MR. PUNCH has seldom been more disgusted--and that is saying a good deal
in these days--than by the low, sordid, Philistine, anticosmopolitan
agitation on the subject of the International Exhibitions.
He will endeavour to express himself calmly on the topic, but gives no
pledge that he will not be induced to use strong language.
British manufacturers and vendors complain (he hates people that
complain of anything) that the Foreigner is unduly and unjustly favoured
by the directors of these Exhibitions. "Foreigner!" At the outset, that
word is in itself offensive. All mankind are Brothers, more or less. But
let that pass.
The Foreigner is allowed to bring to South Kensington whatever wares he
pleases, and to exhibit them to the best advantage at handsome stalls,
for which he pays no rent. To the Exhibition the British public is
invited by every official blandishment--fete, flower-show, and music are
among the attractions--and for several months the very best and most
opulent portion of society is thus brought to be tempted by the
Foreigner's productions.
Furthermore, the Foreigner is allowed to deprive the Exhibition of its
character as an Exhibition, and to make it a shop. For he may sell
anything which he has brought over (whether it be part of his show, or
any other article which it has occurred to him as likely to be
acceptable), and the purchaser may take it away at once. This is
coarsely described as entirely departing from the theory that it was by
the display and comparison of wares that the interests of Art were to be
promoted. It is irreverently urged that the accomplished Prince who
originally devised those Exhibitions would never have sanctioned their
being converted into Shops and Bazaars.
The British manufacturers and vendors condescend to urge that this is
not giving them fair play, that the Foreigner is helped in every way to
sell his goods, and that the Briton who pays rent for his own shop, and
heavy taxes for the support of the State, is rendered all the less able
to do so, by reason that custom is drawn away from him in favour of
those who pay neither rent nor taxes.
_Mr. Punch_ regrets to find that Leading Men of business take these
narrow views, and that the representatives of some of the most eminent
firms in England have met under the auspices of the LORD MAYOR, also a
man of business, to assert that the system is unjust. It may be thought
that when such men deliberately protest against anything, they may be
supposed to have good reasons for their protest. But this is a
commonplace way of thinking.
Let us try and rise above mere material views, and let the holy and
genial rays of the sun of cosmopolitanism warm up our insular hearts.
All mankind are Brothers, as has been already observed, and who would
grudge his brother anything? Why should the British person be considered
in the matter? Talk of his paying taxes--well, he does not like to pay
them--and if he is ruined, he will not be called upon to pay them any
more. That is a detail beneath contempt. What _Mr. Punch_ is so ashamed
of, is the chill and callous British nature, which refuses to recognise
the holiness of universal philanthropy, and clings to old-fashioned
ideas of a man's duty to his own family and his own nation. The
Englishman who could see in the prosperity of the Rue de Rivoli no
compensation for the ruin of Regent Street, is so low in the scale of
civilisation that we blush to call him countryman.
_Mr. Punch_ has no such sordid feelings, and his noble heart will leap
with generous joy to behold the wealthy pouring out their gold on the
counter or at the stall of his Foreign Brothers at South Kensington, and
if his British Brother is, as he thinks, unfairly used and impoverished,
let him find consolation in the thought that we are all the same "flesh
and blood." Let him mention this to MR. LOWE'S tax-collector, and it is
certain that the latter will, like STERNE'S angel, drop a gentle tear on
the charge he was going to make, and blot it out for ever.
* * * * *
[Illustration: PLEASURES OF HUNTING BY RAIL.