The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-05 00:00:00

THE PRINCE OF WALKS AT HALIFAX.

Until about ten o'clock on Monday night the
streets were thronged by • vast crowd, the vicinity
of the Town-hall being, of course, the greatest
point of attraction, the temporary entrance
leading from the triumphal arch to the portico
being illuminated. Up to this time everything
had promised well, and had gone well, with the
single and very special exception of the disap-
pointment caused by the inteneed absence of the
Princess of Wales. This was very currently dis-
cussed, and, to say the truth, the feeling of
disappointment which was universally felt
was expressed oftentimes in tolerably strong
language. It seemed to be supposed that a special
slight, upon no adequate grounds, had been cast upon
Halifax, and that royal personages have scarcely
any right to suffer from natural ailments when
they had promised to grace a popular festivity by
their presence. It is probable that this feeling
might have passed away before the bustle and
anxiety of the next day ; but disappointment was
fated to take • wider range. Up to ten o'clock on
Monday night the weather bad been every way
propitious, but about that time envious clouds
crowned the hills by which the town is surrounded,
and from them descended rain in one long, pitiless,
pelting sharer, which continued all through the
night, and on Tuesday morning, at the hour at
which spectators would under other circumstances
have been on the move to take the places
they had secured or desired to occupy, the down-
tome of water was positively tropical in its charac-
ter. The first idea was that the part of the fes-
tivity on which so much stress bad been laid,
namely, the musical performance of the Sunday
scholars in the Piece-hall, meat be abandoned. As
we havealready mentioned, the Piece-ball is a large
quadrangle, open to the sky in the centre, and sur-
rounded by a colonnade and covered galleries—a
somewhat rude but on the whole effective imita-
tion of a Venetian piazza. In the open space, ex-
posed to every climatic influence, the 1,600
scholars, the bands, and some professional singers
were to be placed, and numerous uncovered stands
for spectators occupied all the rest of the area.
Sixteen hundred players and singers, and four or
five thousand spectators in such a situation,
and waiting there for three hours, with
no other protection from • perfect rain-storm
than umbrellas could afford, was a little beyond
what was to be expected from their endurance.
Happily there came such a diminution of the pelt-
ing rain which fell between half-past 9 and 10 o'clock,
that the attempt was resolved upon, and the
schools flied on in good order, and took up their
positions in sufficient time. As the lookers on
watched the different sections marching to their
allotted places, some surprise may have been pro-
duced in the r ninitiated, who had supposed that these
"Scholars" meant a number of whiterobed children
of more or less tender years, who were to raise
their soft, sweet voices in the hymns and choruses
assigned to them. But in fact the Sunday scholars
embraced persons of all ages, and we are not sure
that in some of the schools we did not
detect three generations amongst them. In
feet there were men, women, lads, girls of all
ages, and certainly a goodly number of real
children, the combination of voices making
the music they uttered so much the sweeter.
The musicians and singers were ranged on the
south side of the quadrangle. Immediately in
fro-it of them a semi-circular space was railed off
for the reception of most of the persons composing
the procosaion, who were to alight from their car-
riages and to occupy seats in that locality. When
the staplers were all in their plates and we looked
round at the seats allotted to spectators, they pre-
seated a melancholy aspect. Not one-third of the
ample accommodation for visitors was put into re-
quisition. In passing along the streets, at every
advantageous point of which stands had been
erected, they wore found to be as nearly empty as
possible. The streets themselves, which bad been
carefully barricaded, and in which admirable pre-
parations had beeu made for preserving regularity
and order amongst the countless crowds which
were expected to throng them were nearly bare
of everything beyond what might be considered
ordinary traffic in a stirring manufacturing town.
Go where you would the same features of compara-
tive desolation prevailed. Even the three pri-
vileged balconies which had been erected along
the temporary ornamental corridor which led from
the triumphal arch to the grand entrance of the
Town•hall were as nearly unteuanted as possible up
to the last moment of the ceremonial. Indeed, so
unprepossessing and uncomfortable an appearance
did these special stands present ; so void were they
of the main element of a demonstration—namely,
well-dressed, enthusiastic, and, in this instance,
loyal spectators—that just before the arrival of the
Prince at the Town-hall it was thought advisable
Ito allow as manyof the persons who were assembled
in the neighbouring streets as were willing
to fill the best places provided for the
occasion to ccme in and occupy them,
so as to prevent a ." beggarly account of empty
boxes" from meeting the gaze of his royal highness
as he passed. This was one very significant
cir-
cumstance. Another was that the first special
train of a well-organised series which had been pro-
vided on a calculation to bring 100,000 persons or
more into the town on the morning of thecerewonial,
brought in just 22 paseengers. In something like the
same proportion was the number of visitors by each
successive train. In truth the demonstration was
a failure ; the programme of the ceremonial was
faithfully carried out, but the essential element—
the life, the soul of the occasion, was wanting. The
rain had done it all. Returning for • moment to
the Piece-hall, it may be stated that soon after
the scholars had been arranged in due order,
the rain, which had diminished to a slight
drizzle, resumed its potency, and poured down in
right earnest. In a moment the whole of the
scholars were shrouded beneath a legion of um-
brellas, from which not a head was visible, and
their long and wide stand presented the. exact
appearance of a huge graduated bed of gigantic
mushrooms. The band, however, braved the
storm, the only shelter which they could find
amongst them being in the power of the ophicleide
players, who might have worn their instruments
helmet-wise over their heads. In this strange
situation, nevertheless, the scholars and musicians
performed one or two hymns, one of them being
the Old Hundredth Psalm, with admirable force
and great precision, under the excellent conductor-
ship of Mr. Dean. Thus they endeavoured to be-
guile the time until the arrival of the Prince in
the course of the routine which bad been laid out
for the day's ceremonial.
Shortly after eleven o'clock a procession, which
bad been formed to precede his royal highness,
arrived from the Mayor's residence at Manor-
heath, and taking the route prescribed, of which we
gave an outline yesterday, proceeded to the west
gate of the "People's Park," where the Prince
alighted, and, accompanied by the Mayor and his
suite, passed through the park, and at the north
gate re-entered his carriage. The remainder of
the procession passed on, and the occupants of
the carriages got out at the west gate of the Piece- '
hall, and filed into the space reserved for them.
Amongst them were the Earl and Countess de Grey
and Ripon, the Bishop of Ripon, Archdeacon Mils- I
grave, Vicar of Halifax; Sir Francis and Lady
Crossley, Sir John Ramada°, M.P., Mr. Stansfeld,
M.P. Mr. Baines, M.P. General Sir George
Wetherell, Col. Harman, Mr. E. Barry, the archi-
tect of the Town-hall, Col. Akroyd, kc. At this mo-
ment the rain so far mimed asto allow of the umbrellas
being_ furled, and the assembled schools were
beheld in a manner commensurate to their merits,
as forming a very imposing spectacle. The car-
riages of the mayor and the royal suite soon after
entered the north gate of the Piece-hall, passed
along a road way in front of the stark in