The Express.
London, England, 1852-03-17 00:00:00

THE GLASS PALACE.

(Frova the Deify Nara.)

Mn. Otiscowea lag night asked in the House of
Commons what is to be done with the Crvs.al
Palls.s. The answer he received from LordicaN

MANN I AB' the new Chief Commissioner of Works,
woo that the government did not intend to take
say step for preserving the building in - Hyde
Park beyond the lit of May—the day to which it
was formerly respited. According to the present
custom of parliament Mr. DUNCOMBE was pre-
cluded front making any statement, and was con-
fined to merely putting the question. By the
old custom before parliament was reformed,
when a member put a question or presented a
petition, he was at liberty to make a speech ;
and sumo of the must racy and effective de-
bates ensued on such incidental disew.ions.
More amusement and more instruction were
often elicited on such occasions than we now
derive 'tutu many of the formal three nights' debates
into which the eloquence of our present senators
can scurcely compress itself. Had the old custom still
continued we should scarcely have felt ourselves called
on to advert to the grounds of the hott. member's
motion. But as the hon. gentleman did not give any
lengthened explanation, we must endeavour to make
up tor tho silence w hieh the present forms of the house
imp,. 1 on him. lf he possessed our fie edom, he might
possibly have informed the house that very
awkward rumours arc afloat as to the intentions of
those who have decided on palling down the Crystal
Palace, and who have the control of the money col-
lected by the national exhibition. to which all parts
of the empire and all classes contributed. We are dis-
posed to lend car to these rumours, because they
accord unfortunately with our national customs. e
are not undeservedly reproached with tainting many
of our undertakings with the spirit of jAlbery. The
more noble the undertaking, the more room is there
for concealment, and the greater is the temptation to
the iu.. eta of corruption to lod„ze and hatch their
broods in its rich abundance.

The Exhibition_ of is3l ili.l honour to the age and
to our country. It was more successful than the
most sanguine anticipated, and kft behind it, iu the
hands of the commissioners, a surplus so large that
they are embarrassed to dispose of it ; and may be
tempt. d, like other financiers in possession of an un-
expected sum, to fancy " unreal wants " on which
to expend it. Our reader., no doubt, recently ob-
served a supplemental charter granted to the
"Commissioners for the Exhibition of the Industry
of All Nations," to enahl them to deal with
the surplus fonds. lie this charter they are in-
corpo:::ted to fterise a plan for the disposal of all
moons which remain at their command, and to exe-
cute nay plan or plans which they may think fit to
decide upon. They are authorised also to receive
contributions and fees, and to expend them for the
promotion of whatever plans thee may adopt.
The surplus, and all that may be added to it, is
now vlseed unconditionally in the hands of the
commissioners, and to what uses they may put it—
considering its origin and the pledge peen to all the
world to promote with it the industrial arts—is now a
question of great national importance.
Now, we are informed—and we make the announce-
. .

'rent with much regret, us it might be calculated to
leticii the popularity of one whom all moat desire to
see nspected and honoured, and the integrity of
others whom hitherto we hare in our imaginations
invested with the purest robes of patriotism—that it
is the intention of the commissioners to employ the
funds at their disposal for the purpose of erecting a
greet building at Kensington—the ground having
been selected, if not acquired—such building to be
an imitation of that set up by the beer-muddled
Bavarians and their sovereign. The commis-
sioners are, it is said, to erect a sort of Walhalla
in th..t suburb, which they are to consecrate to the
fine arts, ant to place there all the pictures and
stouts belonging to the ration capable of being re
m0v,,1. They are ambitious of attempting a rivalry of
the Louvre, not like it situated in the centre of the
capital, but banished to the most genteel of suburbs
where it is seldom likely to be protaned by the far-off
desires. of hard-working London. This
of German origin, and suitable to 134etct,
aen
tastes—which &reed in erecting a colossal statue to
some rude reinassulative of the barbarous ages, while
the Eng.ish woe 'lnstructing the Britannia Bridge
—has, we ere tegremeg, the auppert and patrenegect
Prince Mister, and I. by thoeserheaspeet,
from furnishing the plane and segieging is the 'es-
tracts, to share the perquisites and commtrelems
which reward architects, engineers, and contention.
We limy ba unable to stop the completion of a pro-
ject derogatney ahke to the reputation of his Boyd
Highness and the commissioners, but we must wan
tho sedensers that it will draw down on them the
public disapprobation.
The pretext alleged for the scheme—for no job
w.s tree perpetrated without its pretext—is that the
national pictures are not well preserved in the Na-
tional Gallery. With that negligence or ignorance
which characterises all our national undertakings from
fitting out Sects to hanging pictures, the works of
art belonging to the public have been crowded into
ill-adapted, ill-ventilated buildings, and they suffer
from the corrupted atmosphere. The obvious remedy
is to adapt and ventilate the National Gallery, but
instead at that, the Sires are to be removed to
Kensiogess, whim will be as far from the in-
trusion-etas genet 'hide as they will be from
exercising an inflames over their taste. Public
property_ et thisy kind should be accessible to SI.
It should be in the met man! port of the Illietsfki •
polis—et Charing-cross it in the British Museum,
and to remove it to Lassington is Sy to deprive
that pert of the population of its adiisatage. who
moat stead in used of its hunreadhste. If the
commissioners met waste the tin kick and
mortar tinder the pretext of a temple for
the tine min we see no reason he allowing say pint
of the Missal to be removed hem West-
minster to be is their ewe. Nor sertiely
can it be that the hods milected fee the Great
Exhibition see be ihirly gest upon a pies for in-
creasing the Measlier end reisinA the wise of
property in the sambas Allege et
Amongst the Somaisdakets there are SOWS, it is
obvious, who have so liking for the Crystal Palace.
It stands out a singular ornament to a metropolis
much disfigured lty architects. It completely
casts into oblivion or contempt the mock Gre-
cian tenpin' and Gethic abbeys that our copy.
ing drangitemew—esmming the place of eras-
teete—heei mesled he the meeting of the legislature
or the badmen 'et the me chants. It was at once
simple, breetillek end adapted to the purpose for
which it was seated—totally diarist front our
copies at amass temples where tbe hidden and the
unknown was wieshipped, to be used as our public
marts—end Meat from cloistered abbeys, made rapp
of loss gemega_ awl mils, where the
lost, err Mont he the trammeed:47sta.
tional Wins WWI* the Ceystal Ihtleee reetaine
it ie a womb to seemtyly every soder. bending
which, at l's or twen times its cost .dsee-
tioiuffiers mad dhigaree the metropolis. Prebend
architects, wins meths are bywords far intro-
%ogees' sad umsabablenew, desire that sash &Mend-
ingreponsk to then should be annihilated for ever.
If tee mamminisnarn melba to redeem the character of
the asthma arshilestere, sow sank below that of all
the salmis sfltios, they mist sot waste the
watples is their bomb on greeting at Kensington
mat see at the tarblem mews of brisk and tartar
whisk were mjested far the Exhibition. Whilst
leavieg he the pelmet entenshoil the erodes
whether et set the Glom Pekes should fall, we say
imphathelly, that to pun it lowa only to speed the
=jis a worse sad valor bailding is a
ob, white suss meal petsemage, if el=
esald not nodes Wm than sidleabaw dimmest''.
amd megsymbr.
Wear pie oat to the 411111116alia011,1111MOIN UMW
and a awe wilebie method of sampleyina a part
of the Me r thileywthisa. When the Exhibiting
newtherabisd to warns the
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to_earryleg eat stristly the
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gala libraries and mums tw the belswillen
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