ABSTRACT
The great characteristic of the year 1851, the year that divides the present century, has come to its auspicious close; and although the ceremony of closing was not such as it might have been, yet as regards the assemblage of a vast multitude of human beings, it was sufficiently imposing. Many nations have mingled together on the arena of the Palace of Industry, vieing peacefully with each other in their respective productions of usefulness and of taste. The Prince has erected adjacently model cottages for the labouring poor, which, the people hope, will be extensively copied in building the future abodes of the humble classes. America shone out in that which is strictly useful and of a practical character, whilst England, by her magnificent machinery, took the lead as the greatest engineering community of the world.
