The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-01 00:00:00

THE OVERLAND MAIL.

[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH]

ALEXANDRIA, Nov. 27.

The forces of Kohat advanced 60 leagues west-
ward to take possession of the recently annexed
districts. They hare not yet found any opposition.
Sir Colin Campbell is ready to march with 3,000
men to Peschaua, to chastise the refractory tribes of
the hills, and to support the Kohut forces, if neces-
sary. . . _

There Ras a serious riot in Bombay (mentioned
in the Express of Nov. 18) occasioned by a religious
quarrel with the Parsecs during the time of Mo-
han= festivals. The town is occupied with troops
and great excitement prevails.
Dates.—Bombay, N0v.11.; Trieste, Nov. 28.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

(Prom the Dail, Icon.)

To-day, according to the notice given some timo
ago, the Executive Committee 'surrender the Great
Exb;hition Building in Hyde Park to the contractors
who raised it ; and the time has probably come when
the public mind may be regarded as sufficiently calm
and undisturbed to decide rationally and judiciously
on the question whether the Crrtal Palace ought to
be preserved or removed. lo have snatched a
judgment during or immediately after the close of
the Exhibition would have been unfair t) all parties;
committing the public, intoxicated with excitement,
to the incurring of a permanent heavy expenditure ;
exposing these who may be conceived to have an in.
terest in its preservation to the grudging and re-
pmeekes of the public repenting a rash bargain.
The enthusiasm awakened by the wonders of the
Industrial Exhibition may he referred to many
CUII•CS : the magnitude and originality of the con-
.

ception and its monderful success, the splendour and
value of the accumulated treasures, the excitement
of the eager crowds, the fairy structure in
which all was displayed. It was impossible
at the moment to analyse the mingling
emotions, and attribute to each source its, due share
of the wonder and delight that filled us. Some time
has now been allowed fur reflection ;—the building
has already been seen by many in a condition that
strips it of adventitious charms -and it is no longer
premature to pronounce an opinion whether or not it
is a structure we should all wish to be permanent.
Respecting the genius of the author or inventor
of the (.'rystal Polar', and the many and novel
beauties of the structure itself, there cannot be two
opinions. Sir Juseeit PAXTON has inaugurated a
new era of architecture by introducing a new ek-
meet into it. Without him the Exhibition must have
been a comparative failure. No structure of other
materials could have b...en made so entirely available
for the display of the useful and luxurious products
of industry. Thu Crystal Palace was perfect in its
kind and for its purpose. It so received within it
the multifarious and lietcmgemous contributions of
all nations as to impart an unity and lend a heighten-
ing and finishing grace to the collection. The
articles exhibited stood in somewhat the same re-
lation to the structure that contained them, as the
ideas, images, and incidents of a poem like the
" Orlando Furiese," do to the comprehensive imagi-
nation of the poet who combines them into a whole,
and sheds over them the more vivid lights of his own
fancy.
Boit the very fitness or entire adaptation of the
f'rsstal Palace to the purposes of the Exhibition
would of itself be enough to suggest doubts as to
the expediency of retaining it as an independent
building. In the chofs-rfrettrres of architecture,
adaptation to the purposes fur which they are
erected constitutes one-half of their charm. The
clumsiness of the colossal temples of Egypt
is forgotten in the sense of the harmony existing
between their sombre solidity and the mysterious
rites to which they were dedicated. The vaulted
space and lightsome tracery of the finest Gothic
cathedrals receive an enhancing grace from their
fitness to be the scenes of the imp3sing ritual of the
Romish church. The adaptation of Sir JOSEPH
Ps\ ir'i's building to the purposes of the Indio.
trial Exhibition was perfect ;—a want of etattlL
adaptation, detracting from its beauty, will be kit
if it is applied to any other purpose. It will be re-
duced to a level with the incongruity of the Egyp-
tian Hall and its panoramas, or wild Boejesmans, or
Tom Thumbs; or with that of the Colosseum in
Regent's-park and its Swiss cottages. and cascades.
It is for the savage childishness of Africans to render
the fine garments and elegant utensils of Europe
ludicrous by misapplication of them : it is for civil-
-641 nations to produce buildings in keeping with
the uses to which they are destined, and to keep
them sacred to these uses.

