The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-28 00:00:00

SHALL THE CRYSTAL PALACE STAND?

This questionhas been tr.ooted in many quarters,
and has great interest. 'One gentleman proposes
to buy the building and *its contents, and make it a
permanent industrial bestial.; another would make
it a covered walk for: all weathers ; a pamphlet
issues from Mr. Murrr,y's office with the title, "Shall
we keep the Crystal. Palace, and have riding and
walking in all wt,athere, among flowers, fountains,
and sculpture'" fly Denarium. Then another pam-
phlet is given UK by Mr. Paxton; and, lastly, a de-
claration of tlae I'rimo Minister on the subject es
made in the /louse of Commons.
The first point to establish is, that there will he the
necessary funds to buy the building from the con-
tractors; and this point is set arsitlikbY
which shows that on " moderate compltation of re-
ceipts, a sum of 140,0001. will at the close of the
Exhibition remain in the hands of the executive,
after the payment of all expenses, including 79,8001.
for the hire of the building." When leave was given
to the Royal Commissioners to appropriate the pre-
sent site in Ilvde park, by a vote of the Howie of
Commons, in July last, that leave referred to a proe
posed brick building, and not to the (ilass
Palace which now adorns Hyde-park. As
the law on the subject stands at present,
the Gloss Palace must be carted away in De-
cember next ; but the publication of the pamphlet
wider notice has appeared, it is to be hoped, in time
to draw the attention of the House of Commons to
the subject before its adjournment. What claim has
the building to stand? How can it be turned to
good public account? These questions are shrewdly
answered by Denarius:
What these grounds are we may now proceed to consider.
It is not necessary to reckon among its proved fitness for
any future exhibition, because there is a public purpose
much nearer at hand, which is certainly a great public want.
That want is a covered area, where, in this most variable
climate, %funereal from its vicissitudes of wet and cold, the
public ut large, and especiallyehe invalid and weaker por-
tion, might lie free to enjoy air and exercise. The Crystal
Palace ha. shown us how a space large enough for a city
Noy he covered in, and how walks might be enjoyed, not
between dark walls and under roofs,by which the light of
heaven is excluded, hut where we have all the charms of
out-of-door% without its drawbacks. Twenty acres of grass
plat under cover is a novel and substantial advantage; and
though you should clear this transparent cover away from
Hyde-park, it is not too much to predict that the example of
it set and rejected by London will be followed throughout
the country by every large town which has a keener sense
of its obvious and practical utility. There is hardly any
promenade or reethavous in London like that afforded by
the Prude at Madrid, or the public walks in Vienna and
Breeden, because the climate forbids them. But the Crystal
Palate will make us independent of climate, and English
people may base a source of enjoyment from it that has
not been hitherto revealed to them. Merely as a covering
to a grew plat giving a public rendezvous, which would
afford a solace to the old and sick, and a useful, purpose-like
gratification to the young, the Crystal Palace has claims to
be preserved. But we may go further, and find a wiser use
for the space. Let U.S imagine the glw house made a
garden, and warmed with a summer temperature all the
winter. It would seem to he a public want as neon as the
idea presents itself. When a man has a house and grounds,
one of his first thoughts is to secure the beauty and plea-
sure of vegetation all the year round. It would be strange
that London should never have provided itself with a con-
servatory or winter garden, if we did not see that the Excise
duty on glass hail been the preventive. Having now got a
structure through the Exhibition, we find that the same
structure may have a second and scarcely leas valuable use.
We may conceive the building properly supplied with foun-
tains and sculpture, arranged be terms groves of orange-
trees and pathways laid between plantations more or less
characteristic of the vegetation of different climates, being,
in fact, a most enjoyable and instructive promenade. With
the co-operation of the agricultural, horticultural, and bo-
tanical societies, various popular schools, lectures and exhi-
bitions connected with the object of these societies, would
erne naturally out of such an arrangement, and might be
made to have a most important bearing both on the pro-
ductive resources of the country and on our decorative ma-
nufactures.
