The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-07 00:00:00

CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY.

The report of the directors, to be submitted to
meeting of proprietors no the lith instant, has
hem ironed. The result of the yeses working shows
• balance in favour of revenue of 52,5501. 9e. 4d.
After payment of all preference charges and
galenist there remains at the credit of the general
revenue account the sum of 20,8121. ss. 3d. available
for division amongst the proprietors of ordinary capital.
Out of this sum the directors recommend the payment of •
dividend of 2 per cent. (2a. per share), which will leave •
Warn of 7581. 15e. 3d. to be carried forward. An norm*
has taken place in the number of visitors during the year
over three of last year of 173,972, making the whole
number 1,661,083 as amnia 1,487,111. This IS the largest
somber attained is any year mare the opining of the Palms,
stoma shat of the recess Istorsationai Extribitioe. rhe
Menage of 173,972 just mentioned is mode up of 145,794
=admissions, and 23,178 admissions of season ticket
The latter is nudely due to the visits of parsons
fetiches in the district. A eorrespoodiag increase has takes
place in the receipts of the refreshment department, which
is also is other respects is a highly satisfactory cosditios. '
The contract with Mr. Strange, the former lessee, having
expired in March last, the directors invited public tenders
for the department, w Lich malted after caret u I coesideration
is their accepting the tender of Meson. Bertram and Roberts.
The exhibitors' department is in a sound and healthy eon.
edition notwithstanding a slight falling oilio the revenue,
dm partly to the reaction which followed the Exhibition
year, and partly to increased care in the selection of tenants.
Material benefit cannot fail to accrue to all the branches of
the compaey's name when the South Loudon hoe of the
Chathern and Dover Railway Company is completed, send
the high level station opened for traffic, which will give the
public s o new termini in die heart of London, via, at
Ludgate-hill and Chariot-cross. The works of this lice are
procordieg with vigour ; the two tunnels are completed the
Nation is rapidly rising in front of the Palace, the short
communication below the road between the station and the
building is in • forward coodition, and the directon are
mitred that there is good prospect of the railway beim
open in the early summer of 1865. The Triennial Handel
Festival—the last meeting of which took place in 1862
will be bald in June sett. An agreement has been entered
into with the Sscred Harmonic Society on terme very bene-
ficial to this company, and every exertion will be made
both by the society and the company to present the works
of the groat composer selected for performance on a scale of
magnitude and completeness surpassing even the former
festivals. Mr. Costa will again conduct the festival, and
changes are contemplated in the arrangements which will
enable • larger number of ponces to be present, and to hear
the
bef performances with greater ease convenience than
ore.

-
A " COUNT-OCIT " AIM A CONTRAST.—The matter
was over for the night, sod the time had arrived for Lord
Middlesex. That nobleman got upon his feet. with • roU
of papers in his hand, and was proceeding to address the
House on certain matters of church reform, with great
energy ; but, alas, for him and for his feelings! before his
energy had got itself into full swing, the members were
swarming away through the dues like • flock of sheep. Mr.
Palliser got up and went, and wee followed at once by Yr.
Bolt, who succeeded in getting hold of his arm io the lobby.
Had not Mr. Bailer been an even•tempared, calculating
mu, with a mind and spirit well under his command, he
most have learned to hate Mr. Bott before this time. Away
streamed the members, but still the noble lard west on
speaking, struggling hard to keep up his fire as though no
such exodas were in process. There was bat little to con-
sole him. He knew that the papers would not
report one sentence is twenty of those he
attend- He harm that, no ores would lases to
him willingly. He knew that be had worked for weeks
and moths to get up his facts, end he was beginning to
know that he had worked in vain. As he summoord
to look roiled, he began to leer that some enemy
courage
the house, and that all would be over. He
had given heart and soul to this affair. His cry was not as
Vanisor's cry about the River Bank. He believed in his
own subject with a great faith, thinking that be could
make men happier and better, end bring them surer to
their God, I said that he had worked for weeks and
'poetise. I might have said that be had been all his life at
this work. Though he ahuffied with his feet vibes he
walked, and knocked his woeds together when he talked,
he was an earnest man, messieg to do do well, seeking no
other reward for his work then the appreciation of those
whom he desired to serve. But this was
For him there was to store nothing but disappointment.
And yet he will work on to the sod, either in this house or
in the other, labouring wearily, without viable wages of
any hied, and, one may say, very sadly. But when he
has been takes to his long rest, men will acknowledge that
he has done somethiog, and there will be left on the minds
of those who shall remember him a conviction that he
served a good cause diligently, and not altogether ioeffi-
dandy. Irisible en his wages, yet in some coins are they
paid. Invisible is the thing he does, and yet it is done.
Let as hope that some sense of this tardy appreciation
may soothe his spirit beyond the grave. On the present
occasion there was nothing to soothe hie spirit. The Speaker
set, urbane and courteous, with his eyes turned towards
the wolorturate orator ; but no other ears in the house
seemed to listen to him. The corps of reporters had
dwindled down to two, and they used their pens very list-
lessly, taking down here a sentence and there a sentence,
knowing that their work was naught. Vanier eat it out '
to the lest, as it taught him a lesson in those forma of the
house which Mr. Butt had truly told him it would be well
that be should leans. And at last he did learn the farm of
a „count-out." Someone from a back mat muttered some-
thing, which the Speaker understood ; and that high officer.
having lied his attention called to a feet of which he would
never have taken cognisance without each calling, did count
the house, and finding that it contained bit twenty.three
members, he put an toad to his own labours and to those of
poor Lord Middlesex. With what feelings that noble lord
must have taken himself bons, and sat himself down is his
study, vainly opening a book before his use, can we not all
imagine? A man he was with ample means, with children
who would do honour to his name; one whore wife believed
in him, if no one else would do so ; a man, let us say, with a
clear conacieoce, to whom all good things had been given.
But of whom now was he thinking with envy!
Early on that same day Farringcourt had spoken
I. the house„—• man to whom no one would lend
a AULD'. whom the privilege of that house kept ,
out of gaol, whose word no man believed; who was wife.
len, childless, nod unloved. Bat three hundred men had
hung Intuit( upon his words. When be laughed is
speech, they laughed ; when he was indignant against the
minister, they at breathless, as the Spaniard nits in the :
critical moment of the bull killing. Whichever way he
turned himself, he carried them with him. Crowds of
members flocked into the house from libraries end smoking. I
rooms when it was known that this Deer-do-well was on •
his legs. Tbe Sulu/era' Gallery was filled to overflowing. '
The reporters turned their rapid pages, working their
fingers wearily till the sweat drops staid upon their
brows. And as the Premier was attacked with some special
impetus of redoubled irony, men declared that he would
be driven to enrol the speaker smug his colleagues, in spite
of dishonoured bills and evil reports. A men who could
shake the thunderbolts like that must be paid to shake
them on the right aide. It was of this mu, and of his
swore, that Lord Middlesex was envious, as he eat, I
wretched sod respectable, in his solitary study !—Con
Yoe Porgire Herf By Aathooy Trollop*. Dorombrs I
amber.