‘t Luting for a moment this essential consideration,
it must also be acknowledged that there are deficien-
cies in the details of the Crystal Palace that render
it ineligible as a permanent monument of the art of
our age and country. Singularly beautiful and im-
pressive in many points of view it is also singularly
defective as a whole. Viewed from without its form
is unshapely. The lines of perspective in the square
inn.; are unplcasing to the eye; they recede from it
at angles and in directions that present no graceful
forms. Even the vault of the transept, seen from
without, has, at most points of view, too much the
appearance of a huge barrel, and nowhere joins har-
moniously to the other parts of the sttucture. It
is in the interior of the building that its beauty
is felt with the least alloy. The transparency of the
material, the immense extent of the enclosed space,
sombine to render it light, airy, expansive,—to blend
a sense of fairy and fragile delicacy with grandeur.
But even here there is a want of harmony and cohe-
rence in the parts. The view along the aisles is
beautiful; the view within the transept is beautifuL
But looking from the aisles to the vault of the tran-
sept it is felt that there is • harsh and awkward
combination of incompatible forms. Mipeover, since
the articles exhibited have been removed from the
transept and western aisle, it has become obvious
that if the building contributed to complete the
charms of the Exhibition by imparting unity to it,
the rich and magnificent objects with which
it was tilled, no less served to conceal
mane meagrenesses in the details of the
building. The extreme tenuity of the pillars at
their bases, their uniform thickness from bottom to
top, and the absence of elegant form and ornament
about their projections, leave the mind unsatisfied. The
building, in short, while the treasures of the Exhibi-
tion in great part concealed its details, was beautiful
exceedingly ; but it cannot bear minute inspection
since they have been withdrawn.
On the whole, therefore, we are reluctantly
obliged to come to the conclusion that it is desirable
the Cry-stal Palace should come down. With all its
undeniable beauty, it is an edifice respecting which
there can be little doubt that, in the course
of a very few years, the English public
would feel rather ashamed of it as a specimen
of their taste for architectural art in the
year Wt. It would be a standing witness
of their inability to discriminate in that year be-
tween the essential merits of a building and the acci-
dents of beautiful material and adaptation to a tem-
porary purpose. This is said in no spirit of dispa-
ragement either towards the structure itself or its
ingenious author. Sir J. Ptxrox's great and un-
questionable mcnt consista in his having devised a
receptacle for the Exhibition which has added to its
impressiveness; in having, with inconceivable ra-
pidity, and at inconceivably little expense, provided
adequate accommodation for so much wealth and so
many givers; and in having shown our artists, for
the first time, what exquisitely beautiful effects may
be produced by combinations of iron and glass. Con-
sidered with a view to its temporary utility and the
high mechanical skill displayed in it, the Crys-
tal Palace is perfect ; considered as • work
of art, it is only suggestive of how much
may be made out of such materials. It has
served all the ends t f which it is capable; it has had
its brief but brilliant day of triumph; let it pass
away, as is most desirable with all things of an ephe-
meral nature, before it grows dim and stale—before
its beauty has faded er palled upoi the sense.

TILE HON. MONTAGUE WILDE bas been
appointed Registrar in Bankruptcy, in the room of Mr.
Wilmot, resigned.

DEATH OF MARSHAL SOULT.

We bare to-day to record an event which recent
news has led the public of Europe to expect, and which,
had there been no forewarning, the great age of the de.
ceased would have rendered no surprise. Marshal Soult,
one of the most distinguished of French soldiers, and one
of the most exalted of French statesmen, died on the night
of the 26th ult. at St. Armand.

