, more extensively planned, though
less of a financial success, than the London one it followed, was not
without effect on the industry and art-culture of France. The United
States also showed that they had not been idle. Our fabrics of
vulcanized rubber and sewing-machines were boons to Europe she has not
been slow to seize. The latter are now sold in England, with trifling
modifications and new trademarks, at from one-third to one-half the
price our people have to pay.

The secret of making money out of these great fairs seemed to have
been lost. Although England's second took in much more than the first,
and four times as much as the first French, four hundred and sixty
thousand pounds having entered its treasury, it failed to leave any
such profitable memorials of profit.

By this time the spirit of French emulation was stirred to its
inmost depths. They had gone to London, argued the Gauls, under every
disadvantage. To prove that they had returned covered with glory,
they hunted every nook and corner of numerical analysis. Out of 18,000
exhibitors of all nations, they had had but 1747, and yet Paris had
received thirty-nine council medals, or honors of the first order,
per million of inhabitants, against fourteen per million accorded to
London. She had beaten the metropolis of fog not only in general,
but in detail. In every branch, from the most solid to the most
sentimental, she was victorious. For machinery a million of gamins
beat a million of Cockneys in the proportion of seven to six; in the
economical and chemical arts, four to one; in the geographical and
geometrical, eight to three; and in the fine arts, Waterloo was
reversed to the tune of twenty to four.

Nothing could be more conclusive; but to take a bond of fate it
was determined to imitate England in trying a second display, and
supplement '53 with '67 more effectively than Albion had '51 with
'62. In what gallant style this determination was carried out we
all remember. France did put forth her strength. She illustrated the
Second Empire with an outpouring of her own genius and energy the
variety and comprehensiveness of which no other nation could pretend
to equal; and she called together the nearest approach to a rally of
the nations that had yet been seen.

The casket of these assembled treasures was hardly worthy of them,
so far as the effect of the mass went. It needed a facade as badly
as does a confectioner's plum-cake. Had the vitreous