b16030874_0003_165

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE GREAT
EXHIBITION FROM ABROAD.
Nothing which has occurred for years has
been mere calculated to gratify the pride of
an Englishman than the Great Exhibition.
Everywhere abroad the ws,sder which it less
excited can ashy be conceived by those who
have witnessed it. The novelty of the Glass
itsel the rapidity and energy witls
which it has been erected and famished, and
he final pre-eminent success, have stamped an
indelible feeling of the greatness of England
is sU nations. Wherever you have gone—the
one great topic of conversation has been the
Great Exhibition ; the one great topic of the
newspapers was the Great Exhibition; Use
Great Exhibition met your eye on all walls,
sad in the windows of shops, vost-offlrss, and
railway stations, on placards en great letters,
Steamers and railways were nil put into
csnces’t with this one great object, and were
compelled ts accelerate their motions to meet
the impatience and expectation of the universal nubIle. To any one coming from
England the only and the eternally recurring
question was, “Have you, then, really seen
the Great Exhibition l “—to which an affirmitive answer was the mother of a million par-
iicslnr questions.
It was our lot the other day to find one-
selves on the way to England, ins considerable
throng of foreigners, eceeding to this all-
absorbing spectacle. s were crossing Eel-
gism, and the greater number of one fellow-
tmvehlere were Germane. On arriving at that
most wretched of wretched places, Ostend,
late in the evening, one of those scenes of eon-
fusion task place winch are taking place
every day, and which the Government never
took the slightest trouble to put an end to.
In all other countries some rational kind of
language is spoken; but as nobody is at the
trouble to learn the hodge-podge of a language called Belgian, sad as there is rarely an
official employed at the station who can speak
a word of English, German, or French, the
confusion that prevails is perfectly astounding
—and, in fact, so long as Ostend stands, it
appears clear that Bahel will never be at an
cod. All the passengers’ luggage, even to
their carpet-bags and hat-boxes, lieing taken
from them at Nervier, examined, and ear-
L0 for every pound charged, it is then  put into a separate wagon, and the unlucky
traveller poises the rest of the journey in
hoping that he may get Ins effeete again, hot
believing that he never shah.
Arrived at Ostend, out mob all the hoping
and despairing hundreds of travellers ; one
aeks for his luggage in French, another in
English, a third in German, a fourth in
Italian, a fifth in Swiss, mid a sixth in
Hungarian. To all these demands the porters
reply by shakes of the head, and the utterance
of a jargon, that only adds to the confounding
and unintelligible hubbub. At length the
frantic travellers, fesrfeel of not being in time to secure their ship, see a let of luggage
dragged forth, and deposited on a beach
nader a shed, for every one to claim lets own.
Never was there a finer opportunity for clever
fellows to carry off what is sat their own;
fo; though yen have a receipt containing the
number of your packages, your name, and
what you have paid for it, yet as nobody understsnds one another, and live hundred people
at once are dragging at the trunks, bags, and
hat-cases, in the dark, nothing would be
easier than for half of it to be carried off by
wrong people; and, if it be not ss,it redeunda
as much to the credit of the nation for
honesty, as it does to hs discredit for bounces
arrangements.
At length, after half an hour of the meet
terrific shunting, scrambling, hauling, and
sorting, one hal of the exasperated passengers
find that their luggage is not there at all!
Then are vociferated furious demands in a
dozen languages, with a violent holding up of
green bits of paper—the receipts for the
unlucky articles that are not received, nor
even visible. These vociferations are answered
by the Belgian porters pointing to the benches
where luggage should be, but is not, and by
still more frantic protestations, on the part of
the travellers, that their articles arc net there.
Then rush a few scores to another unopened
wagon on the line, which is desperately defended by the porters with the outcries of
“Transit! transit —the scaly intelligible
word they utter, and a word which only adds
to the agitation of the travellers, who protest
that their articles are each put is transit ; a
word whichs fills them with the horrible idea
of their property being shipped off to London,
while they themselves are going to Dover or
to Calais..
At length, in our case, after nearly an
hours delay, the station-master was found,
the only one who seemed capable of an English
or French word and by his authority, the
transit-goods wagons being opened, the missing
articles came to light. All now hurried away,
some ha the English steamer bound far Dover,
and some to thee one bound direct for London;
we tu the letter, congratulating ourselves that
we were about to set foot on board the vessel of
a nation of men of business, and that all our
troubles would be at see end. Unfortunate
flattery of an internal national pride. To our consternation, we found ourselves on
a notorious old tub, we believe the very worst
steamer that sails from the port of London.
