3-003-837 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of the first Italian Exposition of Industry and Art at Florence by Victor Emmanuel, 1861. '...half the assembled thousands were of the softer but less easily close-packed sex - for every ticket gave the hearer the privilege of taking in a lady on his arm...As soon as the "Re galantuomo" had entered, and, declining to seat himself on his throne, taken up his position, standing a little in front of and almost among the crowd of spectators, the burst of vivas, the waving of pocket-handkerchiefs, and the shouts of "Vittorio Emmanuele, Re d'ltalia!" were such as to show that the chosen King of united Italy has lost not a jot of the popularity he enjoyed when first he visited and took possession of his new Tuscan States...the Marchese Cosimo Ridolfi...one of the leading promoters of the exposition, addressed the King in an excellently short and to-the-purpose speech...It should be especially mentioned that...there were no military present. There was the King, and there were the thousands of his assembled subjects...But there were no soldiers. And it must be remembered that the people were thus trusted and left to themselves infinitely more than we law-abiding Englishmen ever venture on doing; for Italy has as yet no police except military'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.