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It is not improbable that, after all, this great undertaking will prove a stupendous failure. Certainly, unless some new leaf is turned over in the association's books of management, the main objects for which it was projected will be defeated. Quite an attempt was made, not long since, to create an impression that applications for space in the building exceeded the limits of supply. So far is this from the truth that those to whom space has already been assigned are sending in notices of withdrawal ot their applications. This is due to the insane policy of the managers determining to charge an entrance fee to exhibitors. Exhibitors when they know and understand this, very naturally, protest against being so fleeced. The completion of the building before the first of May is an impossibility (as things now go.) and whether it will be done before the Fourth of July is a matter of serious doubt. The engineers and architects are at loggerheads ; much of the material has to be fitted alter it reaches the ground, beams being found too long, and girders too short ; and, to use a homely expression, " the very old Harry is to pay all round." Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., the President of the Association, is a most excellent man, and does the best he possibly can, but he does not possess the tact and management indispensable for carrying out the erection of a building like this. What the Association most need, is a thoroughly practical and experienced managing head—such a man as Barnum, for instance— who can pull, push, coax, or drive, as occasion requires ; and who is accustomed to the control and direction of numbers of workmen. Such a man of leisure would not be caught with his work half done at the time when, as he had told all the world, it should be finished; and least of all, would he allow the saving or expenditure of $20,000 or $30,000 to drive the opening of an exhibition into midsummer, which might reasonably be expected to yield an extra $100,000 if opened on the day and hour it had promised.— New York Sun, April 2nd. [The above statements are correct, and the comments sound and sensible, as those of the Sun, respecting such matters always are.
