WHAT I SAW AND HEARD,
&c.
As human beings, we are interested in all that tends to promote the friendly intercourse of the inhabitants of our globe. Hence it is that, if we are but moderately enlightened, we cannot help feeling gratified when we hear of the establishment of highways in the desert, the construction of extensive lines of railroad, the extension of steam navigation on the ocean, and the increasing efficiency of the electric telegraph. Hence also, in 1851, the Great Exhibition, independently of its direct claims on our attention, was hailed as a probable means of promoting the friendly intercommunication of nations hitherto separated. I was myself one of the many thousands to whom this idea imparted a charm of its own, in addition to the many material wonders of the "Crystal Palace."
If then the peaceful intercourse of nations be thus an object of peculiar interest, how much more interesting does that object become when viewed in con-
