhibition was inaugurated, the scheme met with considerable disparagement. There were constant objections to the site, to the style of the building, and to the supposed inferiority of its contents to those of the first great "world's fair" of 1851. People shook their heads sagaciously to emphasize the opinion that one can never repeat a great success. Others said the structure resembled a factory or a gigantic warehouse, and prophesied that its contents could not be properly exhibited even if they were worth seeing. Again during the first days of imper fect arrangement it was currently declared that the place was only a gigantic bazaar for the display of the goods of enterprising, or rather advertising, tradesmen. The commissioners might well have been daunted; but the money was forthcoming, the building was completed by the stipulated tine, and though the unpromising prospects of its success seemed likely to be confirmed because of the mourning into which the queen was plunged by the death of the prince, whose name and prestige it was believed would carry it into public favour, and the opening ceremony was unattended by the pomp and celebration of a royal inauguration, the truth at last dawned upon the public mind that as a real international exhibition it was superior to its predecessor not only in the variety of the display, but in the evidences which it contained of the progress made in arts, manufactures, and inventions during the eleven years that had elapsed. Unfortunately there were small quarrels and jealousies among the proposed directors of the musical performance at the opening ceremony, and Mr. Costa having objected to conduct the cantata, or whatever it was called, composed by Professor Bennett to the words of the poet laureate, went off in a sulk, and Mr. Sainton was invited to take his place. The following were the words:-Uplift a thousand voices, full and sweet, In this wide hall with earth's inventions stored, And praise th' invisible universal Lord, Who lets once more in peace the nations meet, Where Science, Art, and Labour have outpour'd Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet O, silent father of our Kings to be, For this, for all, we weep our thanks to thee! Of wonder, out of West and East, LANCASHIRE DISTRESS-MR. LINCOLN'S MESSAGE. Brought from under every star, Blown from over every main, And mixt, as life is mixt with pain, The works of peace with works of war. O ye, the wise who think, the wise who reign, From growing commerce loose her latest chain, And let the fair white-winged peacemaker fly To happy havens under all the sky, And mix the seasons and the golden hours, Till each man finds his own in all men's good, And all men work in noble brotherhood, Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers, And ruling by obeying nature's powers, And gathering all the fruits of peace and crown'd with all her flowers. On the 1st of May the exhibition was opened, and though her majesty was not present an imposing pageant passed in procession through the building, consisting of civic dignitaries, foreign ambassadors, including the Japanese envoys, and her majesty's ministers, who met to receive the commissioners, who presented an address to the Duke of Cambridge. His royal highness represented the queen on the occasion, and after the formal procession declared the exhibition open in her majesty's name. It may be mentioned here that it remained open until the 1st of November, when it was computed that the total number of visitors had been 6,117,450, or about 50,000 fewer than the gross number of visitors to the exhibition of 1851; but it must be remembered that the condition of the people in some of our large centres of industry accounted for some falling off, and probably there were fewer foreign visitors, though the foreign exhibitors numbered 16,456 against 6566 in 1851. A contemporary account of the building and its contents, touching upon the evidences of progress witnessed in the various departments, remarked:— "It is only eleven years since the last exhibition,' some people may say; and eleven years hence there will be still more to see.' When there will be another exhibition is a question which depends upon persons and things far beyond our ken or control; but if time be measured by improvement or by mere change, then these last eleven years have been twenty-two. Since the last exhibition there have come up the Armstrong gun, the Enfield rifle, and iron-plated ships; 125 several new gold-fields, with a proportionate development of the colonies; the opening of China and Japan; the example of the Manchester exhibition, leading to our new picturegallery; the addition of Rome and Naples to the list of exhibitors; a greatly increased rivalry in glass, in porcelain, in iron, in paper, in furniture, in jewelry, and many other things. Onyx marble has been discovered. Machinery has been applied to many purposes hitherto left to unassisted hand labour. Medieval architecture has fairly taken root in the national mind. Our ships of war are doubling their tonnage, fining their lines, and thickening their iron coats. Photography, the electric telegraph, and instruments for measuring and recording meteorological changes have made a great start. All the nations of the earth are interchanging their productions much more freely than eleven years ago. Corn, wine, and oil are