The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-20 00:00:00

4mustments, fie.

POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.—A series of novelties
have lately been produced by the indefatigable
manager. The most important is a lecture on
Bessemer's new process of manufacturing iron and
steel. Mr. Pepper, under whose management the
affairs of the Polytechnic Institution are conducted,
details with much minuteness the ordinary mode of
melting and refining iron and steel, showing that
atter the operation a certain amount of impurity
is necessarily to be found in the pig iron; and one
important feature in Mr. Bessemer's invention is,
that it tends to remove that impurity, and to convert
each component part of the metal to a service-
able purpose. Mr. Pepper then explains that, ac•
cording to the old method, one step in the process
called " puddling," an operation which usually occu-
pies two hours and a half, is disposed of by Mr.
Bessemer's plan, by which refined iron is produced
in twenty minutes, and with much more profitable
resnits, and at the same time with a considerable
saving of money. The several interesting points of
the lecture are illustrated by scientificaly drswn sec-
tions of furnaces and other appara us, exhibited on
the large medium of the lecture-ro. m as dissolving
views, which rendered the descriptions perfectly
clear and satisfactory. One curious fact was stated
by Mr. Pepper, tbst the principle on which the late
improvement in the manufacture of iron and steel
has been founded and brought into practical use by
Mr. Bessemer, has been frequently exhibited and ex-
plained at the Royal Pobtechnic Institution for six-
teen years past; but no one until now bad bad the
wit to adapt it to useful purposes. Another new
entertainment has been added to the amusements
here, entitled "Life in the West; or, Every day Life
in the Log Hut and the City "—explained by Mr.
Leicester Buckingham, and illustrated by a series of
dissolving views. A collection of upwards of 100
figures, illustrating with great exactness savage and
civilised life in Mexico, modelled by Signor .Monta-
mui, and in which the costumes are imitated with
characteristic truth, is worth attention. These, with
the re-engagement of Mr. Fairburn and the Misses
Bennett, for their Scottish musical entertainment,
afford the visitors as much instruction as amusement.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE to-day is to open to the
public on payment of one shilling, instead of the
higher sum usually charged on Saturdays, on account
of a fête held by the Early Closing Association. The
association has laboured actively and successfully for
several years in promoting its original object; and it
has lately been the means of shortening the hours
of labour on Saturday afternoons in a very large
number of mercantile establishments and law offices
in the metropolis. The committee art now seeking
to promote still further the Saturday half-holiday
movement, and especially to effect the opening of the

908

British Museum, the National Gallery, and similar
places of recreation on that day. It has been ar-
ranged that the association is to havo a share in the
proceeds of to-day's fete in aid of these objects.

DINNER TO CRIUEAN SOLDIERS AT
PORTSMOUTH.

THE PORTSMOUTH CRIMEAN DINNER has been a
most successful affair, and comprised two distinct
features—a dinner to the men on Tuesday, and
another to the officers on Wednesday. To the pro•
prietors of the London Tavern, on both occasions,
was intrusted the important duty of providing a
substantial English dinner for some 2,500 Crimean
men—soldiers, sailors, and marines—and about
300 officers, and the commission was carried out to
the credit of Portsmouth and the satisfaction of all.
The tents were raised upon the Governor's green,
just within the seafront battery, and were commo-
diously and tastefully arranged. A gallery for the
ladies ran across the centre of the building. The
town throughout the day wore quite a holiday air;
banners floated from some of the public buildings
and private houses, the church bells were rung, and
guns fired at intervals. At one o'clock, the hour fixed
for the dinner, the men belonging to the fleet and the
several regiments were marched to the pavilion,
under the command of their• respective officers, and
preceded by bands of music ; and when they as-
sembled within the building the scene was extremely
animated. Dr. Engledue, a gentleman resident in
the town, and held in high esteem, had been unani-
mously elected by the managing committee to preside
on the occasion, and be assumed the chair at one
o'clock, supported on his right and left by Lord
George Lennox, Sir George Seymour, Vice Admiral
and Commander in-Chief; the Rev. J. P. 31`Gliie,
vicar of Portsmouth ; Admiral Supetintendent Martin,
and several of tl e municipal authorities. The dinner
was an exceedingly substantial one, consisting of
(among other viands) cold roast, boiled, and corned
beef, venison pasty, all in plentiful supply, with hot
potatoes and bread. Two quarts of porter formed
the specified allowance for each man, but, in fact,
they had it ad libitum, and to each of them were
given two ounces of tobacco after the repast. Mr.
Nightingale, the father of Miss Ni4litingale, contri-
buted a hamper of game to the festi al, with a choice
selection of 11.)wers to decorate the tables. Sir F.
Baring, Mr. 'Tharles Osborne of Far•eham, and others
of the gentry, sent similar presents. Almost the whole
of one side of the pavilion was open to the public, and
several thousands of them, assembled on the ramparts,
had a distant view of the proceedings in the interior.
After dinner the usual loyal toasts were drunk, with
tremendous etithusiastn, and amid the thunder of a
royal salute from the batteries. The health of
" The Duke of Cambridge and the British Army "
was responded to by Sergeant-Major &Callum, of
the Royal Artillery .
Jt was a day they would always remember with pleasure.
The manner in which they had been welcomed to their
homes would help to make them forget the hardships they
endured in the service of their beloved Queen and
country—a country they were proud of for its benevolence
—a Queen they should ever revere for the deep sympathy
she had fel• in their sufferings, whose honour it was their
privileges as well as their right and duty to defend; from
which duty they had never shrunk, and never would
shrink, while there was a sabre left in Old England and an
arm to wield it, a musket with a hand and heart to use it,
or a piece of artillery and men to serve it. Sb iuld they
ever again have to tight the battles of their Queen and
country, they would stand their ground, and, should am-
munition fail, they would again resort to stones, as they
did at lnkermann. and try what virtue there wns in a
British bayonet. He wished, in conclusion, to acknow-
ledge the obligations his brave comrades and himself were
under to the navy for their support throughout the cam-
paign They were with the army at the Alma, and did
good service on the enemy's Mink; they were with
them again at Inkermann, and rendered valuable assist-
ance there; and they were with them during their arduous
trench duties, to their own great credit and the glory of
old England.

Other toasts, "The Navy," " Miss Nightingale," and
"The Memory of the Dead," followed in due older,
when the men broke up, shortly after three p.m.,
highly delighted with their entertainment.
On Wednesday evening the officers' dinner was
given. Between two and three hundred officers of
the army, navy, and marines were present. Lord
George Lennox occupied the chair, and was sup-
ported by Major General Sir Harry Jones, Commo-
dore Keppell, Sir William Williams, Sir Richard
Dacres, and other distinguished officers. After the
usual loyal toasts, Lord GEORGE LENNOX, in a brief
speech, proposed the health of the army :

He knew not which moat to admire, the manly bearing
of the British officers when surrounded by sickness and
death in their worst forms, their gallant and heroic con•
duct at the Alma and Inkerm►nn, or their patient en-
durance fur months and months in the trenches before
Sebastopol When the British army planted their standard
in the Crimea they did so with the determination that
nothing should more it but peace, end they showed the