The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-05 00:00:00

THECRYSTAL PALACE-TO THE RESCUE.

(From Punch.)
Mr. Paxton asks—" What is to become of the
Crystal Palace ?" And Mr. Paxton replies to the question
in a manner at once delightful and practicable. lie says
let the Crystal Palace be a " Winter Park under Glass."
And then in his own workmanlike, characteristic way, he
proceeds to show what a Garden of Eden for the sans and
daughters of fallen Adam may blossom and look green in
Ifycle Park ; the while au English winter shall rage out-
side the Crystal panes, and with
—the 'secret ministry of frost
Shall hong them up in ellen! icicles,
Quietly ehining to the silent moon."
' With a few sentences our Crystal Magician fills the pa-
lace with every condition of natural and artistic beauty.
Fountains leap up and fall in diamond showers ; orange
groves blossom ; statues—a whole Walhalla of English
worthies—gleam whitely from among the trees ; the atmo-
sphere is fraught with odours ; and still old English Winter
in his most savage mood may bluster without biting
almost the heart of English oak.
The Crystal Palace, then, is not to melt away like the
silver mist of a summer morning. No; it is to stand, a
brilliant and enduring monument of the genius of its de-
signer ; a monument, a thousand times more glorious to
him that is the great pyramid to the questionable memory
of its architect. Vhe glass shall outshine the granite.
For there can be no doubt that Mr. Paxton'', question,
" What is to become of the Crystal Palace?" will be an-
swered by a consenting, and, we may add, a grateful
people, in the words of the quarist himself; "lei the
Crystal Palace become a Winter Park under Glass."
Already, we can anticipate somewhat of the ceremony that
shall inaugurate the opening of the Crystal Paradise ; that
shall give a fitting welcome and an enduring home th
English Flora. There is Queen Victoria, with a wreath of
roses around her brow, Prince Albert with the olive branch,
the Royal Children with buds and blossoms, and all the
officers of the court and household in,:appnipriate costume,
and bearing &sal and sylvan emblems. And now, Paxton
turns up the soil; and presents to her Majesty a sampling
oak—slim as the Chamberlain's wand—and the Queen
plants the young tree in commemoration of the day, and—
From yon blue heavens above us bent,
The grand uW gardener anti law wife
Smile
upon the act. Far that tree shall stand for hundreds of
years, the green monument of the happy, humanising
thought that caused the nations of the earth to come
together in their works beneath a crystal temple ; to engage
in the contest of commerce and art ; and thence to take
away a solemn lesson continually teaching peace and good-
will towatils all men.

And Prince Albert will also plant his own monumental
olive—mei every one of his children some tree henceforth to
bear the name el the planter, to flourish for generations "a
kindred grove." This, Pale h, with his old, prophetic eye,
already sees: meanwhile, let the great gardener Adam
Paxton siwak in the present.
" In the winter garden I propose, climate would be the
principal thing studied. All the furnishing and fitting up
would have special reference to that end, so that the plea-
sure found in it would be of a character which all who visit
could share. Here would be supplied the climate of
southern Italy, where multitudes might ride, walk, or re-
cline, amidst groves of fragrant trees; and here they might
leisurely examine the winks of nature and art, regardless
of the biting east winds or the drifting snow."
" Mr. Paxton never failed in anything he undertook," is
the testimony of the the princely Devonshire; and we
already see the gleaming statues, we already snuff the fra-
grancy of the trees in Paxton's pamphlet even though at
present they stand only in words, and are redolent of
nothing morn odorous than printer's ink. Mr. Paxton pro-
ceed,. laying out his garden in typo :
" Beautiful creeping plants might Le plant against the
columns, and trailed along the girders, so as to give shade
in summer, while the effect they must produce, by festoon-
ing in every diversity of form over the building, would give
to the whole a most enchanting and gorgeous finish."
And the beauty of the inner garden would smile upon
the outsiue winter. Mr. Paxton is generously anxious for
the comfort of the opposite neighbours to this gardens, an-
noyed by the " turmoil of so vast an undertaking as the
Great Exhibition," and therefore shows that no such dis-
comfort 'could arise from his future plan. The whole
wooden roarding of the Crystal Palace would be replaced
with glass. It would, therefore, be "a thing of beauty "
and " a joy for ever " without ; and within, " for the six
winter months, a climate equal to Southern Ithly."
But Mr. Paxton is not yet done with the garden. Ile fur-
ther proposes to stock it with animate beauty :
" There might be introduced :a collection of living birds
from all temperate climates, and the science of geology, so
closely connected with the study of plants, might be illus-
trated on a large and natural scale, thus making practical
botany, ornithology, geology, familiar to every visitor."
Who knows? We may yet see live humming birds in
London ; see them building and sitting, familiarly as we
now see breeding canaries? At present we are fain to be
richly content with the feast of beauty daily set before us
by Mr. Gould's magnificent collection—jewels in feathar !
oeverthe ess, we cannot forego the hope of beholding the
live London humming-bird feeding upon the honey of the
flower blossoming in Hyde-park.
Very beautiful will be the transformation of the present
Exhibition. As the nations are now represented by their
works of skill, so may they still appear by their floral mem-
bers. Dutch tulips may take the place of Dutch butter-
churns, and banyan!' grow where now are Indian muslins,
and Indian cloth at' gold.
And there will be ample space for the sculptured forms of
all of England's past worthies, with worthies present, and
worthies to come. or will Punch object to a figure of the
gallant Sibthopp himself, if Mr. Paxton will condescend to
clip either holly or hornbeam into an evergreen likeness of
the Crystal-denouncing member. Assuredly there would
be a touch of magnanimity in the act, if Mr. Paxton would
thus, and only thus—cut the colonel.
But the expense of the garden; C s. d. are the snakes
that are still apt to trouble our outer Eden. Well, Mr.
Paxton gives in his estimate of

