The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-24 00:00:00

FOR TIIE WEEK ENDLNO

SATURDAY, MAY 24.

The juries w:10 are to award ...he prizes to the
competitors in the thirty sections of the Great Exhi-i
bison have becu busily at w ork throughout the
week. Their route has been t :seeable be the confu-
sion in which they hare left the good; they have
inspected. Thus in the we allen fabrics court a huge
placard, announcing that the condition of the cen-
tral Passage was attrile.able to the visit of the ju-
roes, was considered necessary to account for the
tumbled appearance ,f the clothe' and elpacas. In the
hardware courts, .4..0, visitors were nt times
prevented from proceeding up certain pas-
sages while eae jurors were there some
thoughtfully Passing the polished razors and
knives across the palm of their hand ; others
paying nose attention to scisoors. The 30. 'Fors
lar frallihrbegaMettailli°ll4le two medals to
award; but before the decisions of the separate juries
can be acted upon, they will be severally referred to
the group to which each jury belongs, and finally
to the council of chairmen. The small medals will
be distributed by the royal commissioners.
The Queen, Prince Albert, and the royal children,
have continued their early visits to the building, but
have had to complain grievously of the rudeness of
the general visitors in hounding them from one
square to another. The curiosity to nee the royal
visitors is natural, and would be doubtless a source of
gratification to the objects of it if accompanied with
that decorum which teaches all refined people to
respect the privacy of the humblest and the greatest.
Already aunouncements begin to crowd the adver-
tising columns of the public journals calling upon
the public to join in various festivals comintmorative
of the Great Exhibition. All people who havo in
the least degree helped in the great work will un-
doubtedly have their festive acknowledgments in the
course of the season. There will probably be the
jury diniwr, the royal commiteionene dinner, the
foreign exhibitors diuner, the British exhibitors'
dinner, the local committeemen's dinner ; banquets
to workmen, English and foreign ; ten-meetings for
the teatotullers of all nations; fruternal fruit meet-
ings fur vegetarians, and other meetings, soial and
convivial. Already one leinquet has been held at Rich-
mond,withmarkedeuevessaildenthueiasm —that given
un 'Tuesday Lest by the Metropolitan Lund Commis-
sioners to the Foreign Commissioners. At fide banquet
M. Van de Weyer made an enthusiastic speech ; and
M. C. I hipin, well known in connection with the French
exhibition, worthily represented his colleagues. As
an illustration of the good-will with which foreign,
powers have aided their manufacturers and artisans,
the vote lately made by the diet of Stockholm of
12.000 mix dollar. to pay the expenses of one hundred
clever workmen to the Great Exhibition, is a signi-
ficant fact.
Throughout the week, the building has been
thronged with visitors. On Saturday last, no less
than 10,129 visitors paid 3s. at the doors.
One subject of genend remark is the calmness
with which certain exhibitors proceed to cover up
their melds with arms of brown holland, long before
the hour of closing has arrived. Whether or not this
proceeding--betraying great disrespect fur the public
—be intended us u mark of the coolness said to exist
between the body of British exhibitors generally and
the executive authorities. is a point upset which we
arc not comp: tent to decide, but it is clearly unfair
that people who have paid their money to Nee the
contents of the Glass Palace should be favoured in-
stead a ith un undieturled view of the brown holland
cases ',tumour neatly executed) of prudent manufac-
turers. The absents. of dust throughout the building
is us remarkable as it is plea-ant. At the Richmond
banquet, Mr. Paxton suggested that the public pro-
bably owed this cleanliucss to the long skirts of the
ladies which served the purpose of the most effectual
pan la sweeping machints.
Among the bodies of people for whom free admis-
sion has-been claimed we have this week to include
the charity children of the metropolitan parishes.
That it is urgent to admit these poor children no.
preen will deny ; but how far it is prudent, just
now, to establish a precedent of gratuitous admis-
sion, is n question open to keen debate. It is to be
hoped that, before the Exhibition closes, the great
bulk of the people of England will have inspected it,
and at a later period it may reasonably be conici-
.
dived bow far it is advisable to issue gratuitous ad-
missiune ; lint, at the pn sent time, it is to be feared
that such ' -ssions could not be grunted to any-
body, however desersing of sympathy in itself,with-
out raising jealous clamours throughout the country.
ltuseiu is still the Desert of the interior of the
building. The two imperial vases still stand alone,
and hardly a visitor has the curiosity to penetrate
the empty quadrangle. Turkey, on the contrary
(for a country where the opeuing of a letter is said
to be an arduous day's work for a secretary),has
made great efforts throughout the week; and now
their space abutting on the northern part of the
transept, is covered and filled with various gorgeous
manufactures, including a specimen of a Turkish
carriage builder's taste and skill. 'rhe great I.yons
case, which runs along the south-eastern gallery,
has also been finished, and is now a conspicuous
object from the eastern main avenue.
On Monday morning the dour' will be thrown
open to the 'chilling visitors—the great bulk of the
people. The orderly behaviour of English visitors
in the various gratuitous exhibitions of the metropr-
fis is an tamest of the decorum which is expected to
mark the proeeedinge on this occasion; the only fear
entertained in any quarter as to the issue of the
experiment is that the scenes which take place at the
pit entrances to the Opera-hams on a great night,
will be imitated un an extensive scale, and with a
little extra vehemence, in Hyde-park. Whether or
not this fear has any grounds is a matter which will
so soon receive the test of experience that specula-
tion upon it would be trivial; but it is very certain
that Ilycle-pnrk is a large space to cover with holiday-
makers, each with a spare shilling in his pocket.

The ah%eure of the Queen and her royal guests
did not appear yi.terilay to diminish the attractiveness of 1
the Exhibition, the crowd which thronged the Crystal
Palace being as large uon any previous occasion. At mid-
a..y every approach to the building was crowded with car-
'Wes, horsemen, and prikstrians. Within the palace the ,
scene was equally animakil. Many visitors doubt-
-114... had come to behold fur the first time the i
wonderful spectacle, while it might be seen in compara-
the qui. t ; others seemed to be taking in new impressions
from often-visited objects. Notwithstanding the obvious
impracticability of carrying out further internal decorations
and arrangements under the strong pressure which will im-
mediately
he brought to bear upon the interior space, many
ealiibitocs are still making improvements and alterations in
the display of their goods.
The arrangements of the Royal Commissioners for ad-
mitting
the public on Monday with facility and seen-
rity
are believed to be progressing favourably, although,
of course, where certain data as to the extent
of accommodation likely to be required by the
public are wanting, these arrangements can only
be tested by their result. The Royal Commissioners appear
to be satisfied of the capabilities of their edifice to receive
ail who may be expected to claim admission on Monday at
the charge of Is. Outside the building barriers have been
erected at the entrances, so as to obviate the inconvenience
of the expected rit.h, and within the police will endeavour
to secure the comfort of the crowd by carrying. out new re-
gulations which have been devised for the circulation of
visitors. The number of foreign visitors is already sensibly
increasing.
The receipts at the doors from Ss. payments amounted,
I"terdoY, to 4,09.51. 10s. From the sale of season tickets
34t. Ss. was taken, so that the total mum added to the
fiancees of the commis:ion was 4.22W.15..