RETURN to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated February 6, 1854;

for

"Copies of the Reports made to the Foreign Office, or to any other Department, by the Commissioners appointed to attend the Exhibition of Industry in the City of New York.”

GENERAL REPORT.

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon, K.G., G.C.B., Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

My Lord,

London, December 1, 1853.

IN reporting on the general results of the visit we had the honour to be deputed to pay in the summer of this year to the United States of America, on the occasion of the Industrial Exhibition at New York, it is desirable that your Lordship should be made acquainted with the peculiar position in which the Commission was placed on its arrival in that city, early in June last.

Owing to the still unfinished state of the Exhibition building, we found that its opening had been postponed from June 1st, to July 14th, and there was little probability that the arrangement of the various contributions would even then be in a sufficiently forward state to allow of that examination and scrutiny so necessary for the proper consideration of their merits.

Under these circumstances, and in accordance with the instructions received by us from your Lordship, it was decided, after consideration, that the various localities of the United States in which raw materials were likely to be most abundant, mechanical skill most largely applied, manufacturing industry fairly established, and art and science most perfectly developed, whether educationally or practically, should be first visited as far as the limited time at the disposal of the majority of the members of the Commission would allow.

In order to effect this object with facility and certainty, it was thought advisable to divide the labour as distinctly as possible. Taking the classification of the Great Exhibition of 1851 as a basis, as suggested in our instructions, certain departments were assigned to each member of the Commission, on which a report should be prepared and presented.

In Raw Materials, the report on Class I, Mining, Quarrying, and Mineral productions; also, Maps, Charts, &c., and Philosophical Instruments (Class X.), in connection with the latter, was undertaken by Sir Charles Lyell; whilst the report on Minerals in their economic relations and metallurgical operations, as a portion of Class I.; Class II., Chemical processes and products; Class III., Substances used for Food; Class IV., Vegetable and Animal substances used in Manufactures, including also, Tanneries as a portion of Class XVI., was to be

prepared by Professor Wilson, together with a report on Class IX., Agricultural Implements and Machines; Class XXVII., Manufactures in Mineral substances, Cements, &c.; Class XXVIII., Manufactures in Animal and Vegetable substances; Class XXIX., Miscellaneous Manufactures; and also, the progress of Scientific Education in relation to industry.

In machinery, Mr. Joseph Whitworth undertook to report on Class V., Machines for direct use; Class VI., Manufacturing Machines and Tools; Class VII., Civil Engineering; and on the character and action of the Patent Laws, and on the system of Electric Telegraphs so extensively used throughout the United States.

In manufactures, the report on Class XI., Cotton; Class XII., Woollen and Worsted; Class XIII., Silk; Class XIV., Flax and Hemp; and Class XV., Mixed Fabrics; Class XVI., Leather (except Tanneries); Class XVII., Paper, Printing, &c.; Class XVIII., Printed Fabrics; Class XIX., Tapestry, Lace, and Carpets; Class XX., Clothing; Class XXI., Cutlery and Edge Tools; Class XXII., Iron and General Hardware; Class XXIII., Precious Metals, Jewellery, &c.; Class XXIV., Glass; Class XXV., Ceramic Manufactures; Class XXVI., Decorative Furniture; and on the position of Art Education as applied to Manufactures and the Copyright of Designs, was undertaken by Mr. George Wallis.

The report on the section of the Fine Arts was assigned to Lord Ellesmere. Mr. Dilke undertook to obtain an account of the building in which the Exhibition was to be held, and he also agreed to attend to the collection of Trade Circulars and Patent Office Reports, which your Lordship in your instructions particularly specified. Mr. Dilke further undertook to observe whether any new inventions, exhibited in Classes VIII. and X., not embraced in the department of Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Wallis, Mr. Whitworth, and Professor Wilson, were likely to be of interest or value in England. Unfortunately, for some weeks after his arrival, the arrangements in the building were so incomplete that it was considered advisable that the Commission should visit other parts of the Union, and Mr. Dilke proceeded to the Western States. On his return he found a communication awaiting his arrival from the medical attendant of his family, desiring his return by the first packet, on account of the serious illness of Mrs. Dilke, which illness terminated fatally soon after he reached this country. Mr. Dilke's report will, therefore, necessarily be very brief, as he quitted America before the completion of the arrangements within the building, and when he had seen but a small portion of the United States. Before leaving he was so fortunate as to be able to arrange with Mr. W. Antrobus Holwell, the Commissioner from Canada, to send him notice of any novelties which might be exhibited in Classes VIII. and X. For any account, therefore, which may appear in Mr. Dilke's special report in reference to those classes, he will be indebted to the kindness of Mr. Holwell.

After examining such branches of industry in their respective localities as time would permit, prior to the date fixed for the opening of the Exhibition, the Commission re-assembled at New York, and attended the inauguration on the 14th July, on which occasion the President of the United States and several of the Cabinet Ministers were present.

The continued incompleteness of the Exhibition after the day of opening, suggested the importance of finishing the examination of the various departments assigned to each member of the Commission, as far as possible in their respective centres.

