The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-21 00:00:00

THE NEW YORK

NEW YORK, JULY 9, 1653.
It is now tolerably certain that our Exhibition will
be opened on the 14th inst., although doubtful whe-
ther all the goods will be arranged by that day. The
inaugural ceremonies will, however, take place, and
the building be opened to the public.
The President of the United States, with several of
the members of his cabinet, have signified their inten-
tion of being present on the occasion, and will leave
Washington the day after to-morrow for the purpose.
The idea of the New York Crystal Palace, I need
hardly say, had its origin in the great Cosmopolitan
Exhibition of 1831 at London. Many of our enter-
prising men felt that the industry of America had
not been, from varirlus causes, represented there, and
therefore desired that an opportunity should be given
them of redeeming their character. It was sup-
posed, also, that an honourable emulation might be
excited, as well as much instruction afforded, by in-
viting among us specimens of the superior arts of the
old world. We were aware of our deficiencies in the
more elegant and ornamental branches of labour,
and were not unwilling to take a lesson from those
more advanced.

The project was begun, of course, as • private
speculation, and has thus far been conducted by pri-
vate hands, but it soon received such direct sad
ample countenance from the government of both the
states and the nation, and was so largely accepted
by public opinion, that it may now be treated as a
public work, one in which the honour and pride of
the whole community is concerned, and whose failure
or success will reflect disgrace or credit upon the
American people. At the same time it should not
be forgotten, in any estimate that may be formed of
its results, that the private nature of its origin has
thrown peculiar difficulties in the way of its progress,
have not always attracted to it the confidence which
any work undertaken by a nation is apt to receive,
and has incited local and personal jealousies which a
state enterprise never awakens.
It was on the 11th of March, 1852, that the state
of New York granted a charter to the company of
gentlemen who had taken this matter in hand. They
were empowered to purchase and occupy their real
estate, to erect their building, to invite the competi-
tion of nations, to award prizes, and to do whatever
else was essential to the execution of their main de-
sign. Some little opposition had to be encountered
in the outset ; bat on the 17th of the same month
the body was organised by the appointment of Theo-
dore Seigwick as president and William Whedon as
secretary. A circular of the objects of the company
was immediately issued, accompanied by a call for
subscriptions to the stock, and, though the invest-
ments of capital were gradual, the shares rose very
soon to nearly double their original value. The
Federal Government was induced to lend its co-ope-
ration and support, so far as it could consistently
with the limits of its functions—the municipal au-
thorities expressed a warm interest in the scheme,'
and the agents of the foreign powers were liberal in
their exertions to procure the favourable reception
of the cabinets and people of Europe. But that
power which, in the United States, is perhaps more
influential than any other, the public press, gave its
instant and earnest aid to the work; and thus all
the auspices were rendered unusually propitious.
The city government having granted the use of
Reservoir-square to the use of the association, steps
were immediately taken to procure an adequate plan
for the building. But here the most serious difficulties
were met. It was desirable,indeed peremptory,that the
structure should be one of combined glass and iron ;
but iron construction on a large scale had never yet
been attempted in the edifices of the United States.
The problem for the architects, therefore, was, con-
sidering the nature of the ground, the material to be
used, and the purposes sought, to contrive an edifice
which should answer every condition. Sir Joseph
Paxton furnished a design of singular beauty, but it
was unsuited to the locality; the late and much-
lamented Downing offered another of remarkable in-
genuity, but the materials to be employed on it had
been precluded by the grant from the city; Mr.
Eidlitz, Mr. Bogardus, Mr. Adams, all skilful and
competent men, presented others ; yet the choice of the
board, after mature consideration, fell upon a sketch
submitted by Messrs.Carstensen and Oildermeister,and
I think no one, after looking at the finished structure,
will regret the selection of the committee. It seems
to possess every requisite—is strong, spacious, and
graceful, and does infinite credit both to the ori-
ginal design and to the workmen by whom it has
been executed.

