and taste.

Ten millions of dollars was the authorized capital of the new board.
Events have proved the amplitude of this estimate.

As early as the third day of July, 1873, the President was enabled,
by the notification of the governor of Pennsylvania, to make formal
proclamation that provision had been made for the completion of the
exposition structures by the time contemplated. Nearly three years was
thus allotted for preparation to home and foreign exhibitors. A
year later (June 5, 1874) an act of a single sentence requested the
President "to extend, in the name of the United States, a respectful
and cordial invitation to the governments of other nations to be
represented and take part in" the exposition; "_Provided, however_,
that the United States shall not be liable, directly or indirectly,
for any expenses attending such exposition, or by reason of the same."
The abundant caution of this _italically_ emphatic reservation will
scarcely preclude the extension to the representatives of foreign
governments of such measure of hospitality, on occasion, as they may
have in the like case offered our own.

Acts permitting the Centennial medals to be struck at the mint, and
admitting free of duty articles designed for exhibition, were passed
in June, 1874. The Secretary of the Treasury gave effect to the
latter by a clear and satisfactory schedule of regulations. Under its
operation foreign exhibitors have all their troubles at home; their
goods, once on board ship, reaching the interior of the building with
more facility and less of red tape than they generally meet with in
attaining the point of embarkation.