REPORT OF MR. HILL.
61
on the other hand, were well assorted, and generally complete illustrations of the industries of the several countries, with one unfortunate exception. We believe this is true of all the principal nations. The spirit which seems to have animated them is well illustrated in the address of the French commissioners to the public at the time of their appointment. After speaking of the material advantages to be gained from this Exposition, they continue :—
“Beyond these material advantages, on which it is useless to dilate, so obvious are they, there is always in France a sentiment to which appeal has never been made in vain—that of patriotism. France must be worthily represented at the universal Exposition in Vienna. She must present herself there in a manner to prove that she has not fallen from the high rank which belongs to her in the civilized world, and that on the morrow even of the dolorous events "which have lately transpired, she is ready to sustain the reputation she has acquired in the arts—in productions where intelligence and modern science, taste, invention or skilled hand-labor have gained a superiority never contested.”
In this spirit, the French entered into the Exposition, and government and people joined in making it in fact all that this address indicated.
It is but fair to add, that the spirit of the other leading nations was not behind that of the French, and that they Kiade a good and general display of their various industries, re gardless of the consideration that they might not gain for them an immediate sale. From this it resulted the Exposition was in reality a universal exposition of the world’s industries, and that the visitor could there study the present status of any matter in which he was interested,—in every Part of the Old World, at least.
The arrangements of the exhibits of the different nations ln the Exposition was simply geographical. Those of the New World being at the extreme western end of the various buildings, the Japanese and Chinese at the eastern, the other countries between, according to their geographical positions. The machinery was, as has been said, in a building by itself, but the exhibits of the different countries were there arranged ln the same order. The agricultural machinery and produc-