In its general appearance, as well as the materials
employed, the building resembles the Crystal Palace
of Hyde park, but in the details of its construction
it departs sufficiently from its prototype to make it
quite a new and interesting object. Its form, as
the Germans would say, is that of a Greek cross,
surmounted by a dome at the intersection. The
length of each diameter of the cross, according to the
official description, is 365 feet 5 inches, and the
width of its arms is 149 feet 5 inches. In
bark therefore, it corresponds, undesignedly I
presame, with the number of days in the year. But,
although the form is that of the cross, the outline
ef the ground plan is more nearly a regular octagon.
By ingeniously filling up the triangular intervals he-
arses the arms of the cross, with a lean-to of one
alley, $4 feet in height, the space of the floors has
boa greatly enlarged, and the most available use
made of almost every inch of the ate. The slight
Salitectriral defect which this arrangement occasions
diminishingthe perspective of the interior is amply
atespensated by the substantial advantage of more
them.
The slender and graceful columns of the interior
divide it into two principal naves, each 41 feet and 5
imehes wide, leaving at the centre, just under the
magnificent dome, a noble octagonal space, 100 feet in
diameter, which is appropriately occupied by the
alma equestrian statue of Washington, by the
Baran Marochetti, while the sides of the octagon are
devoted to the Amazon of Professor Kiss, and other
grand pieces of statuary. But the columns still fur-
ther divide the aisles and the triangular intervals into
wire and half-square compartments, of 27 feet
Mk MI the side, whilst the aisles themselves are
Mimed with galleries of their own width, to which
a multitude of broad stairs conduct the visitor. The
saves are carried above the roofs of the galleries to
admit light, and are spanned by 16 semi-circular
arable of cast iron, 40 feet 9 inches in diameter, and
piled at a distance of 27 feet from each other.
The building is, of course, much inferior to the
Crystal Palace of Hyde-park in size and in imposing
effect; but many persons who have seen both confess
that the proportions are more graceful and pleasing.
The immense dome gives a remarkable elevation and
grandeur to the interior, while the decorative part
seems to me more elaborate and elegant. Your cor-
respondent was present when Sir Charles Lyell sad
Mr. Mike, two of the English commissioners, visited
the palace, and both of them expressed themselves
shamed with the general beauty of the structure.
I am sorry to say that the management have made
one most damaging mistake in accepting the locality
granted them by the City. It is directly next to the
great distributingreservotrof the Croton War—a huge
square block of granite, enclosing some twenty acres,
which hides it completely on one side, and dwarfs
and diminishes its whole appearance. As the
ground, too, in that neighbourhood was unoccupied,
the speculators took hold of it, and covered it with a
multitude of unsightly structures, which are now
used for grog shops, restaurants, and puppetshows.
Tho consequence is that the whole region presents
the aspect of a miserable, dirty, crowded, half-
finished suburb. Could the Palace have been placed
in a fine open space, it would be ten times the orna-
ment it is now.

FIRE IN SOllo.—Yesterday morning, shortly be-
fore five o'clock, a fire broke out on the premises of Messrs.
Cartell and Brown, wholesale confectioners, 44, 45, and 47,
Prime-meet, Soho. The police on duty observed the
smoke issuing from the warehouse, and immediately raised
as alarm, when messengers were despatched for the engines.
Notwithstandiog the united efforts of the firemen, the fire
couessonicated to the houses of Mr. Frederick Lane, baker,
W. Fitch, bricklayer, Mr. John Farrell, Rupert-street, Mr.
Jolts Beadon, and Mr. Jobs Hodges, licensed victualler, and
was not extinguished before very great destruction of pro-
perty had taken place. The following is Mr. Braidwood's
report of the damage :—Messrs. Cartell and Brown, whole-
sale confectioners, Nos. 44, 45, and 47, Ptineet•street, L i•
rester-square, warehouse of second floor burnt out, root de-
stroyed, lower part of premises seriously damaged by fire
and water—cause unknown; contents and building in-

mated in Ben and Westatiniter, beside other offices: 43,
Prinees•streer, Mr. F. Lane. baker, ro. t rff bakehouse—
contents insured in Westminster. Mr. Farrell, 18, &merl-
e:rice ; M►. John Hendon, back premises injured by fire and
meter; and Mr. John Rodger, licensed victualler, Three
Tons Tavern, damaged by removal and water—insured in
the Plucnix.