The New York Herald Newspaper, May 2, 1873, Page 2

2 VIENNA. eal, The Imperial House of Austria and the Exposition. see HISTORY OF THE I “SG Rise, Growth, Position and Ap- pearance of Vienna. PSBURGS. THE BLUE DANUBE. Magnificent Site of the Palace of the People’s Fair. THE PRATER PARK. Description of the Main Building and Annexes. Pavilions, Kiosks, Minare Founts and Gardens. FAIRS OF THE OLDEN TIMES. Nijni Novgorod, Katchta, Hurd- war, Leipsic, Frankfort. MODERN WORLD FAIRS. The First International Exhibi- tion at London. SUBSEQUENT COSMIC DISPLAYS. Paris, London, Dublin and New York. THE ARCHDUKE PROTECTOR. Imperial and Royal Austro- Hungarian Commissioners. THE FOREIGN COMMISSIONS. Names of the International “Commission of Jurors. a BE SEEN AT VIENNA, a WHAT WILL Grouping and Classification of | the Objects. WHAT AMERICA SENDS. | Alphabetical List of Exhibitors from the United States. MEDALS OF HONOR. THE NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, MAY 2, are punished as crimes of leze-majesty, in the same manner as those against the King of the Romans or electors, No one can challenge him to single combat, It is in his choice to assist at the assemblies, or to be absent; and he has the privilege of being exempt from contributions and public taxes, excepting twelve soldiers which he is obliged to maintain against the Turks for one mouth, He has rank immediately after the elec- tors; and exercises justice in the States without appeal, by virtue of @ privilege granted by Charles V. His subjects cannot even be summoned out of his province upon aecount of law suits, to give witness, or to receive the investiture of fiefs, Any of the lands of the empire may be alienated in his favor, even those that are feudal; and he has aright to create counts, barons, gentlemen, poets and notaries, In the succession to his States the right of birth takespiace; and, failing males, the females succeed according to the lineal right, and, if ne heir be found, they may dispose of their lunds ag they please. The House of Austria acquired the imperial throne of Germany in 1440, when Frederic HI. was elected Emperor, although, as we have seen, it was during his reign as Emperor that Rudoiph of Hapsburg, founder of tne dynasty, first secured the duciy to his family. ‘The imperial throne was held by this house from its accession in 1440 for 300 years. Maximilian, successor to Frederic IIL, enriched tho House by @ famous marriage that gave it possession of Burgundy and the seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, tie inheritance of his bride, the heires#o! Charles, Duke of Burgundy; and Charles V,, grandson and heir of this Maxi- milian, marrying the heivess of Ferdinand and Isabella of Arragon and Castile, added to the dominions of the house of Spain and the Spanish possessions in America, ‘Thus by two marriages the house acquired richer and vaster possessions than it ever secured by all other means together. During this great age of its splendor the House of Austria was the controlling power of Europe, It sustained Christendom against the Turks; sustained Rome and ker Church in the religious wars that devasted Germany; sustained monarchy and absolutism against the rising spirit of the people, and tugged through many wars for supremacy of dominion with France, giving battie in every country and in every court and on every sea. AUSTRIAN DEOLINE In 1745 it lost the imperial crown, and its dismem- berment began by the ravages of energetic neigh- bors preying upon the mass of half vital dominion it had seized but never digested. Prussian Fritz was the most energetic of these neighbors, and in the fruit of kis depredations laid the first founda- tion of the subsequent Prasstan power. France was not less rapacions, and transferred Spain from the House of Austria to the House of Bour- bon, and also tore away those provinces of Lor- raine and Alsace, over the loss of which she has recently made so much noise, having the bitter chalice in tarn commended to her own lips by her Teutonte neighbor. But the power of Austria was not fairly broken in Europe until the Emperor Na- poleon, with the legions of France, and with half the power of Germany marshalled under the French eagles, tumbled down all the thrones and trampled the crowns under nis feet. a Prussia’s part in the wars against Napoleon brought her prominently forward as a great Power, and gave lier the prestige aud position that enabled her to dispute with Austria dominion over the German people. In the rivalry between these Powers lies the principal interest of the history of Germany from the end of the Napoleonic wars until the year 1866, when Austria, as a German Power, was utterly crashed by the decisive battle of Sa- dowa. THE NEW EMPIRE ON THE DANUBE. ‘rhe present Austrian Empire has an area of 238,000 square miles and a population of 35,000,000, It is the most heterogencous agglomeration of peo- ples that ever submitted to one rule since the days of ancient Rome. Its paper currency is printed with the same inscription in three languages on each bill, and is ther not intelligible to the mass of people in many Staves. Yet it is, altogether, as to tts territorial extent, a compact empire; and, in reference to its position, has been well called the Empire of the Danube. It is drained almost ex- clusively by that magnificent river and its tribu- taries, Within the Austrian dominions the Danube has & coarse of $49 miles, and receives the waters of fourteen large rivers. Nearly all the Austrian States are mountainous, and the consequent eleva- | tion and diversity of surface gives a climate of great variety. The mean temperature of the year at Vienna is fifty-one degrees, In its products, both for value and variety, itis a highly favored country. The produce of its mines alone