We do not mention it, for obvious reasons, hoc
everybody who knows anything of Ostend
steamers knows it. Nothing can be more
excellent, sea-worthy, and commodiona than
the same company’s steamers to Antwerp, in
one of which we had recently made a delightful passage out. Nothing can be conceived
more wretched than this one, in which we
found ourselves about to mu at midnight.
It was but, we believe, some time about the
days of Noah, and for the faculty rather of
diving than sailing, every wave of any pretension regularly sweeping over its forecastle,
and its motion being at about the rate of four
knots an hour!
Imagine our astonishment at finding this
old wash-tub the only vessel on this day
awaiting the thronging visitors to the Great
Exhibition! There was cabin accommodation
in it for forty passengers, and there were on
board one hundred and thirty! The amazement of these one hundred and thirty
foreigners, chiefly Germans, who had come to
the sea with the idea that they were to be
conveyed over by the greatest maritime
nation in the world, and therefore with corresponding ideas of the vessel and its comforts,
it would be impossible to describe. They
remonstrated, hot it was clear that remonstrance was useless. Seeing the agent of the
company on board, I-—for I may now nec the
sisegcilar number, my companion, a lady,
having found a berth for herself—expressed
my astonishment that no better preparations
were mode for the expected influx of foreigners
on this great occasion; declaring that it was
once an insult to the passengers, and a
disgrace to our country. The agent assured
me that a new vessel would he subetitnted for
this in a few days, winch I hope is the fact;
hat for the present night the prospect for all
on board was dismal enough. The forty
lucky fellows had secured their berths; the
ninety unlucky ones had the choice of the
cabin floor, the tables, the seats, and the deck,
To make the matter worse, the wind rose
simultaneously wish the vessel’s quittisig the
and blow srongly direct in our teeth.
old tub began to tumble about with a
short ehoppinp unction well known to crossers
of that part ot the Channel, aspi the crowded
company, three-fourths of whom had probably
never seen the sea before, and had all the
German horror of the ,Scc-Kraalolieit, began
to look awfully pale out of their dark forests
of beards and whiskers.
My few observations to the agent had
procured me a berth; a clear proof that
the company was well aware th5t the lees
public cheers-scion was drawn to their accommodations for foreign visitors of the
Exhibition, the better; but as this must
have been done at the expense of some nec-
fortunate victim, I did not take possession of it till I saw tbat oo one else would. At
length, tired with some days of hard travelling
I threw myself down in it in my clothes, and
slept till five o’clock. On awaking, the scene
was indescribable. The whole of the cabin,
berths, seats, floor, tables, and under tables,
was one dense chaos of rueful wretches—.
alanoat every one of them in the agonies vi
sea-sickness. The picture would have been
worth something to a painter, from the
strange aspect of the huge-bearded and mom-
tachoed fooea amid the chaos of carpet-bags,
boots, and boxes; hot being no painter, I made
of a precipitate retreat upon deck. The old tub
was wallowing along, half buried a-head in
the waves, and the sailors, drenched te the
akin, very composedly assured me that one
day tbey should all go down together. On
the deck were crowds of people who had
endured the stormy night-air rather than the
atmosphere below. Some eat bowed down,
their heads hidden in the huge hoods of their
cloaks like penitentinry hermhs ; others, with
sharp peaked hoods, stalking about very much
like so many Robinson Crosses coming hems
from their desolate islands. Here one man
with an enormous yellow beard, and head of
hair of the same colour, raised himself from
his arms, on which he had lain on the cabin
roof, like some old lion out of hia lair ; and
others lay stretched about, or still and livid
as so many corpses. One old man in a great
white night-cap, and loose dirty great-coat,
eat mstio,ilms on one of the benches for
hours, and to my surprise, on looking at his
lower extremities, I perceived that he had
violet stockings en. The shabby-looking old
man was no other than the Catholic Arch-
bishop of T—; and lain brother, a distinat
a gnialeed Belgian nobleman, soon after made
his appearance It seamed to me that I had never seen us
wretched, and even vulgar, a set of people
flung together on any occasion. The effects
sef one breezy night in that old boat of Ma-
thuoelah’a, had been, in combination with
strangely wild beards and queerly out cloaks,
to almost nnhnmaniae my unlucky fellow-
travellers; but as the morning advanced, said
we came into still water, a rapid metamorphosis took place. Breakfast came and completed it; and, one after another, that no couth and grizzly company most wonderfully
brightened, and burnished themselves op inla
a most respectable, well-looking, and gentle-
manly assembly. One pretty woman after
another, too, emerged into daylight, said it was
soon evident that we were in the midst of a
very superior and intelligent class of people.