ANNUAL EXPENDITURE.
Labour, fuel, water, implements, gravel for walks
feeding nod attendance to birds, and general
superintendent
Besides the above, constant painting and renewal
would be required ; fur this a reserve fund should
be provided, and by this means it might be kept
renewed for ever 4,000
Making a total of £12,000
It is calculated that, on the close of the Exhibition, the
Commissioners will be embarrassed with the possession of a
net ',lupin., of a 110,0001. Will, then, let them with the
I money reverse the Eastern story, in which a man finds his
Igolden pieces of the over-night green leaves in the morning.
Let the Commissioners be immediately empowered to turn
their money into leaves and flowers.

COCHT OF COMMON COCNClL.—Yesterday a
court was held in the Mansion-house, when a petition
against the Smithfield Removal Bill was adopted. The
report of the City Lands Committee was brought up ; it
concluded as follows:—Your committee have further con-
sidered the subject, and are of opinion that an abundant
and cheap supply of pure water to the inhabitants of the
Metropolis will not be obtained by dissolving the present
meter companies, and vesting the whole properties and
power of those companies in the bands of the intended
Metropolitan Water Company, as proposed by the said
bill introduced by government. Your committee are of
opinion that an interference of her Majesty's government
with the supply of water to the metropolis in the manner
proposed is unnecessary and impolitic, and that the manage-
ment of the water supply should be exercised by a respon-
sible body elected by the ratepayers, who alone are to provide
the requisite funds. That your committee, for the reasons
before stated, recommend this honourable court to pre-
sent a petition to the hon. the House of Commons against
the Metropolis Water Bill. And the Remembrancer hav-
ing by order of your committee prepared the draft of a
petition accordingly, they imbmit the same to your honour-
able court. The report was received and agreed to unani-
mously, as was the petition, which was an echo of it Ths
court then &dammed.

MR. THACKERATS LECTURES.
---
Sterne anti Goldsmith were the subjects of Thurs-1
day's keture, the I ist of Mr. Tliackeray's series.
lie bran by sk. tching the facts of Stern's life. He'
was the son of an Mlieer in a marching regiment, who died
from a wound in a duel—a rough good fdfow, who marched
on tiU he met with the fatal goose who put a termination ,
to his existence. Young Lawrence went to school at Hali-
fax; to Jesus College, Cambridge; and ultimately got tho
living of Sutton, in Yorkshire.
Mr. Thackeray's first comments on his character werel
founded on his love affidn. lie was found addressing tho .
lady whom he married with the most sentimental passion. I
He spoke of her as a flower. But such a fountain as Mr.
Sterne's love was not for one rose only. No. When years I
had passed over he wrote, in a letter to a friend, in dog- ,
Latin, and very sad dog-Latin, that he wished his wife was
dead. She " bored him," it would seem. And he wrote
letters full of sentiment to " Eliza," his " dear child," 2
and so on—a Mrs. Draper, the wife of an Indian official, '
much respected in that quarter of the globe ; yet scarcely !,
had she sailed from Dover in 17.67 than the worn-out old
scamp was offering his heart to somebody else. Soon
afterwards his cadaverous body was consigned to Pluto.
, To be sure there were signs oil grace in his last letters—'
1 those to his daughter, his letters to whom usually breathed
love and kindness. I