for the year 1851 is Stated at $60,000,000, It has salt, coal, quicksilver, and all the metals ex- cept platina, Rock salt occurs in immense beds, and salt is made also by evaporation from springs. | | The annual yield from both sources is upwards of three million hundred weight. Grain of every kind is raised in Hungary. The potato flourishes everywhere, and {s the principal food of large sec- tions of the peopie. Fruit is abandant and fine, | and in the production of wine Austria ts second only to France. THE GOVERNMENT. For Fine Art, for Progress, for Merit, for | Taste, for Workmen. + INDUSTRY IN EVERY FORM. Technical Review of What the Great Fair Contains, WSTRIA AND THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG, pata Bee Swen fe Austria, properly and strictly so called, is an | ancient province and urchduchy of Germany, with B suriace of Only 15,000 square miles and a popula- tion of less than three inilion. It is, therefore, about half the size of the State of Maine. It is divided into Upper and Lower Austria and the Duchy o1 Saizbarg, and lies on both sides of the Danube, between the Bavarian boundary and Presburg. The inhabitants are German and mostly Catholic. These are tve principal German States | that now remain to the Austrian Empire, of whieh great empire they were the original nucieus. In the ninth and tenth centuries the duchy of Austria was the frontier of the ancient German Empire against the barbarians. In 928 the German Emperor Henry the Fowler, perceiving that it was of great importance to settle some person im Austria who might oppose these incursions, in- vested Leopold, surnamed the Mlustrious, with that country. Otho I. erected Austria into a mar- Quisate in favor of his brother-in-law Leopold, nose descendant Henry LI. was, created Duke of | Austria by the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa. His | posterity becoming extinct in 1240, the States of | the country, in « to defend themselves irom | | | ART AND ¢ the incursions ef the Bavarians and Hungarians, resolved to put themseives under the protection o& Genry, Marquis of Misnia; but Othogar IL, King of Bohemia, being likewise invited by a party in the duchy, took possession o/! it, alleging not only the invitation of the States, but also the rignt of his wife, heiress of Frederic, the last duke. The Emperor Rodolph 1., pretending a right to this duchy, reiused to give Othogar the investiture of it: and afterwards killing him ina battie, prooured the right of it to his own /amily. From this hodolph the present House of Austria is descended, which for several centuries past bas rendered jt self so famous and so powerful, having given four teen emperors to Germany, and six kings to Spain. In 1477 Austria was erected into an archduchy by the Emperor Frederic the Pacific for his son, Maximilian, with these privileges:—That these shall be judged to have obtained the investiture of the States, if they do not receive it aiter having de- Manded it three times; that if they receive tt from the Emperor, or the imperial Ambassadors, they are to be on horseback, ciad in a royal mantle, having in their hand a@ staff of commana, and upon their head a ducal crown of two points, and sur- Mounted with a cross jike that of the impertal crown, The Archduke is born privy councilor to | the Emperor, and his States caunot be pul ro the ban of the Rmpire, Ail attempts against his person | Austria is a monarchy, hereditary in the house of | Hapsburg-Lorraine, the heir to the Austrian throne in this family being also King of Bohemia and Hun- gary; but, should this reigning family die out, Bo- | hemia and Hungary will each have the right to choose their sovereign anew. ‘Thus it is in the person of the ruler that the unity of the Empire lies. The States are grouped around their sovereign in perpetuation of the political accidents that originally drew them together as subject to one | crown. Stuce the war with Prussia, in 1866, a liberal con- stitution has been conceded to Hungary similar to that for which her people arose in 1848; she thus | has a separate internal government, and this cir- cumstance gives the monarchy au essentially fed- eral character in its political organization, while .| | the exceedingly dissimilar peoples of the many States give it etherwise an essentially composite | character. Every Austrian is subject to military service for three years in the line, seven years in the reserve and two years in the landwehr. The army on a peace footing ts 246,000, and on war footing 822,000. The public debt 18 $1,000,000,000, THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA. Francis Joseph, the reigning sovereign, was born In 1830, avd is, consequently, forty-three years of age. He is the son of the Archduke Francis, and ascended the throne in 1848, upon the abdication of the chnidiess Ferdinand, his father’s brother. His accession to the throne was secured in the interest of the conservative or absolutist party, which was | dissatisfied with certain concessions that Ferdi- nand had promised to the liberals, and which party determined to defeat and prevent the fulfilment of these ‘promises by changing the sovereign. His reign began, therefore, in an attempted restoration of that despotisia which the liberal spirit of the age had weakened somewhat in the time of pre- ceding rulers, He dissolved the National Guard, repressed energetically the freedom of the press, abolished the constitution given by his uncle, and in 1855 made a concerdat with Rome involving grants of extraordinary privileges to Roman prel- ates, It was the theory of the absolute party, con- fronted by the general revolutionary outburst of 1848, that that outburst (with all similar troubles) | Was due to the indulgence of absolutism. They thought they had been too