The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-28 00:00:00

. WORD TO OUR READERS.

or appearance of the First Exhibition Number
c.` 'Le Ezpreu requires a word of explanation u to
• ‘iews, objects, and expectations of its promoters.
We are on the very threshold of a New Year,
'. promises to be most remarkable in the
t.-...y of the industry of this industrious and
weatthy nation. In a few months we us to see

. ected in one building, in London, the choicest
mimeos of the choicest workmanship of the most
skilled countries of the world. Europe, America, and
Asia are to ♦ie with each other in a contest of
Industry ; are to enter the lists of a peaceful rivalry
that shall test the talents and sharpen the wits
of each and improvo the taste of all. No struggle
a arms, no waste of energy or wealth in a contest
of mutual eximoeity and destruction, but a gathering

up of all that is admirable and elegant and costly and
asthd into one huge glum corntmonceis, that shall in
i't very &Mew give testimony at once to the wealth,
me industry, the genius, and the taste of the modern
t,vilised world.

Such a new year, big with such an event, cannot at
time of mental acivity like ours pass without
abundant record of its features in type. Already
many publications have been projected and com-
menced (or the special purpose of describing the
progress of the Great Exposition of industry. The
daily pipers, too, with the vigilance which is their
;mat characteristic, have eagerly sought, and
promptly published, a great variety of Leta
on the sane subject front day to day.
Still, however, the occasion has hitherto proved
right than the means for coping with it. Small no-
ramped sheets have often neither the space, nor
its organisation, the literary or the monetary capital
atai..ent for grasping the huge novelty ; whilst
the daily morning papers that wield these
hen:Ante for success have other themes to
divide their force and pre-occupy their columns.
Ihe desired result seemed otErtinable only by the
treatien, as it were, of a broad sheet, ample in its
el meneionr, and with • literary organisation ready
to till it on the instant with the materials most
worthy of notice, and most likely to satisfy the wants
I the public.

Hence the appearance of the Echibition Ewes..

martirg with • large eircolatioa hitherto chiefly In
the provinces, it this day doubles its ordinary Satur-
day's dimensions, with an increue of price only just

&Ifticieut to meet the increased charges for paper and

rihntion, and with doubled opportunities Le meet-
trg the tastes of its old readers, and the wants, ex-
r. cations, and wishes of its new ones,

1 lie heads and hearts and skilful hands now busy in

a I the great eiths of this great empire, and busy,
toe, :n the great cites of America, of France, of Ger-
,,,ant, and elsewhere, preparing and making ready
I the coming show, are the heads and hearts and
Lanes of the most striving, active, and energetic
spirits of our day. Men who lazily enjoy the repose
f fanner successes seldom t nt, r such contests. The

L acitsment, the vigorous flow of spirit and of blood,
rtpay the labour of such conflicts, have no longer
thetas for them. They stand by, spectators of the
kursamcnt of younger industries; if not thoroughly
ntent with their condition, at least unwil-

..s‘ to be exposed to the collisions of ri-
%sae before the eye of an expectant and curious
sod& Such meo have their old papers, with their
o d prejudices and crotchets, and to such the thought
a new journal beings no expectant pleasure and no

arm .I;mpathy. But to the bolderand more striving
r who hive entered the lists—the picked 831diers
' the combat of industry—s new paper full of young

L and earnest intention, ready to supply their
'slap, to assist their endeavours, to give pub-
11c.ty to what is good, and expose and der
tr,ar te what is evil, offers another weapon to

,ir band., another warrior for their canes. To
r.(l, we address the Exhibition Express with coat-
i'. 1.: gutiefattion. In them a sure and certain auditory
—a a ids constituency—will be found, ready to go with

.‘, our Orono, and to reward our exertions.
te class moat interested in the Great Exhibition
an the very class most alive to the claims of liters-
Lie, the improvements in art, and the advance
of science ; and the first and most ready to
appieciate all improvements in the means and
appliances of civilised life. This being the character
of its hupporters, the Exhibition Number of the .11x-
pr.1,. Wii therefore every Saturday give ample spun
to th‘ • IR Hatton of new books, and their uprisen-
' extracted specimens of their quality—will
op thing requiring not ice, in the scientific worlds
give, moreover, the amplest attention to all
•cites in manufactures, hatdicrafts, and trade;
L.- old friends, the agriculturists, being never for-
r.tes or neglected, and the news of the day being
porstully reported.
tt•e began by speaking of the New Year and its
tarvelloas New Building, but the latter requires
at:: a few more word/. Whatever the future Ter-
dm: may be upon its contents, there can be no mistake
or to the Building itself. Already the Dictionary has
Lri ft searched for titles, and no word has been
Nord so appropriate as to supersede all others in
describing it. Whether it is to be ultimately
kroan as the "Crystal Palace," the "Palace of In-
4'.‘tri." the " Great Glass House," or " The
t rem Exposition," is yet undetermined. Indeed,
to see the place as it now Is. —with its area
lint" enough for a pyramid its forest of tall
gen:kr iron columns—its army of busy workmen
six* oures of glue roof, and all-pervading odour of
Goo t rrber—excitte a woedering surprise and Bassi-
n! -:• ?hat fails at once to find expression in exact
tr'lr-. la spits of the danger of broken leg.
00. r loose timber or spare iron, or broken necks down
Lake in tuifiLished floors, the imagination and me.
5057 ride off together in search of some companion
a4lr• No
.fact can be found. Infancy, however—a
fancy--something analagous existed years ago.
bouthey, in his " Thalaba," dreams of such building as
or ars shout to me realised. The oppressed widow,