As we drew near the English coast, bat
long before it was visible, an intense ietermt
began to display itself throughout the tlsreog
of foreigners. Few had before approached the
renowned island, and the idea of London
seemed to hang in their imaginations like
oonio great world of wonder which was about
to reveal itself before them. Long, however, fsre the slightest otrsp of the British coast )
same into view, before the dimmest glimpse
of the lighthouse on the North Forciand, or
the tower of Margate Church, caught the eye
Is the left, two vast lines of ships were seen
coming from the opposite extremities of the
horizon, and emerging to one point before us.
These were the first signs of the maritime
greatness of England, and the spectacle was
contemplated with exclamations of amazement. From the north and the south, hundreds of vessels were marching on their
watery way, to or from the point which indicated the place of the Thames, and the
position of London; marking out, as it were,
two great high-roads of commerce, which,
issuing from the vast maritime city of the
world, wenid presently diverge into a then-
sand tmek; leading to every sea, and shore,
and city on the glne.
As the coast of Kent became visible, and
every minute its chalk cliffs, green elope; and
hanging woods more and more distinct, the
interest of the spectainra heightened and,
when we entered the Thames ttaelf ths pleasant shore; and the passing up and down of
multitudes of vessels, awoke continual not-
breaks of admiration. Perhaps no English-
man ever feels so fully conscious of the
greatness of this scene—the approach to
London by the Thames—as when he ascends
the river in the company of foreigners. There
is but one such scene in the world, and it
never foils to tell on those who see it for the
first time. On land all to smiling, green, and
cultivator The very fiats of Essex en the
right, with their large herds of fine cattle,
have their beauty; and the pleasant slopes,
and neat villages, and towns of the Kentish
ehere, present a picture of the most perfect
home-like prosperity and peace. But the life
en the waters as the wonder. Great steamers,
with long trails of smoke, gravely, as it were,
staggering sway to distant ports either of our
own island or the Continent; busy tugs
drsgging out to sea majestic East Indiansen, or
other great merchant-ships; colliers hs crowds
whh sails set, going np or down; sheals of
• fiolnag-smacke, and other craft. And, as you
above Gravesend, the swift h-on
steamers to the different places on the river,
flying past with crowds on deck, and music
as on some gay holiday. These fill
the foreigner with augmenting wonder, and
as yen advance, the ever growing throng of
vessels that crowd the river; the hulks of
convicts; the Seamen’s Hospital in the old
“Dreadnought,” with its gilt Lien looking
bravely from its prow; the war-steamers ; the
ohms of all nations ; the bustle of Woolwich
asS all ho arsenals, its barracks, and its docks
and workshops. The palace of Greenwich,
that proud monument of the nation’s care for
its sonmen; the hanging woods of the Park,
I and the domes of the Observatory lifting
themselves above them, where longitude
presents itself familiarly to the mind of every foreign passer-by, are contemplated
with a feeling which breaks forth from long
pauses of oeep silence with the words—
“Grsss-srriqf’“Ero&sssncnd .5’”’ Usoeudf ic/st
“ Uetermedl&gead/”
Every man had his Panorama of the River
out; fathers were pointing out to their
daughters the various places, and the historic
and statistical interests. One very intelligent
German whose only daughter was surveying
the wondrous scene, pale with actual emotion,
asid to me,” Denken ole mir, mom Herr, es let
das erstemal dasa sic cc geoehen hat sued was
für em Geftihl, was für em Etndrnek es muss
für ior gannea Leben seyn “ (Only think, sir,
that it is the first time that she has seen it
and what a feoltn” what an impression it
must give her for {cr whole ilfe!)