kind, too gentle, too considerate with the people, and that the growth of liberty was one of the results of that amiable weakness on their part, and that all this agitation for rights was only an abuse of that per- mitted freedom, So they assume that the best cure Was to lake away even the liberties they had given and put down the folitical brakes generally. The conseqven:> of this policy was such @ growth of disafiecon, running to revolt, a8 threatened to shatter the Empire to its centre, Out of that disaf- fection grew (he Italian war of 1869 and the cession of Lombardy, It was the same disaffection, and the disorganization consequent upon it, coinciding with the use of the needle gun, that cag#down the Empire on the decisive defeat of Sadowa. Since that sudden awakening Austrian councils have be- come penetrabie to the spirit of modern times, and future of an Empire that needed only good govera- ment for the happiness of its people. RECBNT EMPERORS OF AUSTRIA. Ferdinand {., uncle and predecessor of the present Emperor, abdicated December 2, 1848, and now lies at Prague, where, it was recently reported he was lying so dangerously il that his recovery seemed impossible. He was born in 1793, and was the eldest son of Francis 1. He was distinguished for his amiable dispo- sition and goodness of heart; but these excellent attributes were not sustained by a force of charac- ter sufficient to make them of practical benefit to his subjects in a country where it would have re- quired @ very strong will indeed for cven the Sov- ereign to have overcome the political traditions and to have made head against the abso- lutist tendencies of all the institutions and jaws that oppressed the Austrian people. Urged on the one hand by resolute uphold ers of the old absolutism, like Metter- nich, and alarmed on the other by popular agita- tions, the reasonableness of which hia candid mind seemed to recognize, he had an uneasy reign of thirteen years, FRANCIS I, OF AUSTRIA (and Second of Germany), father of the preceding, was born at Florence in 1768, and came to the throne in 1792, just in time to enter into the alliance of the sovereigns against the French Revolution. Bonaparte’s Italian compaign brought him, however, to the terms of the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. His reign was the reverse side of the history of Na- poleon—the record of the disasters equivalent to that conqueror’s victories, He made the peace of Luneville after Marengo; the peace of Presburg after Austerlitz, and the peace of Schonbrunn after the occupation of Vienna. His daughter, Maria Louisa, was married to Napoleon in 1810, and he was in alliance with the great soldier in the disas- trous retreat from Russia; but he was again with the allies at Leipsic. He labored earnestly to secure the good of the country by internal improvements in the administration; but his horror of revolu- tionary ideas (he was the nephew of Marie An- toinette) made him an extreme absolutist. He died in 1835. FAIRS AND THEIR HISTORY. — Fairs, in their origin, were a contrivance of prim- itive trade, the device of ages when communication between the peoples of different countries, or people in distant parts of the same country,was not known as a fact of ordinary life; when travel was not only dangerous by the perils of the way and difficult be- cause of the rude contrivances in use, but utterly impossible to the mass ofthe peopie because of the necessarily great expenditure of money for a jour- ney. In those days no vast fleets of merchantmen filed every sea, bearing the products of a national industry from one country to another, and no heavily freighted trains of railroad cars distributed into every city and village, as now, the merchan- dise and commodities of great manufacturing towns or districts; but where commodities were made there they were sold, because it was easier for the buyer to come and make his purchases, each carrying home what his wants re- quired, than for the maker or seller to transport to distant points the product of a year's industry. As travelling was so dificult, however, the journey for purchases could not be made often, and thus periods were fixed for it, generally twice a year; and the industries of a whole city or district ac- commodated themselves to this necessity, and la- bered through six months in making the articles that were to be sold in a few weeks at the time of the great Spring or Autamn concourse of buyers. Thus the great fairs of all nations have been SIMPLY SEMI-ANNUAL MARKETS, the result of the conditions of life in former times, and the smaller fairs have been a lesser or local application of the same system—the queer customs and peculiar privileges, such as suspension of ar- rest except for offences committed at the fair, &c., being simply contrived to encourage men to come, In the choice of seasons for the fairs nature was clearly consulted, for in Winter people were kept at home by bad weather, and in Summer they could not leave their laber in the flelds. Some re- lation has been noticed between the time chosen for fairs and that for great religious festivals in mosc countries—a relationship due, perhaps, toa common cause, for the priesthood in all religions has generally contended that their festivals should be celebrated at seasons when the people have most leisure, And the people in these cases have generally not followed the priests in the choice of a place for the fair, bat the priests have followed the people and made their festivals where they found the concourse. From this view of the origin and true character of fairs, it necessarily follows that they were first known in Griental countries—the first seats of the ordinary civilization of industry ana trade; and it follows with equal force that they still flourish there