"...the peak of the Prince's success in England, was the great Exhibition
of 1851 which was held in Hyde Park. This celebration of the nation's
industrial and commercial greatness was very largely Prince Albert's
own conception. The dazzling and epoch-making engineering
masterpiece in which it was staged was the result of his own
imaginative patronage; the immense and meticulous organization
was carried out entirely under his personal and detailed direction;
and the whole affair was a brilliant and unqualified success.
The huge 'Crystal Palace' was visited by more than six million people
between May and October, and made a profit of £186,000. With its
avowed object of the bettering of mankind, the Great Exhibition may
stand as the supreme example of that new involvement in practical
affairs and social responsibility which Prince Albert taught Queen
Victoria to regard as one of the main functions of monarchy in the
modern age.î Michael St John Parker (1976) Queen Victoria, page 14.
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