It was always, the lecturer went on, a perilous case that
of a man who had to bring his inner life, his tears, his
smiles, his hoes, his fears, b,.fore the public for money.
Did ho feign indignation ? Did he assume ? Did he pre-
tend ? Could he trust him-elf? Was he not tempted to
cant ? How much was true sensibility ?—how much false ?
Where did the truth end and the lies begin ? He (the lec-
turer) had some time before passed the evening with a French
singer. This man, after singing for a long time to the
pain of many of his hearers rhaascms of a questionable'
character—sang a sentimental one. He did it charmingly;'
everybody was moved, and nobody more than the singer
himself. Now, Sterne hail something like that ah nit him.
He blubbered over his paper; he had a lucrative art of
weeping; he utilised his an.;uish. Sterne often, Mr.
Thaekeray confessed, disgusted him. " Ile looks his read,r
in the face; he watches what effect he has on him; he
seems to say 'Do cry.'" Cheat hnmourists laughed natu-
rally out of their great manly hearts, but this man never
let his reader alone. Sterne was a great jester, not a great
humourist. You could fancy you saw him laying down his
carpet before beginning to perform on it.
For instance, let us look at his " Sentimental Journey."
Did not he seem to go deliberately prepared to make matter
of it all ? Ile had no sooner landed than he began to make,
so the actors say, " business." Could anybody beiieve alit&
sentiment genuine? lie whimpered over a dead donkey,
over which anybody (mill Mr. Thackeray) may cry "who
likes." That dead donkey was cooked in piquant knife.
In fact, the donkey had a hnc funeral—an clegaut hearse,
the mourner with a white pocket-handkerchief, and all got
up tor purposes of scenic et': ct. That donkey had
been used before. (Here he read the well-known passage
concerning it in " Tristram Shandy.") The critic (he re-
sumed) who could not see in this description, senti-
ment, humour, and wit, must be hard to please. And
the peasant life in the south was excellently described by
him—a man of the keenest enjoyment and sensibility. But
it was a painful fact that scarcely one page of Sterne was
perfectly pure; there was a latent corruption in what he
, did ; a taint oiliad. Yon saw the satyr eyes glaring through
'the leaves. How different this from the pure sunny pages
of one of his successors of to-day—a man for whose books
one was grateful—the author of " David Copt erlield ! "
With this allusion to Charles 'Sickens, which drew forth
loud applause from the audience, the lecturer passed from
Sterne to Goldsmith.

What a fortune had Goldsmith had in our history ! To be
the most beloved of English authors, what a lot was that:
The pleasant, gentle, wandering minstrel—it was de-
lightful to see how, through all his career, he atl.c-
tionately turned his eyes to home. lie peopled his
books with the figures of house. The charm of his works
was in the tact that they contained his character,
his simple honest regrets, his love and sympathy.
" Our love for him is half-pity." Whom did he ever hurt ?
Ile bears no weapon hut his limp ; with that he ',asses into
every palace and cottage, delights all ranks and clues: s.
Goldsmith not less than } irlding hail the merit of pre-
serving his cheerful goodness and love of truth through
distress and difficulty. Ile was never so friendless but lie
could have a friend somewhere; if he had only his
flute he could delight the poor with that ;
was never so psior hut he could spare something to a poorer ;
he could ptwn his trousers to save his landlord from gaol.
Ile certainly endured great distress and pain; one could
scarcely bear to read of it; you felt an auger when you heard
of his being hurt such as you felt at hearing of a cruelty
exercised towards a woman or a child.

Mr. Thackerav thus mentioned the various well-known
anecdotes of Goldsmith, and referred with respect to his
biographers, to the industry of Prior, the eloquence of
Forster, and the love of Washington Irving. Ile also quoted
some of the finest lines in the " Deserted 'Village," and re-
ferred with delicate tenderness to his love for Mary llorneek,
the " Jemmy Bride." Ile alluded to the extravagance
of his later life, but called on his hearers to re-
weather how constantly he shared what he had
with his numerous dependent., and appealed to their
sympathy and pity. "Think," he exclaimed, "of the pen-
sioner weeping at his grave—think of the righteous pen
that wrote his epitiiph ! " How well the world has paid
back all tim love he had for it ! Ills figure sterns to be
with us still, and pleading to us in favour of the poor.
• • • •