in almost their ortginal splendor, communica- tion being scarcely better in many Eastern coun- tries at the present day than it was a thousand years ago, Indeed, with a few remarkable excep- tions, fairs in the ordinary sense have disappeared, so far as they bad any splendor, from civilized coun- tries, and itnger only in the remoter lands, out of reach of the influence of the modern spirit. Thus the only really great, reguiarly recurring fair still] known in any European country is in Russia, and even on the confines of the Asiatic portion of that vast Empire—the Fair of St. Peter and St. Paul, at Nijini Novgorod. THE RUSSIAN FAIR AT KIACHTA, Doubtless the greatest fair in Asia at the present day is that of Kiachta, in Southern Siberia. This fair has, moreover, a truly international character. It is not @ mere point at which the inhabitants of two or three neighboring towns or valleys come together at certain seasons to supply the ordinary wants of common life, but a neutral station where the products of two great nations are bartered and where the people of many races mingle for mutually advantageous transactions, Itis near the Chinese frontier, and thither the great cara- vans bring the precious first crop of tea some- times from a distance of 3,000 miles, This tea is bought by the Russian merchants, who exchange for it furs and the various manu- factured articles of Europe, many from Russian manufactories, and more, perhaps, from the workshops of Birmingham. It is thus that this tea only reaches the world outside through Russia, in which country, however, most of it is consumed. The great distance from which the caravan tea is brought by that slow carriage is the important element in its price—the main reason why it is 80 dear. Perhaps when we get a railroad through China even newspaper writers will be able to in- duige in the sublime beverage. A GREAT PAIR IN INDIA. ; Another Asiatic fair of great importance is held in Western India, at Hurdwar, on the River Ganges. Here there is also a great religious fes- tival. This fairis held in March and April every year, while every twelfth year the concourse as- sumes an extraordinary character, Each year the gathering is little short of three hundred thousand, and at the last of the twelfth yearly occasions there were 2,000,000 visitors, NUJINI NOVGOROD, At Nijini Novgorod, in Eastern Russia, is held an annual fair that is the most important event of the year to all the Central and Eastern Pro- vinces of Russia and to many nations of Asia that trade with the Empire. The value of the goods ex- changed in the year 1863 was eighty-five million dollars. It is opened on the 27th of July and lasts one month, Europeans, Bokharians, Khivans, Khigise, Tartars, Americans, Persians and Chinese visit it. GERMAN FaIRs, ‘The most important fairs of Central Europe are those of Leipsic and Frankfort. The Leipsic Fair proper 1s semi-annual, and is held at Haster and Michaelmas; but there is also a Bookseller's Fatr—a sort of trade sale and settling day—in January, which is often classed as a vhird fair. The Leipsic fairs are for twelve days each, and were once of great importance, but modern life has in this respect much changed their character. They figure greatly in the history and romanee of Germany in the Middie Ages, The Frankfort Fair is also semi-annual; that in the Spring beginning the Sunday before Palm Sunday, and in the Fall sneh great measnres in the cultivation of modern industry and the light of modern civilization as this Vienna Exhibition give better augury for the ‘on the Sunday before the 8th of September. Old books are @ great commodity here. This fair is held fourteen days. PAIRS IN WESTERN BUROPR. Through France, Italy and Engiand many fairs are held that have lost altogether their ancient re- lation to the commerce of the country, and are continued rather as curious relics of ancient cus- toms and occasions for merrymaking. To this the only exceptions are the horse amd cattle fairs, which, though they are not so important commer- cially as they once were, since more convenient means are found for mere trafic even in these, yet they still combine a certain importance in that respect with their greater value as shows of the resulta of good breeding, and for the good influ- ence they thus exercise upon the products of the country, MODERN INTERNATIONAL RXHIBITIONS. In considering the modefn great exhibitions and worl.’s fairs at the end of this glimpse at the his- tory of fairs we observe, first, that they are not truly fairs in the ordinary sense of that word, as always hitherte used. Goods are not gathered here forsale principally, but for show, as indications of the progress made in widely separated nations; neither do merchants come principally to buy, but rather to view, to study and compare, that they may lay out their money more wisely’ in future ventures. They are exhibitions of samples, and as such have a direct and tncaiculable importance on manuiacturing and trading; but they are pre-emi- nently educational in their cbaracter. They teach each people what thing it can make better and cheaper than any other people, and what product Of its industry some other people cam produce in greater excellence. They thus direct labor bya practical comparison, the usefulness of which it is impossible to overrate. But their greatest im- portance is that they are the successive Sessions of the “Parliament of Man, the Fed- eration of the World.” They are congresses in which the representatives of all the nations of the world come together and consider the state of in- dustry, commerce, invention, household comfort, domestic art and the fine arts—things directly re- lating to the life of every man, and thus far more influential with regard te his condition than the political machinery