It was deemed by the Committee that the peculiar object for which the
building was required, namely, the encouragement of the widest and most
liberal competition in all the branches of arts and manufactures--the
circumstance of the cost of the erection being defrayed by the public--the
peculiar character of the building, for the designing of which were
especially required judgment and contrivance in the detail of arrangement,
and experience in the management of large crowds, and for the construction
of which the mechanical skill and knowledge of the application and of the
economical use of materials now so generally possessed by builders and
practical men were necessary--all seemed, in the opinion of the Committee,
to be reasons for recommending that the designs for the general
arrangements should, as far as practicable, be the result of public
competition, and that the actual construction should be so to the fullest
extent. The Committee were, moreover, of opinion that the general design or
arrangement of such a building was one of those subjects, perhaps few in
number, on which many good ideas may be elicited by a general contribution
of plans; and that a mode might be adopted of obtaining such plans, and
collecting useful suggestions from them, which should not eventually lead
to any loss of time, or be attended with those delays which too frequently
render ordinary competition inconvenient.
Great objections were made in some quarters to the proposed site in Hyde
Park; but as they were not raised on really public grounds, they were
gradually overcome by the interest which the public at large manifested in
the success of the undertaking.
In consequence of the latter recommendation in the Report which was adopted
by the Royal Commissioners, the following document was published by them on
March 13th, 1850, copies of which appear to have found their way into
almost every corner of Europe:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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