sinks ander the WA d her sorrows, whets a cry of
----lishissat frogs Der son arouses her:
She raised her head and saw,
Where high in air a stately palms roe*.
Amid a grove embowered,
Stood the prodigious pile ;
Tree, of such ancient mejesty,
Tower'd not on Yemeni's happy We,
Nor croweed the lofty brow of Llamas:
Fabric so trait, so lavishly enriched,
For Idol or for Tyrant yet
Bawd the slave race of man,
In Rome, nor In the elder Babylon,
Nor old Persepolis,
Nor when the family of GIVIMPO
liyaut'd Bleutherian Jove.
Here studding snore tablatures
And ray'd with feeble light,
Star like, the ruby and the diamond shone :
Here oil the golden towers
The yellow moonbeam lay,
Hire with white splendour fl,oda the silver wall.
Less wondrou pile and lea meguilluat
Sennamar built at Minh, though his art
Sealed with one Cone the ample edifice,
And made its colours, like the serpent's skim,
Play with a changeful beauty :
• • • •
Ethauted mines
Supplied their golden store;
For this the astral caverns gave their pas;
For this the woodman's see
Opened the ceder forest, to the slut ;
The silkworm of the Eat
Spun her sepulchral egg;
The hunter Atri
Provoled the danger of the &lookout's rage;
The Ethinp, keen of scent,
Detects the ebony,
That deep-inearthed, and hating light,
A leafless tree and bares of all fruit,
With darkness feeds its boughs of raven grain.
Such were the ensnares lavieked la you pile.

THE HISTORY OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

u all newspaper readers know, the
Great Itztaibition was to have been a structure remark-
able only for its gig►ntic dimensions and a dome of colossal
proportions. The designer of the glass palace eras not even
among the competitors, whose names were printed in the
report of the building committee. One of the first coati-
deratlme entered into by the r ysl c immiesionere on their
appointment war to come to some decision as to the best means
of raising a proper receptacle for the contributions which they
were about to invite from the four quarters of the globe.
Accordingly one of their early decision. produced the follow-
ing document, which was widely circulated :

The committee appointed by II • Revd Commiesion to ad-
vise on all matters relating to the bui:ding,' having received
the sanction at the Commission, are desirous of obtaining from
all pail's,
_who On disposed to assist them, soggestidra for
the general arrsegement et the buildings and premises
required for this eakibitimi. Upon the gener.d form of the
building In ;Ilte distribution of its parts, the mode of
access, sad the Warnl arrangements and coutrivanois will
depend the otinveninos and general Moen of such a boild.
ing ; and it n upon these points that the commi,tee seek in-
formation and 'opinions, and wish to encourage the mat
ezteeded erompetrion in the preparation of plans. The coin-
, mitten do not iropowi to offer any pecuniary relent for such
plans—they rely upon the desire which men of all countries
will feel to forward the objects of the proposed exhibition.
The committee think it probable that, when the plans are
received, they may net be limited to the selection of any
one plan, but may derive tuella ideas from many ;
and that the best plan may be determined upon
by the help of this general assistance. its the credit of any
each plan wiil be due solely to the ci,ntributors, the com-
mittee propose to make a report, in which they will sa
knowledge by name those when plans bad been wholly or
partially adopted, or who had afforded the meat useful sug-
gestions; and the committee hope to be able to offer each
other honorary distinction eo the successful contributories
the circumstances may appear to warrant. In order to
guide the contributors in the preparation of such plans and
designs, acd to facilitate theenminstion and the comparison
of them when received, tho committee have enumerated
mincisely the principal ' desiderata' for such a buddieg. and
have laid down certain rules and conditions to which they
earnestly request the contr,butors to conform, as the com-
mittee mill be under the necessity of abiding strictly by the
regulation of not acknowledging any plans which may be
NM
in a form inconsistent with these rules. Copice of the
ecgraved plan of the ground referred to may be had on ap-
plication to the nentsries of the commission at the Now
Palace at Westminster.
The rules and conditions to be strictly observed in prepar-
ing a ground plan and section of the building to be erected
in Hyde-Park were as follows:—
"I. The communications feint eontributon must consisted

