The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-02 00:00:00

THE BUILDING AND THE SURPLUS.

(From the ,ittelia-son.]
As the time draws nigh when the Crystal Palace
must be closed, and the memories of its splendid and peace-
ful triumphs fall into the domain of history, speculation
becomes more and more busy with the question as to what
shall be done with the beautiful structure in which the in-
dustry of the world has been collated and exhibited. Un-
fortunately, this question is no longer debated on its own
merits. Personal interests have been brought into the arena
of di..cusssion, and perhaps an unnecessarily loud and vehe-
ment assertion of individual claims and merits—apt to ap
pear intrusive in the face of so grand a fact as the Exhi-
bition, and not altogether without a suggestion of offence
where so many talents and services have been laid under
contribution—may have provoked hostility, or induced
apathy, in quarters whence support in an attempt to pre-
serve the Glass Palace was to be expected. Some of our
contemporaries treat the idea of keeping the building for
public uses as being at an end. They say, it must come
down. Others darkly hint at certain secret projects which
are said to be somewhere under consideration for securing
it as a winter garden. Stripped of all mystery and per-
sonality, the facts are few, and the case is simple.
The government is under a formal pledge to the public
to remove the building next May from Hyde Park. Time
has been given to allow the public to pronounce in favour
of its retention ; hut, in all probability under the impres-
sion that no minister would be so unthrifty as to think of
taking down • single pillar of the unrivalled edifice, the
public has not hitherto spoken in such • way as to afford
government the necessary authority. On the other hand,
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests are believed to be
anxious to have the building removed as soon as possible,
and the Park, which is a part of the domain under their tea
aristocratic government, restored to its old appearanee.
On these two sides, therefore, the prospects of the Crystal
Palace are not very cheering.
Again the Commissioners for the Exhibition have a
large surplus fund in hand, which they arc pled=
their own conditions to expend in objects strictly co
with the chief purposes of the industrial gathering. Is •
winter garden strictly connected with the cultivation
of art and industry F The point has been much de-
bated ; and we believe we are right in saying that
they have come to an almoet unanimous decision that
a project for converting the Palace into a mere winter
garden has no claim whatever on the surplus fund, Ths
means, therefore, of purchasing the crystal structure, sad
laying it out as a garden, must be 'ought elsewhere, if they
are to be obtained at all. A public subscription for such a
purpose, hinted at in some quarters, would not have mach
chance of success; and even if the money could be raised,
we foresee many difficulties in the way of arriving at any'.
satisfactory settlement. If the government refuses to maws
in the matter, and if the royal commission declares itself
Wine to the project,—what could be done ? The scheme
et which mysterious allusion is made in a leading contemn-
,
riZaais not unanown to us; and as we consider the Iww
terly impracticable, we believe that we shall not be
defeating any pending negotiation, or interfering with say
immature pro)ect, by stating that it is based on the idea of
farming out the Crystal Palace to a private contractor for a
term of years. This is a scheme which in our opinion the
ministry could not entertain for a single moment. We
have more than once stated fatal objections to any plan
for the retention of the palace built on this foun-
dation ;—it is enough to repeat that Hyde-park is
public property, every inch of it jealously watched
and guarded by the public,—and no government would
dream of leasing twenty acres of it to a private speculator
of any kind. As a monster show-house and garden, even
without the Italian climate, the Crystal Palace would doubt-
less yield • large income ; and Mr. Barnum, or some other
speculator, would probably oiler • high rental. But what
would Lord John Russell say to a proposal for its hire?
How would the great public who subscribed their money
towards its erection, or who by the purchase of season
tickets and daily admissions have created the funds now in
the commissioners' hands—or that still greater public which
looks on the green sward of Hyde-park as a part of its most
sacred inheritance—endure such a farming out ?
We need not answer these questions. We consider it as
certain that if the royal commission continues to regard
the purchase of the Crystal Palace as inconsistent with its
pledge not to expend the surplus fund otherwise than in
furthering the objects of the Exhibition, it must
come down. But we suspect a little misapprehen-
sion is abroad on this point. The commissioners have
resolved that to buy the Crystal Palace for a winter gar-
den would not be redeeming their plighted faith. They
have not, so far as we know, resolved that to buy the edi-
fice for any purpose would be an act of bad faith. A mere
collection of eyergeens and flowering plants might have a
remote and fanciful relation to the progress of Art and
Manufactures--the great and central idea to be kept in
view—but a great museum and institute such as We have
described at length in forger numbers, and of which
prden forms only a component and ornamental part, would
be strictly, we fancy, in aid of such progress—and therefore
strictly a means of furthering such objects as were contem-
plated by the Exhibition itself. To a certain extant it is a
perpetuating of the Exhibition itself, and an ingrafting on
it of many new meanings and uses.
With or without the Crystal Palace, the great surplus
fund must, we suppose, be invested in %ouch • manner as
will aid in the improvement of art and industry. Three or