of States; and what is done and sald at these congresses is of far more consequence to human happiness than what is done at all the law-making congresses of the world. The Exposition at Vienna is the fourth of these great congresses. The first was held at London in 1851; the second at London in 162, and the third at Paris in 1867. THE LONDON EXHIBITIONS—1851—1862. The first of the “Great Exhibitions” was held in Hyde Park, London, in the year 1851. It was opened May 1 and closed October 15, and was visited by upwards of six millions of persons. The building for this exhibition covered an area of nineteen acres, its supreme length being 1,851 feet, or nearly three-eighths ofa mile, It was the first of the now regularly recognized Crystal Palaces, and was erected from plans made by Joseph Paxton, gardener to the Duke of Devon- shire. Mr. Paxton had made for several persons in England very beautiful conservatories, com- posed principally of iron and glass, and when an edifice was wanted for the proposed World’s Fair it naturally occurred to him that one of these conservatories made on & gigantic scale would give @ structure of magnificent effect and having great advantage in regard to light. His plans re- commended themselves to the Commissioners, and the building was the first if not the greatest success of the undertaking, Paxton was knighted. At this fair there were 15,000 exhibitors. ‘he classi- fication of things exhibited was made by Dr. Lyon Playfair, and was an elaborate analysis of indus- trial and productive art. There were four great sections devoted to raw materials, machinery, manufactures and fine arts, These were divided into subsections, of which there were four of the first, six of the second and nineteen of the thira— in all twenty-nine classes—and the classes were divided on an average into about eight portions each. For instance, section 3 was manufactures, One class of this was manufactures in animal and vegetable substances; the letter A of this class was manafactures of india rubber and No. 1 of this was waterproof articles as distinguished trom elastic articles. Perhaps one of the most permanent ad- vantages of these exhibitions is derived from the necessity encountered of thus CLASSIFYING THE PRODUCTS of the world’s industry—of making, as it were, all these apparently incongruous facts into a science, that their relations toone another may be definite- ly and readily comprehended. In the general edu- cational activity too little is, perhaps, thought of what has been achteved in the mere making of the gatglognes to these great exhibitions. In the flnal fnalyaia of the Hyde Park catalogue there were 2,000 headings, and the jurors passed upon a mil. lion articles. WHO TOOK THE PRIZES. In machinery, in manufactures, in metals and in glass and porcelain manufactures British exhibitors | gained more prizes than all others together. In textile fabrics, in fine arts and in miscellaneous manufactures the foreign exhibitors took the honors in the proportion of three-fifths to two- filths against the British; while in the section of raw materials for food and manufactures foreign exhibitors gained nearly four times as many prizes as the British. There were 166 medals, and more than haif (eighty-eight) were given in one of the four main divisions—that for machinery, which might by the prejudiced publig outside be attribut- ed to the fact that John Bull is a manufacturer, AN AMERICAN TRIUMPH. Not the least interesting point in the history of this famous fair was a brilliant American success that has made as much: noise in the Anglo-Ameri- can world as perhaps all the other successes of the fair together, This was the startling triumph of the glorious little yacht America. From the ne- cessity of the case the America was not put in the Crystal Palace, but she was aent to that exhibition and the race she won was one of the incidents of that great concourse of people frum all nations. She started Jast in a large feet of yachts and came in eight miles ahead of everything, showing England that one of the great manulacturing in- dustries in which she was superior only by the neglect of ethers was the building of ships, THE LONDON EXHIBITION OF 1862. In 1862 the second great exhibition was opened in London. It was inferior in splendor to that of 1851, and in every sense less interesting. One most significant legacy, however, it seems to have left to the world is the International Society of Workingmen. It is said that the origin of this so- ciety was in the visit of French workingmen to London in 1862, Through this circumstance the exhibition of that year seems likely to exercise a gteater influence than all the others upon civiliza- tion in Europe—whether for better or werse the future must show. THE FRENCH EXPOSITION. The Paris Exhibition was opened on April 1, 1867, by the Emperor Napoleon, in person. It was the most ambitious of all the efforts to outdo the work! in its splendor and extent as ashow. It was on the Champ de Mars, the great military parade. The area covered by the building was thirty-seven acres, The @an of the building was a series of concentric circles, enclosing a central garden, The outer circle was devoted to ma- chinery. Although the most commodious and cer- tainly for the true purposes of display, as giving the Most space for the ground covered, this was the best of exhibition buildings, yet it was without that ex- ternal architectural splendor that might naturally have been looked for in an edifice contrived for such a purpose in # city like Paris, and its circular, squat character seemed to justify the Emperor's sarcasm when he said to the architect, ‘‘You have made me a gigantic gasometer.” It was, how- ever, truly universal—a Mosaic history of the activity of the age. In the food department there was a practical exemplification by restaurants kept according to nationality, in which were served up the dishes peculiar to cach country. There were 42,000 exhibitors and 11,000 rewards were distributed. An important part was the 6utdoor exhibitien, in which were shown actual examples of the styles of domestic and palatial architecture of many coun- tries, and tents of nomad tribes of the Russian Empire and of Bedouin Arabs. Beasts of burden were also shown of all nations, and there were fine illustrations of the great works of military engi- neering. This exhibition was visited by ail the sovereigns of Europe, and was regarded as the cul- munation of spectacles of this kind. It waa even 1873.