more abundant, and come here in greater varieties. The wealth of the world has increased, and the exhibitors have better hope of turning their pains to good account than they had eleven years ago. All these differences in the comparison of the two periods have told on the exhibition, and made it in all respects vastly larger and more beautiful than that of 1851. It has suffered some sad blows, but they are from without rather than within. The loss of its great patron and promoter seemed at first hardly possible to get over. A still deeper wound has been struck at its success by the distress of the manufacturing districts. But whoever can visit it, even at a cost of time and money somewhat beyond his wont, will find that he has no reason to regret an expenditure which teaches him more than books and companions, and places him, as it were, in the front rank of the world's material progress and outward civilization." The distress in Lancashire had indeed become very serious long before the Great Industrial Exhibition was closed, and it continued for a long time afterwards; but the attitude of the suffering cotton operatives was one of courageous endurance, such as elicited the admiration not only of their countrymen, but of all Europe and of the Americans themselves. On the 19th of January, 1863, Mr. President Lincoln, in reply to an address from the working men of Manchester, who had sent to him a declaration of their hatred of slavery, said: "I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working men at Manchester and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the attempts to overthrow this government, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favour of Europe. Through the action of our disloyal citizens the working men of Europe have been subjected to a severe trial for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under these circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country." Before the end of that year the price of middling New Orleans cotton in Liverpool was 294d. per lb. In 1854 the rate of the same quality of cotton had been 5d. per lb. During 1861 the quotations had continued to average 117d. per lb., and in 1862 it had been 244d. Of course the high price in 1863 meant no supplies, and though efforts had been made to bring cargoes from Egypt, and the crops in India were looked forward to with such anxiety that a consignment of Surat was received with joyful manifestations, there was never enough to give good hope of resuming work except on very short time in a limited number of mills. The provisions made for the relief of the families of the Lancashire operatives were continued. In July, 1862, Mr. Villiers, president of the Board of Trade, brought in a bill enabling every parish overburdened with local distress to claim a contribution from the common fund of the union, and in committee an addition was made enabling the unions to raise money by loan, or to resort to a rate in aid whenever the expenditure of a union exceeded 38. in the pound. A Lancashire relief fund was also started, with an executive committee properly appointed. According to a statement made by Mr. Wilson Patten in the House of Commons the contributions to the fund in April, 1863, had shown the results of the munificent liberality of the nation. There had been collected by the Central Relief Committee £959,000, in clothing and provisions to the value of £108,000; subscriptions from different localities, £306,000; private charity, £200,000; Mansion-house committee, £482,000; poor-law board, £680,000—in all a total of £2,735,000, of which £1,480,000 had been contributed by the county of Lancaster, so determined was the courage and independence of the people there. It may well be understood that though this large sum had been received, and that the balance then in hand for continued distribution was £845,000, the distress was extreme. There was no margin for more than the provision of necessaries in extreme cases, and, indeed, the operatives were mostly reduced to extremity before they would consent to receive assistance. In November, 1862, Mr. Cobden, in writing to Lady Hatherton, had said: "Imagine that the iron, stone, and coal were suddenly withheld from Staffordshire, and it gives you but an imperfect idea of what Lancashire, with its much larger population, is suffering from the want of cotton; it reverses the condition of the richest county in the kingdom, and makes it the poorest. A capitalist with £20,000 invested in buildings and machinery may be almost on a par with his operatives in destitution if he be deprived of the raw material which alone makes his capital productive. Bad as is the state of things, I fear we are only at its commencement, and unhappily the winter is upon us to aggravate the sufferings of the working people. The evil is spreading through all classes. The first effects will be felt on the small shopkeepers; the weak millowners will come next. I met a magistrate yesterday from Oldham, and he told me that at the last meeting of the bench four thousand assessments were exempted from payment of poor-rates on the plea of inability of the parties to pay! How rapidly this must aggravate the pressure on the remainder of the property of the union! There will be another meeting of the Manchester Committee next Monday, at which it will be proposed to extend it to a |