a single sheet of pew, act larger Mies the meempanying
engraving, with • duple ground plan upon a scale of 1-1000
of the full vise, with smelt elevatioas end sections only of the
and ea the same sheet, as may be nesremery to ela-
cidete the system proposed—such elevations and sections not
Ming intended to convey more than a general idea of the
building, and not entering into deceits of construction or of
architectural decoration—to be accompanied by a short clear-
written explanation of the system recommended, on •
separate sheet. Any on:aril:luta walking to Hod two de
shim mutt *end separate and distinct. communications,
seek conforming to the above soaditions. No oom•
mucications made incoseiatent with these conditions, or say
plus prepared upon • different scale from that prescribed, can
be reohved. Tba plans, &c., mast bream on or before Bth
April neat, addremed to the Secretaries of the Eahlbitioa,
Now Palace at Westminst,r, London. It is suggested that
UN most convenient mode of preparing the plan, elevation,
and section, would be to draw theta upon one of the engraved
espies of the plan of the ground which scoompany them in.
structions. 2. The building is to he erected upon the space
marked A B C D, and taunt not extend beyond the boun-
daries of the shaded portion. The groups of trees shown on
the plan must be preeerved. The priaeipal public apprembee
are by the roads E F and 13 IL The road K L will be
available only for foot passengers. This. will be no °Nee.
tion to the formation of CMS reads between the two
last, O H and K L, if the design of the liamMireg Trains it.
3. The roofed portion of the building Y M War • epees of
700,000 square feet, or shout 66,000 agnate MlPtille; and the
whole buddies suit not occupy, including yea maims, as
area of more than 900,000 square feet, or about $4,000 roue
metre,. The building generally will be of w story only.
4. No spar will be required for rule, or he grebe or
dower. 0. it may be reused, so far as it of the ground
plan, that the light will be obtained entirely her the roof,
and the M
will be ocestruard of fir reef materials.
" requirements were.--Elinplioity ell enure-
sent.
_y of space. Capability of intaglio or ear.
tailing the building without destroying its syressery as •
whole or Sauntering with Or general arrialeasaS it
ispos:ibk le determine the rest extent of re( re
until a late peeled et seastrastios. Adeptades fee the erect
don of messes retire of the b.Yidst addilhenst pededs.
Coarsiesseeld egesse~ unfree ere•=
parb te legersan
either here dr exte 1
pie 'shirr rior se
Means of olimeirsdes of the rises orris if dim
derringer Wall spar far co &pry of aerial •••
qurbs it Moans of affording rivals roes sad MED.
siodados for exhibitors with sennerriesese, if mid,
ornarteei. neer, ocutak.raares, parte eaftrimentrisre.
and all ether podia and priers wiessmitheks. (Shi
potties of the balding may he is two es non stereo V
required.) laternel enirgerssis, by widdi, under were
erelatiesa, lamp mends of visitors m eireakke freely, and
have sonessisst Geese le all paste. tithe Exbibidon. end
uninterrupted muss of erasers the various objeeie
exhibited."
Thu pabileatios of the above dormer called rub
designs trees two hundred and forty-fire erapetiter of
than 27 were Frenchmen, 2 Belgians, 3 Thatch, 1 Haze-
ntrian, 1 Neapolitan, 2 Swim, 1 Rhenish Praise, and 1
from Hamburg. Althoegh then (smother purred
plans ia every arriteetuni variety, not one of than caste
up to the requirements of the occeeloa. Oa the 9th of May
the building cosentitise, baying minutely dammed tie

=alkalies mad defeats of the &Ism sabmitted to them,
speed epos a report which they premated to the royal
emassissios. The pblicatioa of this document was the
signal tee severe ethicists. Some asthorltios objected to the
maser f• Via* it wets put together, sad declared that
erne plea ought to have bees adages.; while ot►ers were par-
*Maly laretiom oaths dome cradother points. The following
is the first report of the building committee, and It Is re-
markable sa tie result of the joist deliberations of the
most missal eagiseets and ►udders hs the mastcy. We
'say add that the value of the dommest h Iseremed by
the lon, that its suggestion wire npiteded hi the ate*
poppadom of a puthana who had 00 npotatios either
ea builder or asettiteet, bat who had bees knows to the
Woad& world wily up to that time as ea neetatipbbi
aM aireelose bonnet and praiser. The repast nose
with a her metal eapruelese of paha on the Moen of