Sault was born in the year fruitful of great men-1769.
His origin was obscure, and, like most of the generals of
the empire, he was of the people, and a poor mait's son.
His birth-place was St. Auran's, in the department of the
Tarn. He was a soldier from the first. In his sixteenth
year, he entered a regiment of artillery ; and passing soon
under the commands of Hoche and Jourdan, the generals
of the new republic, he rose with the rapidity peculiar tothe
time, when there was too nr.eh at risk to allow of etiquette
or routine to interfere with the search of the men fitted for
the work. His character was not only that of a brave
officer, but of a brave officer who IP OA brave at the right
time : and his merits attracted attention and secured pro-
motion. The first occasion on which he forced himself on
the notice of the whole army was at the battle of Fleurus;
and the anecdote, taken from the historian of the "Victoires
et Conquetes des Francais" has long been current. Soult
was chief of the staff to General Lefebre, who headed the
advanced guard of the army of the Moselle. When the
right wing under Marceau was routed, and the
general himself forced to fall back on Lefebre's
division, he entreated, in an agony of despair, a succour of
four battalions that he might seek to recover his lost posi-
tion. " Give these battalions to me," said Marceau to Le-
febre, "or I will blow out my brains." Lefebre hesitated
and consulted Sault. Soult remonstrated, awl represented
that to lend these battalions would endanger the safety of
the whole division. Marceau was indignant that an ob-
scure Aide should venture to have any opinion on such a
subject. " Who arc you ?" cried Marceau. Soult re-
sponded, " Whoever I am I am calm, which you arc not."
The indignation of Ilarceau was extreme. lie threatened,
and then challenged Soult to a fight the following day.
Tres lien," said Soult, " I will not treat you with du-
respect. But I must speak the truth. Bonet kill yourself,
General ; lead on your men to the charge again, and you
shall have our battalions as soon as we can spare them."
The result justified Soult's presumption. Lefebre'sl
division was almost instantly afterwards assailed by
the enemy. In the middle of the battle, when the
French, as Lefebre thought were being beaten, Souk's ad-
vice was again a-ked. Lefebre wauted to retreat. Soult
pointed out signs on the enemy's aide which indicated that
they were themselves giving way. An order front Jourdan,
arnved to charge ; and Soult was right, the enemy was re-
treating.
When the battle was over Marceau custesaed the
superiority of Sault; and the two officers embraced, Mar- I
ceau protesting that Stilt had won the battle. These and
similar incidents spread the fame of the young soldier. He '
gained the confidence of his men ; and his genius, sup-
ported by that confidence, accomplished wonders. We need
not follow him through the career in which he was only a
subordinate. Ile reached the rank of General of Brigade
so early as 1791, and in four years more he was General of
Division. Napoleon's eagle glance was ever on the look out
for worthy lieutenants, and lie inquired of Massena, who,
the most unequal of men, was at least invariably honest,
whether Soult was a man to be trusted ? Massena'a emphatic
report was, "Soult has no superior." This led to Soult
being brought into activity within the personal observation
of the First Consul; and, from the first, Napoleon placed
implicit faith in him. Soult was one of the first generals to
whom in 1604 was handed the baton of a marshal of
France.

