The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-14 00:00:00

CAPABILITIES OF TIII•: GLASS PALACE.

(Flom the A:Unarm.)
Having shown on former occasions that, by dece-
' loping still further some important sections of the present
Exhibition, it is financially possible to convert the Crystal
, Palace into a permanent gallery of art, produce, industry,
; and science—we will now throw out a hint or twc as to the
changes and improvements which strike us as possible and
deeirable to introduce into it, should it be applied accord-
ing to the scheme which we propose. First and foremost,
it should, if practicable, be made complete. More nearly
than any other colketion of articles ever made before in the
world, it realises the conception of universal—an earth in
little—an epitome of mankind. Still, there are many pro-
' duets of Nature not tube found there,—and some important
branches of Art and Manufactures are formally excluded.
Before the experiment was in COMM! of actual
trial, it was impossible to know what amount of
space would be required for the display of a world's
industry and produce. 'The ltoyal Commissioners had
nothing better titan local conjectures—extremely false
and wild for the most part, as the event has shoot,
—to base their calculation, on. Before the article..
were set up and arranged in the great edifice, not ;
a single nation was content with its share of the al-
lotted space. The Americans alone gravely talked
of filling Ilyek-park with their produce and works. "
Beyond the reasonable fears, so raised, that the space at I
their &Tose' would fail before demands which could not be
reeieted without giving offence in quarters where emeilia-
tion and good-will were essential to the surer,, of the un-
dertaking, were satisfied,—we know of no insuperable i
reason for the exclusion from the Glass Palace of so
important a department of Art as painting. Such
fears exist no longer. There are thousands of square
feet of wall wholly or in great part unoccupied.
Contrary to expectation, the building is also found •
to be marvellously adaptable to the exhibition of
drawings, sketches and painting.. Instead of being
impracticable, the lights at the Palace of Glass
admit of being arranged with a nicety of angle and
intensity of degree such as belong to no building of the ordi-
nary materials. It would he very easy to mark off and
prepare one of the side galleries on the ground-floor for
paintings—by boarding, in double or single plank, as the
case might require, the space between the pillars, so as to
make the wulls solid enough to hold their weight and ex-
clude all light except through a portion of the roof, as is to
some extent the ruse in the present sculpture room. In
this way it would be possible to obtain a gallery a: well
adapted to its purpose, if not as highly decorated as the noble
gallery of the Louvre, awl at the game time sufficiently
large to receive and exhibit the current art of Europe and
America. _ . _

A similar development might also be given to various
branches of science. Two lecture th:atres are already in
progress of erection on the north-east side of the transept
for the use of the professional teacher' ; and if the Exhibi-
tion lw changed into a permanent institution, several other
such theatres would probably be required. The chemist, the
geologist, the architect, the musician, the artist, the mecha-
nist, lecturers, indeed, in every branch of science would pro-
bably find their fitting themes and audiences in such a place.
Thousands who will go to the Crystal Palace for the sensuous
enjoyment which it yields may on easy terms be wooed
by Knowledge to her divinest haunts. The matter of the
discours, s delivered should, however, be popularised on po-
I pular occasions, however profound it may be at other times.
At present the lectures given arc also too high in7price for the
many. The system might, we think, be so enlarged as to
render an equal canount of honour add emolument to the
professors without excluding any earnest seeker after the
knowledge which may be gathered so conveniently within
the walls of glass.
How many of th, learned and scientific societies of Lon-
don have at at pre sent a central and convenient home ? Sc.
veral of them arc them are known to be seriously crippled
by the large annual rent of a house at the West-cud;—
others linger on in crowded and temporary offices. At the
Crystal Palace there would probably be found room for all
under the proposed plan. One bay or two bays, as the case
may be, would suffice for their meeting rooms, lectures, li-
brury,—and so on. And what arena could be so well
adapted to their several purposes? There, the Ethnogra-
phical Society would find information and illustrations such
as no private collection could furnish. The Geological
Society might deliberate in the immediate pre-
' settee of the fossil wealth of the world. Geographers
and statists would find much to throw life and in-
terest into their several studies. The architect and civil
engineer have under that roof a perfeet treasury of models
land specimens of construction. All the sciences, in fact.
inns there be housed together—made to collect food at the
same sources—and placed in the way of contracting a new
and stronger sense of fellowship with each other. In a
word, that mutual relation and intercommunication of the
sciences—with a common machinery for working them all
—which we have so oft- n urged, is here provided for on a
scale which we never hoped for when we thought our argu-
ment unonsw erable even without it.

The opening of the splendid edifice for the exhibition of
Mowers would giro a new impulse to floriculture. There, the
grower would be always certain of a good light--tho public of
a dry day. Foreign gardners would probably contri-
bute largely to a floral ,how in such a place,—where
the specimens forwarded would be seen by cast multitudes,
whose examination would not be confinott to a passing,
glance under an uncertain sky. A sense of order, surety,
and permanence which has toner yet characterised these
beautiful but ephemeral exhibitions would soon ;row about
them, when conducted in the Crystal Palace.

THE 3111CTARIAN TREORY.—No. VI.