Times_ led the attack against the proposed site in Hyde Park,
and the public was uneasy at the thought of large numbers of
foreigners congregating in London, and at the expected importation
of foreign goods.

As showing the absurd things which 'John Bull' could say at this time
in his jealousy and dislike of foreigners the Prince wrote: "The
strangers, they give out, are certain to commence a thorough
revolution here, to murder Victoria and myself, and to proclaim the
Red Republic in England; the Plague is certain to ensue from the
confluence of such vast multitudes, and to swallow up those whom
the increased price of everything has not already swept away. For
all this I am to be responsible, and against all this I have to make
efficient provision."

_Punch_ pictured the young Prince begging, cap in hand, for
subscriptions:

Pity the sorrows of a poor, young Prince
Whose costly schemes have borne him to your door;
Who's in a fix, the matter not to mince,
Oh! help him out, and Commerce swell your store!

Such constant worry and anxiety affected the Prince's health, but
the support of Sir Robert Peel and of many great firms gradually wore
down the opposition.

The building was designed by Paxton, who had risen from being a
gardener's boy in the Duke of Devonshire's service to the position
of the greatest designer of landscape-gardening in the kingdom.

He took his main ideas for the Crystal Palace from the great
conservatories at Kew and Chatsworth. It was like a huge greenhouse
in shape, nearly one thousand feet long and ninety feet high, with
fountains playing in the naves and a great elm-tree in full leaf under
the roof.

On May 1, 1851, the opening day, everything went well. The crowds
in the streets were immense, and there were some 34,000 visitors
present in the building during the opening ceremony.

Lord Macaulay was much impressed with the Exhibition, for he wrote
after the opening: "I was struck by the numbers of foreigners in the
streets. All, however, were respectable and decent people. I saw none
of the men of action with whom the Socialists were threatening
us. . . . I should think there must have been near three hundred
thousand people in Hyde Park at once. The sight among the green boughs
was delightful. The boats, and little frigates, darting across the
lake; the flags; the music; the guns;--everything was exhilarating,
and the temper of the multitude the best possible. . . .