The decoration of the building might be made very con-
ducive to the promotion of sculpture, at present an art
almost purposely.. in this country. The garden might be
meet appropriately connected with an annual exhibition of
sculpture, fur which subjects might be chosen nut of the re-
markable events of each year, and as memorials of the de-
parted great. 'The best of these works might be purchased
annually to embellish the building itself, and it might be
permitted to the artists to furnish casts of them to decorate
the town-halls, d.c., in the country. A beginning in this
direction might be made by the purchase of a few of the
best works now exhibited, and as better works were col-
lected in course of time selections might be presented to
local ;nstitutions. Sculpture might thus be made an set
yielding real enjoyment and pleasure to the great mass of
the people, who at present have little sympathy with it, be-
cause it is not used.
If the place were recognised as a receptacle for plants and
shrubs, it might be expected that in a very short time it
would be well furnished with public donations. Proceeding
with the development of this idea more in detail, it may be
pointed out that the nave and the aisles forty-ci:ht feet
high would give a space of ten acres, independently of the
galleries, which would give in addition walks exceeding
mile. The ground floor might be until for plantation% and
sculpture, the galleries for potted flowers and smaller works
of statuary ; but care should be taken to consider the pro-
menade as the chief feature, and nut to occupy too much
space with the collections. The public would desire to have
walks among flowers and plants—not flowers and plants
with some walks. This last kind of treatment belongs to
Kew and Chiswick, and the Regent's-park. Spaces at the
extreme Side% of the building might he kept vacant, to be
applied to various public purposes, such as periodical exhi-
bitions of agricultural produce, colonial raw produce, ma-
chinery, perhaps models of objects claiming patent righte,
manufactures and tint. arts. These should not be permanent
exhibitions, to become stale, and provoke comparisons with
the present Great Exhibititm, but essentially temporary
exhibitions for short periods, answering to the Wallis and
eircumstuncee of the times as they may arise. As agriculture
and horticulture have made such great progress since pe-
riodical exhibitions of them were established, we may infer
that unaloaous exhibitions would promote silk-weaving or
euttoteprinting, &e., and will be likely to arise. The great
City Corporatioas, the Goldsmiths', the Ironmongers', the
Mercers', the Byers', &c., might again ally themselves with
the practical development of the manufactures front which
they take their names.
These excellent suggestions present a pleusin(
picture for the contemplation of the London public.
Here may the toil-worn London mechanics and others
resort on summer cveniuis to drink in the beautina
of art and nature cunningly displayed under Mr.
Paxton's glass roof; here N% 11l be a walk a mile la
extent, under secure shelter, for invalids ; here
verdure will be protected from the fitful clutches of
returning frosts for the especial enjoyment of work-
ing London.
'Then follow the considerations—who arc to govern
the fairy region, and how, in a pecuniary sense, is it
to be supported? I kamrius, has his ready reply:
The first conlition in carrying out these views is. that
the great principle of the Exhibition itself shall he applied
to any future toes to be made of the building, namely, the
self-supporting and self-managing principle. The success
of the Ezhihition itself is mainly due to the adoption of this
feature; and no one can doubt that the Exhibition would
have been far less popular and far lees successful if it had
been carried out by the government instead of the public
themeelves. 'The best chance of the building being made
fully to answer public wants, and its management progress-
ing with the growth of public intelligence, is to adopt as a
principle of action independence of the government. subject
only to its control as the guardian of Hyde-park. Every
one is able to foresee what the consequences to the Zoolo-
gical Society in the Regent's-park would be if the govern-
ment should undertake the management of the animals.
In fact, the Zoological Gardens have beaten the Royal Me-
nagerie at the Tower altogether out of the field. The
management of the Crystal Pabeee might he confided either
to a special corporation created for the purpose, or perhaps
to his royal highness Prince Albert, as president of the
society of Arts, in connexion with some ar-oeffecio mention
of it. Recollecting how vary instrumental that society wee
In organising the beginning of the Exhibition, and how
readily the members resigned all prospective advantages in
its sucesse, it would seem that they have an equitable claim
for some eariderstion la en of the future arraegenwate.
The his sawy t be awls orliereporibi ea