Page:Australian views of England.djvu/101

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LETTER IX.


THE EXHIBITION—PARTY CONFLICT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS—LORD BROUGHAM AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.


THE Great Exhibition is beginning to attract a world of strangers in London; the increase of life and bustle everywhere is very noticeable. Foreign faces and strange costumes meet you in every street and at every assembly; cabs are in general commotion; the inland railway lines converging on town are alive with excursionists; the express trains from the great seaports come twisting round the curves like enormous centipedes. The state of things is wonderfully chained from last month. For the last two or three weeks the daily number of visitors at the Exhibition has raided over 50,000, and very often 35,000 persons are present together. The Australian courts are attracting much notice, as they deserve to do;