Sault was probably the more trusted that be would never
sacrifice his individuality. lie was an intensely obstinate
man, and would seldom submit to the superior genius of his
leader after he had received and acted upon the general
instructions. Sault was given the command, in camp, of
the " army of England." He here became remarkable for
the rigid and remorseless discipline ho enforced on the
troops. They complained and the First Consul interfered.
Soult replied, "Such as cannot withstand the fatigue which
I support myself will remain in the depots. Such as du
stand it will be tit fur the conquest of England and of the
world." Soult was with Napoleon at Marengo, at
Austerlitz, and at Eylau. At Austerlitz Napoleon
said, when ho had assigned Small's position,
"The only instruction I have to give, marshal, is this:
Act as you always do." Sault did aie as he always did—
acted for himself. In the heat of the battle orders came
from the Emperor, who had waited a long time for Sault to
move, to attack without delay and gain the heights of
Pratzen. The aide-dc-camp returned to the Emperor with
the marshal's reply, "It is not time yet." The Emperor,
i enraged, and fearing a fatal blunder, sent a second order.
It was unnecessary: Soult had put his columns in motion.
The marshal hail been watching the Russians, who were
extending their line to the left, and so weakening their
centre, which rested on the heights, and he hail waited for
the right moment. Napoleon saw the brilliancy of the
movement. He galloped to the ground where Soult stood,
and in the gladness of the assured conqueror he said,
" Marshal, you arc the ablest tactitien in the army." " I
believe it, etre," responded the marshal, " since your Majesty
tells me so." At hylau, again, the French army was in a
critical situation. Augereau had been routed; Davoust had
been impeded. Ney and Bernadotte were still at a dis-
tance. the Einperor, discouraged and disappointed, de-
sired to fall buck, fur the purpose of effecting a junction
with the other corps. Souk recommended keeping the
field, promising that the enemy would retreat in the night.
This they did; and the French had the honour of a coll-
uded victory. Napoleon was as generous in his acknow-
ledgments as klarecan had been years before.
In 1808 Moult was sent to Spain—to crush the English.
His career in Spain, against Moore, Beresford, and Wel-
lington, is a thrice-told talc. His battles have been con-
tested in books as well as on the field. Frenchmen insist
that he was invariably victorious. Englishmen insist that
he was invariably beaten. The French military authorities
state that he drove Sir John Moore to the sea, that Wel-
lington fled before him if he had fle I before Wellington,
that he conquered at Albuera, and remained the victor,
at Toulouse. The English, if Southey be • representative,
relate, as matters of course, that Soul:. was beaten at
Logo and at Corunna by Sir John Moore • that the passage
of the Douro by the English was disgraceful to the French
marshal; that the battle of Albuera wu discreditable to
him; and that at Toulouse ho never had a chance against
Wellington: and they enhance all this by picturing Soult
as a demon of cruelty, who upheld plunder and rapine as
duties to his officers, and who marked all his marches in
Spain and Portugal by gibbets in lieu of mile-stones. The
first English histories of the Peninsular war were triumphant
laudations of Wellington and insolent denial of all genius to
his competitors: and even so late as 1837, when Sault was a
guest of England, he was given to understand by Quarterly
Review and "leading journal" that he could only be wel-
comed on the understanding that he bad been soundly beaten
at Toulouse. The military technical controversies in respect to
great battles rage without any reference to the civil results ;
and English professional critics are just as absurd in insis-
ting.that Corunna was gained by the English as Frenchmen
are in pointing out why Napoleon won at Waterloo. Fortu-
nately for Souk's fame in England, the English judgment
of him has, of late years, been entirely guided, first, by the
Duke of Wellingtoa's own despatches, and next by the im-
partial summing up of Sir William Napier. In the great
work of Naoier full justice is done to Soult; and the
marshal stands out in the picture of the war as a
superb general, less than Wellington only because less fa-
voured by fortune. In his find Spanish campaigns Sault
had enormous difficulties to deal with. He was only one of
many generals, of equal power; he was in the midst of
• country hostile to him ; and he was never pro-
perly backed. Ile was in • perpetual quarrel with
Ney, Marnsoot, Socket, and King Joseph ; and, as
they would not do what he wanted, he was the last
man to be guided by them. In his second campaign against
the English, in 1813-11, he fought on the lost side, know-
ing it to be hopeless: the enemy triumphant, flushed with
a series of well-earned victories, the country dispirited or
inimical ; and his own army beginning to doubt if the Em-
peror always won. Yet upon taking the command of the
army in July, 1813, as the "lieutenant " of the Emperor,
his proclamation to the troops breathed the haughtiest confi-
dence in his cause and in his chances; and it is worthy of
notice that while declaring that if the French had been
well commanded at Vittoria they would have beaten the
English, he is just and noble enough to pay the highest
compliments to Lord Wellington. The duke in his des-
patches charges Snail with cruelty; and praises, when he
has to joraise, with terrible coldness. That Souk was care-
less of means in attaiaing his ends is very apparent; but
this is a fault common to all generals. Of the re-
sults Napier speaks. In writing of the rout of
Bays, in 1811, he says, " Here it is impossible
to refrain (rum admiring Soult's vigour and ability
. , . . . . . At Albuera he lost one of the fiercest
battles upon human record, and that at a moment when the
king, by abandoning his throne, had doubled every ember- 1
easement. Nevertheless, holding fast to Estremadurs, he
still maintained the struggle, and again taking the offensive,
obliged the allies to repass the Guadiana. If he did not
then push his fortune to the utmost it must be considered
that his command was divided, that his troops were still
imnreesed with the recollection of Albuera, and that the
genius of his adversary had worked out new troubles for
him in Andalusia. With how much resolution and activity
he repressed those troubles I have just shown ; but, above
all things, he is to be commended for the prudent vigour of
' his administration, which, in despite of the opposition of
I Joseph's Spanish counsellors, had impressed the Andaluaians
• with such a notion of his power and resources that no
, revolt of any real consequence took place, and none
able civic guards or Eecopete tea failed him in the hour of
I need. Let any man observe the wide extent of country
' be bed to maintain, the frontier- fringed, as it were, with
• hostile armies, the interior suffering under war requisitions,
i • the people secretly hating the French, a constant insurrec-
tion I in the Ronda, and • national government and a power-
, fah army in the Isla de Leon, innumerable English and
Spanish agents, prodigal of money and of arms, continually
instigating the people of Andalusia to revolt, the clout
covered with hostile vessels, Gibraltar sheltering beaten
armies on one side, Cadiz on another, Portugal on • third,
Murcia on a fourth, the communication with France din-
: cult, two battles lost, few reinforcements, and all the
imaterial means to be created in the country—let any man,
I say, consider this and he will be convincedthat it was no
: common mitts that could remain unshaken amidst such
difficulties. Yet Soult not only sustained himself, but con-
templated the most gigantic offensive enterprises, and
was at all times an adversary to be dreaded.
What though his skill In actual combat was not so remark-
able es in some of his contemporaries, who can deny him
fi activity, vigour, foresight, grand perception, and
admirable arrangement? It is this combination of high
qualities that forms a great captain." Soult, beyond all
question, was something very. much more than • great
general. A "great captain" is a man who can govern as