THE REAL EXHIBITORS EXHIBITED; OR, AN INQUIRY INTO THE CONDITION OF THOSE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES WHO HAVE REALLY REPRESENTED ENGLAND AT THE GREAT EXHIBITION. BY THE REV. JOHN RICHARDSON, B.A., INCUMBENT OF ST. BARNABAS, MANCHESTER, LONDON: WERTHEIM AND MACINTOSH, 24, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1851. 232. c. 108. THE REAL EXHIBITORS EXHIBITED; ETC. ETC. THE accounts which our forefathers have left us of the condition of our island some century or two ago, as compared with what we witness now, lead us to the conclusion, that changes of a very marked and highly beneficial character have taken place in the climate of this country. The deep snows and severe frosts of the protracted winters of former times are now comparatively unknown amongst us. The Thames is now no longer conscious of the strange burden of the roasting ox; her icy shackles have been transferred to more northern streams, and passing from the category of the Volga, the Dnieper, the Danube, she claims companionship with the Tagus, the Tiber, and the Po. Now they who investigate the causes of such a change, ascribe it in no small degree, to the progress which has been made in the agricultural improvements of ourcountry. The felling of forests, the draining of marshes, the more uniform and skilful cultivation of the general surface of the land, are assigned as causes adequate to account for the climatorial and atmospheric change. If such may truly be regarded as sufficient to explain this change, then we have at once an instance, in physical things, of a great principle, which will apply with no less force in B |