_ absurd--very far from it. They are rational, politic, beneficent,
indispensable. Whether it is wise or unwise for _your_ young folks to
subject themselves to the inevitable expense and vexation for the sake
of standing a few feet nearer a Queen, is another affair altogether.
When I contrast these presentations with the freedom and ease (except
when there is a jam) of our Presidential receptions--when I remember
that any whole dress is good enough for the White House, and any honest
man or woman (with some not so honest) may go up on a levee night and be
introduced to the President and his lady, saunter through the rooms,
converse with friends and pass in review half the notables of the
Nation--I deeply realize the superiority of Republicanism to Royalty,
but without seeking to put the new wine into old bottles. The forms
appropriate to our simpler institutions would be utterly unsuitable
here--nay, they would be found impossible.

The Queen left London last week for her private residence on the Isle of
Wight, I supposed for weeks; but she was back in the Exhibition early on
Tuesday morning, and has since been holding a Drawing-Room, giving
Dinners, a Concert, &c. with her accustomed activity. She seems resolved
to make the Exhibition Summer an agreeable one for the Foreigners in
attendance, many of whom are included in her invitations. As the
"shilling days" opened meagerly on Monday, to the disappointment
(perhaps because) of the general apprehension of a crush, and as the
numbers thronging thither have rapidly increased ever since, the Queen's
renewed countenance receives a good share of the credit, and her
condescension in coming on a "shilling day" is duly commended. It is
already plain enough that the attendance consequent on the cheap
admission is destined to be enormous. To-day over Fifty Thousand paid
their shilling each, over six thousand per hour--to say nothing of the
thousands who came in on season tickets, or as exhibitors, jurors, &c.
The money taken at the doors to-day must have exceeded $12,000, though
no "excursion trains" have yet come in from the Country. These will
begin to pour in next week, by which time it is to be hoped that the
Juries will have completed their examinations if not their awards; for
they will have scanty elbow-room afterward except at early hours in the
morning. I presume there will be Fifty Thousand admissions paid for
during each of the four "shilling days," of next week. Frida