-QUADRUPLE SHEET. thought to have shown that they might be carried too far, indeed, and fail, and become unmanageable through the dimicalty of thoroughly organizing col- lections of such magnitude. OTHER EXHIBITIONS. We have classed the Vienna Exhibition as what 1t¢ doubtless is—the fourth of the great displays of this nature; but this aketch of the exhibitions would not be complete without reference to sev- eral of much leas magnitude than these four that have been held since the first exhivition during the first French Republic, The first exhibitions were held in Paris in 1798; one, Of art objects principally, in the Maison d’Or- say, and another, efindustrial products, in another part of the city, Both are regarded as having been of great value in the advancement of the scientific study of national industry. Another was held in 1802, under the Consulate of Napoleon, and the hold- ing of triennial exhibitions became from that time an established usage in France, though the sequence was not strictly regular, as they were sometimes relinquished through political disturb- ances, This French system was first imitated in lreland by the Royal Dublin Society, in the year 1829. Several cities in England followed the example. Ali these were exhibitions of the same class aa the “fairs of the American Institute,” so familiar for many years past to the people of this city. The great London Exhibition of 1851 was first proposed by Prince Albert, in 1848, and was simply an extension of the then familiar plan of industrial fairs, applying to the world what had formerly been restricted to local, or at most national, industry. The London Exposition of 1851 was followed by one in Cork tn 1852; one in Dublin in 1853; one in New York in the same year, and one in Paris in 1855. All these, save the one at Cork, were inter- national. It is no doubt generally remembered that the one in New York was heid in a crystal par ace constructed for it on the then vacant place be- tween the west side of the Forty-second street res- ervoir and the Sixth avenue. It was destroyed by fire, with nearly all its contents, VIENNA AND THE PRATER. Vienna; or, “The Vindobona of the Romans,” as many classical dwellers of the semi-oriental city delight to call her, is, perhaps, more generally Parisian in character than any other place on the Continent of Europe. While the suburbs have been laid out in the most gorgeeus style, covered with delightiul villas amd gardens, representative of the highest architectural, floral and horticultural arts, to meet the demands and tastes of the middie and flourishing classes, all the available portions of the old town have been subjected to the renovating in- fluences of the modern architect and contractor for the benefit of the rich and affluent. The old town, whose history naturally carries the student back several centuries, is less than a mile in cir- cumierence. Here can been seen streets and buildings whose irregularity, puzzling and intri- cate, lead directly to the supposition that, like old New York, the present brilliant capital of the Hapsburgs was built upon “cowpaths.” Fire and sieges have leit indelible evidences of their rav- ages from time to time; but the visitor can yet see from the Bastei tne od fortifications now converted into a delightful promenade, several groups of closely-built dwellings that have with- stood the elements, the political wars and the hand of the besteger for centuries, and are to-day interesting specimens of buildings, glorious for their comfort, accommodation and antiquity. A walk through Herru Gasse reminds the visitor of the days when Kara Mustapha, with 200,000 Turks, battered away at the grand old walls and fortifica- tions. Here the aristocracy formerly held sway, and the numerous alieys and 1anes, with butld- ings almost meeting above the first floor window, betoken the manner in which they lived, huddled together for society and protection. Now bankers, stockjobbers, brokers, merchants doing business with the whole world, congregate in this locality, while lawyers, affluent and briefless, occupy promi- nent and obscure positions, the first as counsellors of importance, the last to lounge, smoke ciga- rettes, talk “stocks” and tell legendary stories and create history for Auerbach or the numerous peany-a-liners who contribute to the literature of the cottage and the kitchen. Here also, within the limits of the giacis, dwell many of the most wealthy and aristocratic families of Europe. Churches, cathedrals, art galleries and musical societies are also abundant. As before stated, modern innovations have somewhat altered the exterior aspect of many of the dwellings of the nobility; but within the old oaken staircases and superb sculpture, the pride of ‘Old Austrians, stiil remain intact, and are shown to the eslect and formally introduced stranger with great pride by the chier of the household. The modern city is now from twelve to fifteen miles in circumierence and has a popUlation of nearly a million. On the east of the city is the “blue rolling Dan- ube,” now being widened and deepencd and diked, and