But as the Pool was approached, and the
isntoense masses of shipping became viaible
that lay in the bed of the ricer the forests
after forests of masts ; the great groups sf
steamers lying, as h were, in reserve, the hisge
Scotch and Irish ones that lay at the wharfs
preparing for their next trips ; the revered
ship-building decks the endless warehouses
and workshops; but, above all, the miles of
shipmasts and rigging chewing themselves
along the course e the St. Katherine’s, the
London, and the East and West India Perk;
seeming to have no end, presented the most astounding idea of the commerce of the British
Metropolis which could possibly enter the human mind. At every yard of prugres; some
object of interest presented itself . Ail, as all
foreigners are, were particularly anxious to
knew exactly at what moment they wore
pasoinfi the Thames Tunnel Then another
recognised the Tower, London Bridge, and,
high amid the smoke of the city, the osme of
St. Paul’s. And thus slowly making way amid
the multitude of vessels in the Pool, and
hrinçisg to, at the St. Katherine’s Wharf;
simm the din of London’s enormous life, mid
its astounding evidence of activity, the voyage
of wonder closed. Hitherto everything had
been sn.hcnlated to gratify the pride of an
Englishman: now came a scene which was a
dreadful anti-climax. This was the examination of the passengers’ luggage by the officers
of the Customs.
We had hoped that amid the many preparations made for amootloing the approach of
the foreign visitors of ail nations to the Great
Exhibition, a change would have been made
in this respect, befitting the honour and
hospitality of the nation : that if it were
deemed necessary still to subject the visitors
to Custom House inspection, a measure very
simple tn itself; and perfectly efficient, would
have been adopted, to spare all possible
annoyance and detention ; that is, that as
two officers come on board at Gravesend, the
luggage of the passengers should be examined
on board, as the steamer came up the river,
so that on arriving they might, without the
slightest detention or delay, have proceeded to their several quarters. This very plan, so easy, so obvious, 0° accordant with commonnenae and politeness to our visitors, has been strongly recommended by the Parliamentary Committee, now sitting, to inquire into the affairs of the Custom House ; and it is to us marvelous that it should net have been one of the very first regulations adopted for the comfort of the foreign visitors of the Exhibition. We draw attention to It the neore particularly, because even now an Order in Council might at once remove the evil, and introduce a practice wInch could not possibly be attended by any miochieç but would add inconceivably to the comfort of foreigners arriving in London, and give a fine feeling of nnr liberal courtesy. Any case of difficulty in levying any duty might be referred to the Custom House on share but such cases must be rare, and the general body of the passengers would be exempt from the present most vexatious detention.
So far, however, from any relaxation in the old system, in one respect the rigour is increased. Foreigners are asked to produce their passports. When you ask the meaning of this, you are told it is done at the cequeet of the Foreign Powers themselves, to prevent the entrance of dangerous characters. But why should we stoop to become the tools of foreign onrveillancc 1 Why soot leave our law and police to protect public order, us they always hove done 1
However, on the packet touching the qnoy, the passengers arc all marched off to the waiting-moms of the Custom House, where their passports are examined, sad while their luggage is brought from the ship to the examining-room. Here, then, were sue hundred and thirty straoogero cooped np like 00 many sheep, on their arrival in the capital of England, for several hours, while their luggage is brought ashore, and while afterwards they are, two by two, introduced to the examining- room. Proud as I had felt of the approach to London, I was proportionably mortified to be a witnooe of this h’tmihiating termination— a termination in which we were sunk below many of the despotic powers of the Continent for even on the Rhine, the Elbo, acid the Danube, you have yonr baggage examined on board of the vessel t and in passing the Prussian frontier, the other day, neither I nor my friend had a single package opened. Every moment’s miserable detention here was
torment uselessly and unnecessarily inflicted. The whole of the trunks amid bags of the strangers, containing only their apparel, requisite during their visit, might joel as well have been inspected en the deck, between Gravesend and London.
May it not, and shall it not, yet be 50
There are yet three months at least before the close of the Exhibition. In the autumn, when on the Continent, as at home, the great bulk of professional people find themselves duly at liberty,—whcu schools, nisiveroitico, law and government offices, are to a certain degree cloocd,—the fullest tide of travel towards this conuts’y will set in. Is it net worth while, then, to remove theta wretched stumbling-block out of the way of our visitors to adopt a conroc which can lose no nothing peculiarity, but must gain no lonmeusely in point of national character for courtesy and true kindness l Is it worth while to destroy that generous sense of our national greatness, which must unavoidably fill the mind of the foreigner who ascends the Thames amid the gigantic evidences of our enormous commerce, our physical and intellectual energies, our wealth and inexhaustible activity, by ao miserable—au gratnitonsly miserable—a finale n.o this 1 It to but jnetico to say, that on this occaaioea the officers performed their unpleasant duty with n courtesy and a patience which did them the highest credit but no courtesy of manner can obliterate the real disconrtony and annoyance of a ueelees and moot tedious detention of often many hours, and the mortifying feeling of a reception of our foreign guests, so totally out of keeping with every ether arrangement for this groat and unprecedented gathering of the Nations.