Queen Victoria

Speech of Queen Victoria

I, Queen Victoria, inaugurate on the first of May 1851, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations and also the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the enormous structure of iron and glass in which it is held. It is the first exhibition of culture and industry, it must be unique and grandiose as well as at the height of my kingdom. This Palace is a place of renewal and innovations in which works of art and inventions are life-like. This amazing Exhibition was organized by Henry Cole and my husband, Prince Albert, whom I thank a thousand times for this immeasurable work. The Crystal Palace is a huge building made of over 400 tons of glass and approximately 4,000 tons of metal designed for the occasion by a very great architect, Joseph Paxton.

The construction, based on a principle of assembly of prefabricated elements, obviously took place in a record time. An area of 7.5 ha, in which can be found nearly 14,000 exhibitors from more than forty foreign countries, including half of the British Empire, was divided into four sections: raw materials, machinery, manufactured goods and works of art. It’s the future, it changes society because technology is bringing uplifting and allows Britain to lead the race into the future. Then, the Great Exhibition will provoke a massive trade, I invite other nations to show their technological progress even though nobody can surpass the British innovation. The success of the event will be undeniable and incomes will be beneficial. My husband and Henry Cole proposed to use the money to create a great educational center that would bring educational institutions, science and art in keeping with the objectives that were set at the Great Exhibition.

The exhibition is to be a means of education of the British people : it is to develop a sense of culture among the middle class and to raise moral among workers. Above all, the exhibition will disseminate the British craftsmen and industrialists latest technological developments. My other objective is to promote peace, brotherhood and solidarity between the peoples of the world. And what better way than trade between the different peoples of humanity to ensure that bright horizon? Therefore we are developing free trade and the division of labor, which is only possible if everyone's deeply convicted of the unity of mankind. We live in a period of extraordinary transition, which leads us to this glorious end : the oneness of humanity.

Resources around the globe are at our disposal and we have only to choose what is the best and most economical way to serve our purposes. Free trade should allow harmony and peace among the nations, civilized or not, dividing the tasks of each according to the principle of the division of labor. It is therefore obvious that the development of industrial production and trade takes shape and visibility in the vaults of Crystal Palace that is nothing but a masterpiece of industrial architecture on its own and the proof of the British technical virtuosity. The elites will interpret this future success as the symbol of the triumph of Victorian values ​​of honesty, modesty and work. Britain is the workshop of the world.

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