an entirely new cut-off channel is being excavated nine miles long and 1,000 feet wide, along which, on the city side, extends a magnifi- cent quay, to be lined with business. Thus Vienna is to be made a great port, and reached by large steamers from the sea. West and southwest of the Ring the stranger can find his way into the most delightfal of suburban districts. He can take the omnibus at University place and go via Alser-Gasse to Herrnals, or go through Alt Serchenfeld Haupt Strasse to New Serchenfeld and to Ottakrin, or take a pleasant trip in more southeasterly direction through Matz- leindt High street. Through all these districts the modern and beautiful are everywhere apparent. ‘The whole city of Vienna—the present circum- ference of which would be about twenty miles, without counting in the numerous suburbs, called Vorerte—is subdivided into nine circuits, or dis- tricts (Bezirke). Bach one of these circuits is governed by a Board of Trustees, called Bezirk- sausschuss, and Bezirksborstand, or President of the Circuit. This President and Board possess, to @ very great extent, executive powers in all matters pertaining to their respective circuits, in- dependent of the city government, although, in Most cases, they are considered as the deputed executive officers of the Commune. Each circuit has within its own limits a Gemaindehaus (Town House). These are generally substantial and finely built structures, containing im them the offices of the several members of the Board of Trustees of the Bezirksborstand, Justice of the Peace for that par- ticular circuit; also the rooms for the city police, firemen, and engines set apart for that circuit; nd all business, whether im connection with the streets, water or gas pipes, of that particular cir- cuit, or with individuals living under its jurisdic- tion, has to pass through some branch of this Town House, no matter whence it may come. The general city government of Vienna is repre- sented by a Board of Aldermen called Gemetnder- ath, and @ Mayor (Burgermeister), who is elected, not by the people direct, but by the Board o/ Alder- men. This Board has power, under the statutes of the State, to enact ordinances, pass orders in re- gard to assessments and taxes and regulate the affairs of the Commune. The Mayor is the presid- ing officer of the Board, @nd, as With us, posse sses the veto power on ordinances, but not on resolu- tions. The Prater Park. ‘There are many public breathing places around the city, but the most popular and largest of these is the Prater Park, This park covers an area of 575 acres, and is, in truth, from its lovely walks, its majestic trees, pretty iandscapes and fountsins and statuary, one of the finest inthe world, Itis the constant resort of the resident, floating and cosmopolitan population, In the fine days of early Spring it isa treat to the foreigner te visit this spot. From all direetions—from the Chain Bridge to Prater Stern, up Jager Zell and numerous other arteries, via St, Stephen's Bridge, to Prater Allée come brilliant processions of old, gorgeous equil- pages adorned with insignia and mottocs of nobie houses; coachmen and footmen clothed in liveries of gray, black, scariet and gold, with powdered wigs and knee-breeches, occupy their respective positions outside in front and rear of the vehicles. Within may frequently be seen the relatives and immediate retainers of the imperial household— archdukes, archduchesses, and princes of the Empire—while the two hundred/old families of title and influence generally send forth from the heart of the city a grand array o/ beauty and talent such as few cities in the world can produce. But in the walks and drives ot the Prater itself is ¢ontrea the chief interest to the foreigner. The whole uni- verse, a8 it were, passes before him. Here may be Seen the representatives of the far East, walking Singly or in small parties; the Parsee, with metre- like hat and sombre shit of black; the Persian merchant, with much stateliness of mien, crowned by his turban and loosely clothed in his flowing robe and bagged trowsers; the proud Turk, with his inevitable cigar and hideous iooking costume, gorgeous in jewels and silks; the vivacious Itaiian, the calculating Russian and the witty Parisian, while the bland, consequential Cockney, the far- seeing American and the bigh brea German proper make up a picture ana a confusion of tongues scarcely ever to be met with elsewhere. It is & grand cosmopolitan parading ground; a panorama that conveys ut a glance a good idea of the people and customs of the most important nations of the earth, The Exhibition Building. The Emperor, impressed with the immense popm larity of the Prater, gave his consent that the ex- hibition buildings should be erected there, beliew- ing probably that no better place could be found where the material, wealth and prosperity of wae world could be exhibited. The maia nave or great central palace of industry 18 nearly three thousand feet long, elghty-two feet wide, runs almost di- rectly east and west and consists of the dome and two wings. Each wing is intersected by eight transepts’ at right angles, thus making sixteen transepts 72 feet long, 49 feet wide by 32 feet high, which are again divided, giving thirty-two separate half transepts. Between each of these transepts and half transepts is a space whick is termed a “covered court,” which, in most instances, goes with the transept proper and 1s utilized by the ex- hibitors of that nationality next to it. The dome isin the centre of the building, and is certainly @ monstrous structure. The span measures 334 feet and 275 feet in height, the main roof being what is termed the frustrum of a cone, and is gap- ported by thirty-two immense tron columns, of tae box pattern, eighty-two feet high. At the