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60        Original Papers: Exhibition of 185 1 -Monthly lReport. 
of the several styles more or less in vogue now. Among the patterns of 
Messrs. Inglis and Wakefield for the present season buyers will find two
or three 
cachmeres, as excellent in their own style as in execution, and several successful
adaptations of a style borrowed from the French, namely, an intermixture
of 
natural foliage and the smaller many-coloured forms peculiar to cachmeres.
The pattern inserted at vol. iii. p. 148, is a type of this class. We must
say we 
do not admire it: we repeat our objection on principle to the translation
of 
the woven cachmere effects to printing, and the intermixture of such very
opposite elements seems altogether incongruous. It is, however, but a mere
passing whim, little likely to obtain a permanent footing. Another whim is
the adaptation of the Chine silk effects to mousselines de laine, not at
all 
defensible. It was hardly tolerable in silk,-no better than a mere affectation
and struggle for novelty-and we are sorry to see it descending to meaner
materials: it will soon be applied to cotton at sixpence a-yard, and then
it will 
go to limbo, for twenty years or so, unless Schools of Design, teach the
people 
better and prevent its revival. 
The pattern now inserted seems to us a very successful design for its 
colouring, and proves how much more important the general effect of colour
is 
in a drapery than the abstract character of the forms. In this case, we cannot
say anything favourable of the forms ; on the contrary, there is a slight
affec- 
tation of the Chine silk-look, which is not commendable: still the general
effect is admirable. The scale of the colours and the masses are properly
equalised throughout. If, on the contrary, the leaden colours, for example,
had 
been left white, they would have been discordant spots asserting an undue
pre-eminence. The dahlia is a brilliant specimen of this new and beautiful
dye, 
and the introduction of the amber shews a due sense on the part of the 
designer of the natural want of the proper complementary contrast. 
We esteem this pattern one of the most successful of the latest novelties,
and we are glad to learn that it is one of those most appreciated by the
public. 
It adds further confirmation of our views, that sound principles are always
sure to command a success, if brought forward opportunely. This is a pattern
which is likely to be popular for a long time, because the principles on
which 
it is made are not those of a day, but for all time ; and we have no doubt
it will 
be the interest of the printers to obtain the new extension of copyright
for it, 
assuming that it has already been duly registered. 
EXHIBITION OF 1851: MONTHLY REPORT OF PROGRESS. 
EvEN the most sceptical spectator, as he beholds the beautiful castings 
ing in tons daily from Staffordshire along the Kensington road, having 
een brought by the London and North Western Railway, and now in the 
course of delivery in Hyde Park, feels himself warmed into sympathy for the
Exhibition, and ventures to speak confidently that it will really succeed.
The 
first castings of columns were delivered in Hyde Park on the 7th September,
by Pickfords, having been brought from Dudley by railway, and landed at 
Kensington Basin. They were cast by Messrs. Cochrane. We understand the 
trials of the stren th of all the girders for supporting the galleries, &c.,
have 
been most satisfactory, and that they have been proved capable of bearing
four 
times the weight that is ever likely to be required. The ground also has
been 
tested in many places by weights of fifty tons, considerably more than is
neces- 
sary, and has been found perfectly sound and satisfactory. A steam-engine
and numerous cranes and tools of all kinds have been prepared abundantly.
The vigorous prosecution of the works seems to have effected a magical 
change in certain quarters towards the undertaking, and perhaps has even
caused some twinges of conscience to those sham friends, who, mistaking the
quiet of solid preparations for torpor and weakness, thought they would shew
their sagacity by prognosticating failure, and scraping together all sorts
of 
objections, substantial and otherwise. 
That the Exhibition building is to be mainly constructed of iron and glass,
appears to us a most happy omen for the progress of architecture in this