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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
supervising, counselling or authorizing the steps taken by him upon whom responsibility must finally rest. Their function is an ornamental, and yet a most important one; they are to lend weight and character and authority to the occasion ; their names should inspire that faith and confidence in the undertaking without which success is not possible. To carry out the work of detail, upon which everything depends, a single secretary to the commissioners should be appointed, who should be the executive officer in charge. He should receive an adequate salary, and for the next three years his whole time and thought should be devoted to the success of the Massachusetts department. With the ordering of the affair as a whole, he would have no connection; his duties would relate simply and solely to the share of his own state. No ordinary or inexperienced man could fulfil the duties of the position, for it is a great error to suppose that it is one either of holiday-work or newspaper renown. On the contrary, these incidents of the exposition business are for others, while only the dry, repulsive, tedious labor of organization and of detail falls to the lot of the executive subordinate. Upon this subject many useful suggestions will be found in a valuable paper supplied to us by Prof. Thomas C. Archer, of Edinburgh, the managing head of the museum at that place, whose long experience qualifies him to speak with the highest degree of authority. This report was procured with a view to its bearing on the Centennial Exposition, and is ready, with others, for immediate publication, should the legislature so order. Meanwhile, as a practical example in point, the English commission at Vienna was probably as good an illustration as could be found. The means placed by the government at its disposal were small, but the results accomplished were all that could be desired. No department was better or more thoroughly organized than the British. The Prince of Wales was the president of the commission, which included fourteen other persons, all of the highest rank, or men well known from their connection with business, science or art. These constituted a species of board of direction, or of trustees, acting, of course, without pay. The secretary of the commission was Mr. Owen, of the South Kensington Museum; and upon him, assisted by a small but