The Express.
London, England, 1863-06-16 00:00:00

Che erpreOfS.

TO COLLESPONDENTIL
Advertisements hstessied for The Express' London Evening
Paper. must be at the Mien 10. isouverkseervet, by Two
o'cbel on the day of publkstlom

HA MAiEMt

Tam EVABDO2, AN UNLUCKY MORTAL. Wu Hires.
—FINS:SAL Megan A. Wigan. Howe. Bockstone, Gordon,
and Perron: Alm A. Mina. 11rs. Wilkins. Iflis 1.. Amid.—
EASY AHAVL'4O.—And MY HUSBAND'S GHOST.

ranrciers.

Tim Imams, 00178 Th TOY.:-.oousr AND CAMP.
Mews. O. Vilma& Verner. H. Must" Belmore. Ito-rsT,
and Warde; $M.a Amy Sedgeriek, J. laidlaw, and I.7d'♦
Thompson.—And A CHALIUNG PAUL

LYCZOIL

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BiUTAInRa.

Tan amnia, IKE WIDOW AND ORSHANS.—FAITIT,
HOPI, AND CHARITY, with Professor Pepper S adaptation of
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Brothels Coarects.- And THa DAUGHTER OF NIGHT,

MOH WAIIII At LONDON OBIDGX.
T Day —Korstao. 1 One .. .Atlaream 4e. 19
2.o4Koomp...ofmoim AMMOMI. Bea

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 16.

caves the logical connexion between the PREMIER'S
expensive premises and his " cheap " conclusion.
Mr. GREGORY, in his very able and courageous
speech, disposed of the PREMIER'S argument by
simply pointing out that it consisted in nothing
but a series of immense &assumptions. By
begging the question whether all this
immense space at South Kensington re-
quires to be covered in at this present date, and
to be filled with specimens, and the question
whether it is for the public advantage to spend
half a million more or less in the next few years
on that collection of centipedes known as the
Department of Science and Art—is an easy way
of disposing of Parliamentary inquiry. Mr. GRE-
GORY stated, and Mr. GLADSTONE parried, but did
not answer the thrust, that this new construction
was a renewal of the scheme which all the world
of Science except Professor Owerc--and Professor
ORIN himself while unconverted—had condemned,
for carrying off the natural history collections from
the British Museum to Brompton, and
separating them from the library without
which they were rubbish to the student. The house
of Commons has once rejected this scheme ; but
under the sign of South Kensington it is destined
to conquer. Mr. Gt.snerross exerts all his rhe-
torical swordplay to convince the House that
Mr. Garnosx's apprehensions are purely chimeri-
cal ; that the Government has no idea of remov-
ing the "learned bodies" from Burlington-house,
or the Geological Museum from Jermyn-street, or
the National Gallery from Trafalgar-square, or the
National Portrait Gallery from Heaven knows
where. But he does not repudiate the intention of
removing the natural history collections from
Bloomsbury ; and as to the rest, be dwells with sig-
nificant emphasis on the shifting centres of an
expanding city, on the accessibility of South Kensing-
ton by a "ring of railway communication," which
is to bring Brompton or Fulham practically nearer
to Stepney or Whitechapel than Holborn or Pio-
cadilly. He appeals to the testimony of Professor
Aosseiz and the example of Massachusetts in
favour of double the number of acres that we
bestow upon natural history collections ; and he
carefully distinguishes present necessities from
future requirements. The CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER is far too conscientious a Minister
to lead the House too far astray, whatever
may be the instructions on his brief, and
he certainly did not diminish the reason-
able apprehensions of the independent minority
last night. Nor, when he indignantly opposed the
authority of the paid Surveyor of the Go-
vernment to the free and unpaid opinion
of an eminent engineer quoted by Mr.
GREGORY, did the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
improve the case of the Building, or remove for a
single moment the conviction of minority and majo-
rity alike that Mr. HUNT'S rough calculations of the
cost of putting the Building in permanent order
were, to the eventual expenditure in repairs alone,
as stone to stucco. Indeed, Lord Psiminntroe, in
adjourning the vote for the purchase of the
Building to Thursday week, in order to givetime for
further consideration, evidently understood, that
however willing &working majority might be to throw
away the trifle of 120,0001. on an eligible piece
of ground, it was on condition that the purchase
should be cleared of all encumbrances, and that
the place should know Captain Fowisz no more.
We think we may without presumption anticipate
that the result of further consideration on the
part of the Government, the House of Commons,
and the public, will be, that the public-spirited
contractors will be invited to cart their caravanserai
away.