Having announced that the was the last of his dis-
courses, Mr. Thackeray took occasion to declare his
opinions on a subject on which he is known to entertain
strong ones—the relation of men of letters to " society." lie
protested markedly against the complaint that is sometimes
made of their being neglected. "We do," he said, " meet,
with kindness." lie urged that no laws or regulations
could have saved the men he had been treating of from the
troubles which they brought upon themselves. Ile main-
tained that society treated a man with due regard to what
he did and was ; it gave him fair place and fair play, lie
ridiculed all absurd pretensions on the part of writers in this
matter, and inquired whether the author of the last new
no eel, or the last new poem was to have a guard of honour
appointed specially for him ? And, speaking gratefully of
the kindness which he himself had met with, he concluded
the last of a series of instructive and brilliant commenta-
ries on a class of writers with whom he has associated
himself both as brother and judge. There was a marked
sympathy in the applause which greeted his discourse.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE BOROUGH OF
KNARESTIOILOUGH in parliament, vacant by the death of
the Right lion. W. S. Laseelles, is sought for by Mr.
Thomas Collins, jun., who, as seen by the address he yes-
terday issued to the electors, is " in favour of maintaining
in all its integrity the established church, both in England
and in Inland; and, while allowing civil and religious li-
berty to all those who dissent therefrom, is opposed to the
endowment by the state of the Roman catholic religion, or
the concession to Roman catholic eeclesiastigs of precedency
and territorial titles inconsistent with the supremacy of the
crown." Further, he "cannot ignore the severe depres•
sion of the agricultural interest," and considers it the
duty of the legislature "either to relieve that interest of
every special and peculiar burden, or to give to that in-
terest an equivalent for the taxation which it hears over
and above the rest of the community." Mr. Collins, too,
is "an advocate for the utmost economy in the public ex-
penditure," and thinks "that the amelioration of the n,eial
condition of the people, particularly of the poorer classes,
ought to be the especial care of the legislature, and a most
important portion of that care should he devoted to their
education; but, as he firmly believes religion to be the only
sure foundation for education, he never can consent to any
scheme receiving the aid of the state from which a religious
training should be systematically excluded."

DEATH OF COL. STORY, LATE OF 3RD DRAGOON
G altD3.—Colonel Story died at Brampton on the 3rd in-
stant, ap.rdfili years. He entered the army in 1803 os a
cornet in the 3rd Dragoon (ivards, with which regiment he
served in the Peninsular from 1809 to the end of the war in
1814, during which period he commanded a troop. Tho
late Colonel Story received the war medal and three clasps
for his services at 'Talavera, Albuhera, Vittoria, and Tuu•
louse. He was also present at Dusaco, in the cavalry
actions of Redinha, Campo Mayor, Lou Santos, and lisarge,
at the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo and ltudajos, the action near
Salamanca, and the blockade of Pampeluna.
UNIVERSITY 110SPITAL.—The committee, at filar
meeting on Wednesday last, received payment of 360/.
legacy of the late Robert Charles Cullen, Lsq , of Maldon,
Essex ; and ordered that sum to be added to the other per-
manently invested funds of the Hospital, viz.: 31811. be-
queathed by the late Rev. Dr. Fellowes, and 2001. given by
an anonymous benefactor, W. L. D., in 1831 and 1834,
with directions that those sums should be invested.

TILE POISONING CASE AT SOtTEIWICK.—At the
Sundeauid Police Court, on Thursday, Thomas Wood,
Cornelius Lyons, and Thomas Rawlings, were again
brought up, charged with administering poison to a buy
named William Thompson. Mr. Potts, for the prosecu-
tion, stated that the mother of the boy did not wish to press
the charge, being convinced that the nitric acid was not
given with a felonious intent. Mr. Manson assured the
magistrates that the prisoners had no idea of the power of
the acid which had been administered. The magistrates

then severely reprimanded the prisoners and diseharged
them, ordering them to pay all eapenses.—Sunderland
Herald.

TILE MILITARY RIOT AT LIVERPOOL.—Tho soldiers
charged with the late attack on the police were again exa-
mikied yesterday, when one of them was sentenced to six
weeks' and two to four weeks' imprisonment for assaults on
Sunday night, and one was discharged. In the matter of
the general riot jhree were Sited 5/. each or two months' ,
imprisonment, and one was acquitted. The inquiry was
proceeding when our despatch leg.
ADMIRALTY, JULY 4.—APPOINTMENTS.-- Second
Master Mark :kite's, to the Inapregnubse.
Second Master T. S. Iluward, and Master's-Assistant C.
F. Prickett, to the Trafiegar.
Gunner John Quin, and Boatswain Robert Knight, to
the Tiger.
Gunner Robert Thompson, Boatswain John Budd, and
Carpenter John Edwards, to the Argue.
Gunner Henry Penisud, Boatswain Edward Harden,
and Acting-Carpenter John Cermody to the Bulldog.
Carpenter James McCullam, and Acting-Boatswain John
Mil Liz, to the Waft:lc:Wl.