The construction of a large room destined for the reception of mineral and mining products, and of geographical, geological, and other maps and charts, was still in progress when Sir Charles Lyell's engagements required his return to England, in August. There was then no prospect of the display of the articles belonging to this department until the end of September, or beginning of October. Sir Charles, therefore, visited different cities in various States, from which contributions to the Exhibition were expected, and inspected at Washington the Coast Survey Department, presided over by Professor Bache, and the Observatory in charge of Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., in both of which establishments he saw a large assemblage of maps and charts, to which he has referred in his report. He was also shown in various public and private collections, in several of the Eastern States, specimens of minerals, ores, and other raw produce, about to be sent to New York. Sir Charles also availed himself of the assistance of Professor Benjamin Silliman, to whom the classification of objects in Class I. had been assigned in the New York Exhibition, to examine such contributions as had been already received, and which were stored away in parts of the building already roofed in. From these and other sources a rough draft of a report was drawn up, and placed in the hands of Mr. James Hall, geological surveyor of the State of New York; a gentleman to whom the scientific world is indebted for a geological map of part of New York, and several excellent surveys, besides two volumes on the paleontology of the older rocks of North America,-works of the highest merit. Mr. Hall undertook the task of supplying Sir Charles with notes of the various articles appertaining to Class I., after they should have been arranged and finally displayed, a task which was accomplished in the course of October. At that period the Exhibition afforded a satisfactory illustration of the economical resources of many large sections of the Union, although the productive powers of other regions were still very inadequately represented.

The interval previous to the opening of the Exhibition afforded Professor Wilson an opportunity of inspecting several of the more important manufacturing processes in operation in their respective localities, and also of visiting the coal and iron-making districts of Pennsylvania and Maryland; at the same time he availed himself of the opportunity to attend the trials of agricultural harvesting machines, which were at that time taking place in some of the rural districts through which he passed. Subsequently, owing to the annual meetings of the different State agricultural societies not being held until September and October, and the unfinished state of that portion of the building destined for the arrangement of the Mineral department, it was considered desirable that Professor Wilson should remain in the States some weeks longer than he had contemplated, to enable him to fulfil the special duties which had been assigned to him. He, therefore, from time to time prosecuted his examinations in the building as the several classes were completed, and occupied the spare time at his disposal in visiting the principal manufacturing and producing districts of the Western and North Western States, besides those in the more immediate vicinity of New York. In company with Mr. Dilke he attended the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Cleveland, Ohio; and subsequently, at the special request of the Boards of Agriculture of Canada, East and West, he attended the great Provincial Meetings, held at Montreal and at Hamilton respectively. On his return, through the kindness and assistance of Professor B. Silliman, he had every facility afforded him for examining the fine collection of mineral and metallurgical products

under his direction, and having completed as far as was possible the duties he had undertaken, he took his departure from the States by the steamer of the 19th October.

That portion of the Exhibition building in which machinery in motion was intended to be placed, was still unfinished at the period at which Mr. Whitworth had to leave for England; and in the department of Manufactures, the nonarrival or non-arrangement of many important contributions prevented that full and complete examination which had been undertaken by Mr. Wallis. Both, however, have extensively examined the productions in their respective departments in the various establishments which they visited, either before or after the opening of the Exhibition, and upon these and such contributions as were displayed at the time of their departure from New York, on the 10th of August, their reports will be founded.

The Exhibition afforded us no sufficient materials for a judgment of the condition of the Arts of Painting or Sculpture in the United States. A gallery of considerable extent, for the reception of pictures, engrafted on the original design of the building, was still only in process of construction at the period of our departure, and no specimens of sculpture had yet reached the main building which could enable us to certify that such artists as Messrs. Power and Craufurd were following out their already distinguished career, or meeting with competitors among their countrymen. We may be allowed, however, to express an opinion, founded on observations too casual and limited to allow us to particularize individual masters, that the Art of Landscape Painting bids fair to flourish in North America. In a newly settled country, as regards the works of man, the elements of that which common consent denominates the picturesque, must necessarily be in great measure deficient. The aspect of nature, however, in North America has peculiarities of its own, in respect alike of form, of colour, and atmospheric effects, which can hardly fail to attract genius to their pictorial representation, and would justify and reward its highest efforts. We venture to predict that several of the artists whose pencils are already employed on the scenery of their native country, will do justice to its claims upon Art, and establish a national school of landscape of a high order.

In referring to the delay in the opening and completion of the Exhibition at New York, it is but justice to those who had undertaken its management to state that the inclemency of the last winter, the great demand for workmen in the building trades, the novelty of construction in certain portions of the building, and the want of any previous experience in a work of such magnitude, may be considered as an excuse for the delay which took place; and the Commission cannot suffer this circumstance, however much to be regretted, to prevent the expression of the high sense entertained by its members of the courtesy, kindness, and ever-ready attention paid to them alike in their public and private capacity, by all connected even in the most remote degree with the Exhibition. Indeed this courtesy, attention, and anxiety to assist the purposes for which each special locality in various parts of the United States was visited, -the promptness with which all reasonable inquiries were answered,—and the desire to promote, to the fullest extent, the objects of the Commission,characterised all classes of Americans, thus rendering an otherwise difficult and laborious task comparatively easy and agreeable.

In its general character the Exhibition at New York may be said to be successful. The lessons conveyed in the contributions from Europe cannot, we