top, om the compression ring, rest the pillars that support the main lantern, the rooi, which again is a frus- trum, the sides being about parallel to the cone beneath. At the top of this second frustrum is also a compression ring, upon which the supports for the little lantern stand. This lantern haa @ cupola-closed roof, the apex bearing an imitation crown of the Empire, weighing several hundred weight. Scott Russell, the London engineer and aroki- tect, in bis plans for this mammoth structure, estl- mated the iron girders, &c., used in constructing the dome would weigh between two and three thousand tons, but the German engineers and founders have added about two thousand tons to this estimate. ‘‘ie siant of the cone is twenty- three degrees three minutes. The dome is fifty- eight metres larger in diameter than that of St. Peter’s, at Rome. ‘the stitfening girders {rom the Tim to the cone being visible from the outside the effect is anything but pleasant from the grounda below. The inside of the roof is frescoed aud decorated, the outside having simply a coating of paint. In point of size and importance the machinery hall stands next. [tis made up of a main nave apd two smaller naves, running parallel the entire length, but having no transepts. ‘This building is 2,600 feet long by 160 feet wide, and is intended te be permanent, as is also the dome of the main building. Both have been solidly and carefully built, as they will serve asa railroad depot after the close of the great show in October, The main driving shaft, of 33; inches in diameter, sup- plied by the Austrian authorities, rests on a high iron frame, from which the connections by pulleys are made for driviug the machinery, the brackets being of the American ball-and-socket joint pat- tern. The remaining outbuildings are numbered on the map published to-day. THE EXHIBITION AT VIENNA IN 1873. —— The Emperor of Austria sanctioned as early as the Winter of 1871 the project of hoiding am inter- Dational Exhibition at Vienna in 1873, and ap pointed an imperial commission to carry out this project, The members of the Commission held their im. augural meeting soon after their appointment and issued their programme. His Imperial Higness the President, in his opening speech, congratulated the Commission upon the auspicious event which they were met to bring about. Two decades ef years had elapsed, he said, since Prince Albert, to whom civilization js so wuch indebted, first sug- ested those peaceable contests of nations in arts and industry which are designated by the appella- tion “international exhibitions,” and which may not be inappropriately compared to the Olympiads of the ancients. He rejoiced in the recollection that Austria had taken an honorable part im the Exhibitions of London and of Paris, and that her productions gained for her the exclamation of their august Emperor, “I am proud of my Aus- tria.” He pointed out the advantages to be de- rived from this great social gathering, the stimu- lus it would give to the various industries of the monarchy, and the elevating character it would have in connecting thé nations of the world, and making the centre of Europe the battle fleld of @ rivalry in the peace productions of the earth. Imperial and Roysl Austro-Hungarian Commission, The following are the members of the Commis- sien appointed by the Emperor :— PROTECTOR. His Imperial Highness the Archduke Charles Lewis. IMPERIAL COMMISSION, : President, His Imperial Highness the Archduke Régnier. Vice Presidents, His Grace the First. Grand Steward of the Court of His Majesty, Prince de Hoheniohe-Schillings- furst. His Excellency the Minister of the Im} House and of Foreign Affairs, Julius Andras} His Excellency the Imperial and Royal Ambas- sador in London, Ferdinand Count de Beust. His Serene Highness Prince John de Liechten- stein. His Grace Prince John Adolphus de Sehwar- zenberg. His Excellency Count Alfred Potocki. His Grace Priuce Adoiph von Auersperg. Members of the Commission, His Excellency the Great Chamberlain of His wet Francis Count Folliot de Crenneville, cod amen the dann” ag of His Majesty, Count John de Lar! i} 6 ae eee a, be ea Equerry of His Majesty, jount Charles de Griimne. His Excellency the Re Bg Finances of the Empire, the Baron of Holzget 5 Excellency the Minister of War of the Empire, hnenfeld. Baiigrosiiensy. ‘the President of the Council of Ministers for the Ringo pares represented in Parliament, Prince Auers} q His exeeency the Home Secretary, Baron J. Las- er. Seis Excellency the Minister of Public Instraction, imayr. oh er the Minister of Justice, Dr. J. Gifs Excellency the Cis-Leithanian Minister of Fi- nances, the Baron de Prelis-Cagnodo, His Excellency the Minister of Commerce, Dr. aah sExcellency the ae, of the Ministry for culture, the Chevaller J, de ite a OF is Excellency the Minister without portfolio, Dr. Oifie Chief of the Ministry for National Defence, ne! J. Horst. oomne Chief of the Naval Section of the War Depart- mes Excellency the Lee Aad! the Upper House rliament, Chevalier von Hopfen, oftne President of the Lower House of Partia- te ons Excellency the President of the Impertal and Royal High Court of Justice, Chevalier A, de Schmerling. ‘The Marshal of the Province of Lower Austria. ‘The Governor of Lower Austria, Conrad Baron of feld. Excellency the Commanding General in Vienna, Baron J. Maroicic di Madonna del Monte. ithe President of the Crown Council of Law. The WaPvneee i) ihe Snap of the Council of Vienna, Dr. C. Felder. The Chief Come nes of Police in Vienna, M. Lemonnier, Aulic Counsellor, one President of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Fine Arta of Vienna. im tga of the imperial and Royal Academy of Science of Vienna. ‘The Director of the Imperial and Royal Pictere Gallery at the Kelvedert: ee