IT is a pity the Crown Prince of PRUSSIA was
not in the House of Commons last evening. He
would have seen how smoothly the wheels of par-
liamentary government can be made to run along
a royal road. He would have seen how harmless
is the bark of a Parliament, how innocent its bite,
how capacious its swallow. He would have
seen how a veteran Premier, strong in popular
favour, can turn that favour to uses of which the
people know nothing but the cost. He would
have seen a more than liberal Minister of Finance
employing his wondrous gift of eloquence, and his
well-earned reputation as a conscientious economist,
to make a huge hobby of mysterious origin look
like a national interest, exhibiting all the
qualifications of an expert salesman in the fancy
goods line, and all the vehement persuasive-
ness of the conductor of a mock auction. He
would have seen a majority of nearly two to one,
including past, present, and future placemen of all
possible administrations, eager to buy at the cost
of their constituents the reputation of a loyalty
above their fellows. He would have seen how
very small a party even in the British Parliament
can be said to have a will of their own under cm :,ain
conditions of the moral and social atmosphere
that surrounds them. And seeing all this, we
cannot but think that the Croa a Prince of Plums
would have arrived at the conclusion that it `i
worse than folly to quarrel with parliamentaii in-
stitutions, and that royalism from above is but the
infancy of the art.

On the purchase of the International Exhibition
Building, if not of the site on which it stands, it
is notorious that every public man who can be '
called the master of his own convictions,
every public journal that can be called a voice, and
not the echo of an ante-chamber, disapproves a
transaction of which the truth can only be whis-
pered in a corner. From the beginning to the
end " South Kensington" was, and is, and ever will
be a mystification. The tenure of the trust estate
of the Commissioners of 1851 ; the conditions of
that trust; in whom tho beneficial interest resides,
or to whom the equitable estate belongs ; to whom
and for what the public, through its representa-
tives, agreed last r;ght to pay 120,0001. for the
sixteen acres and a half of land upon which the
International Exhibition Building still stands ; all
these questions belong to the great "previous"
mystification which no Government speaker
has yet condescended or attempted to explain. An
that the public dimly perceives is a Department
of Science and Art, of which Captain Fowire's palace
is the Duomo, and a Horticultural cemetery is the
Campo Santo. These are the constituent bodies of
South Kensington, besides the Brompton schools
which have worked such wonders in the
taste and workmanship of our domestic furniture,
and have invented a completely new set of toast-
ing-forks, carving-knives, and " The
Brompton establishment is another mystification
of which we believe it would puzzle Mr. GLAD-
STONE himself to render a succinct and accurate ac-
count. But the greatest mystification of all is the
process by which the Commission of 1851, the
surplus of that Exhibition, and the subscriptions ,
of the public, have grown like a gourd in the
night into an enormous tree, with spread-
ing branches and innumerable leaves. " Only
" a drop of water in the ocean of national expen•
" diture," we are told ; but a drop of water that
holds all sorts of creeping things. Can we be
surprised if even Lord PA LII liBTON was laboured
and ineffective in presiding over the mock auc-
tion last evening ? The thesis was that, as our
building land is so deer, and our buildings are
so ugly, we should hasten to buy thee° sixteen
acres and a half, and the shed that covers them,
lest we be tempted by architects and artists
to construct something more ambitious in design
or in ornament, and lees cheap than Messrs.
K ELK and LUCAS'S leavings. Lord PAL.
MEESTON laid great stress upon the ex-
cessive dearness of land in any more central
part of London ; besides, a new London is rapidly
springing up, of which South Kensington will be
the centre, and we must look forward to a distant
future, when posterity will thank us for having
provided them with a cheap adaptation of brick
and stucco instead of a more solid and enduring
memorial of the early genius of the Department
of Science and Art. We envy any one who per-

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 16, 1863.