The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-04 00:00:00

THE HANDEL FEST" VA F.

Tut: arrangements for the triennial HAN oat festi-
val at the Crystal Palace this. month seem to be
on a scale commensurate with the occasion. Four
hundred and twenty stringed instruments, 2,200
amateur chorus singers front Exeter-hall, and
1,200 from the midland and northern districts
and the cathedral towns of the kingdom, an
entire orchestra of 4,000 performers, and
a list of Jodi vocalists which includes the tarot
names in the profession are engaged. Mr. SIMS
REEVES will be principal tenor in the Afexiiiih and
Load i.t Eyype, And Mr. SAATLILV principal bass;
Mdlle. Trriewa is to appear on each day of the
festival, and will take the principal parts in the
two oratorios. On the "Selection'' and the " Re-
"hearsal" days, Mdlle. CHRISTINE. NIL-4os,
SmicroN-DOLLY, Mdlle. Kauko., Mdme.
LEMMENS-SHERRINGTON, and Mdlle. CAROLA will
all sing; and the authorities declare that such
a combination of aliti artiste has never before
been presented at a HANi,EL festival. one fact of
especial interest to all frequenters of mtaiical
entertainments at the Crystal Palace is that pains
have been taken to improve the seetistic properties
of the great transept. Beicg able to hear, and to
hear well, is the first essential to the enjoyment of
good music ; and most of ua have suffered in this
particular front paid deficiencies. But a surprise
is said to be in store for the public. The transept,
the width of which is doubte the diameter of
the dome of St. Paul's, gill be enclosed
on every side, and its enormous arched
!roof screened from the sun by external'
coverings ; and acoustic :ierfection and the
grandest concert-hall in the world are promised as
• the result. Not the least tiitew ,rthy proof of
the wide spread interest in these festivals are the
arrangements announced by the railway eompanies.
iCheap trains are to run on the 11th, the day before
the rehearsal, from east, west, north, and south,
and " Kelso to London and back ;4..1'2 mil*,
"second-class, `255.", and "Caernarvon and back
"(WU miles), second-claw, Iris., are fair
examples of the facilities to be afforded to the re-
mote portions of the kingdom. The Crystal
Palace great stage, we Mould mention, is fitted
with a suite of royal bexes, as at the SrLTAN'S
visit ; and a photo-lithegraph f•••siiiiitt of
HANDEL'S autograph MSS. of the Mr.isiii;• hating
been made by permission of the QI:KEN. sill be
ready for delivery before the Rehearsal.

THE wish, we believe, is 7ery 4eceral am. eigst
the Liberal party that the disaolution of Parliament
should not be postponed a day beyond that is
actually necessary ; but, justly or unjustly. it is
thought that Mr. DIsRAELI and his colleagues have
desires of an opposite kind. Perhaps the Ps Emir:it
will state this evening or to-morrow what amendment
of the Act he is ready to propose to facilitate
dissolution. It can hardly be, at any rate, that
Conservatives out of Mike favour is delay. which,
in point of fact, is so much needless expense.
The feeling in parliamentary circles seems to be
that the session is over except for a few indis-
pensable measures. The whole 1-1,..0-e. .s thinking
of the next election.

THAT highly popular French f..rm of comic
opera which OFFENBA(H has created the various
small theatres in Paris, is about to transferred
to English soil, with the mit,u who has
gained a reputation as its chief exponent. The
long and troublesome negotiation with Madame
ScHNLIDER has, we believe, ended in the engage-
ment of that lady, who will mace her appear-
ance at the St. James's Theatre towards the
close of the present month in the musical
comedy of the Oenlids. brfri.e<s.. This operetta,
made more "grand" than it was ever intended to
be, was a comparative failure in English at
Covent-garden last winter, but the original French
version, declaimed if not sung by French actors
and actresses iii a small theatre, will probably
meet with a more encouraging reception. At any
rate it will satisfy those who regard this piece, its
music, and its ?rim,' donna with admiration.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK" ON THE ADUCA•
TION OF THE WORKING CLAS.)ES.

LEEDS. WE F:s I,A

This evening the Archbishop of York presided at
• meeting in York of the Yorkshire Union on mechanic.'
institutions. In his address he said that special subjects
should be infused into their education as muck as possible,
in special preparation for the work to be done. We were
awakening to the necessity of some such mode of training,
but it was one thing to say we would have technical edu-
cation, and another to adjust it. The proper mode in
which to proceed was that which had been adopted—
namely, inquiry and deliberation. At this moment
we were not prepared to set down a complete
scheme of education such as would be really
sound and exact on the one hand, and on the other would
be within the compass of the time and the means of an
ordinary person, or of the class for whom it was intended.
The difficulties in the way of such • scheme were really
very considerable, for this system of education was not
like reading • book and remembering it. There were only
210 good working days in a year, and only five good honest
working hours in a student's day, and he thought they
would see that no course of technical education intended
to be used generally should extend over a much longer
period than two years. These two years gave
hours. It was in practical mechanics as in chemistry; they
could not lay dorm a process half finished without losing
once and for all the result of the experiment, or the opera-
tion which they were going through. The consequence
was that technical education took a considerable time ;
and when on the list of things which it was desirable for
a young man to study he saw chemistry. physic., drawing,
knowledge of tads, knowledge of the principles of
health, and the like, he was tempted to think of
these poor 2,r00 hours, and to wonder how they
were to be allotted amongst twenty • five or
even more subjects, so that something sound and exact
might be elicited in the course of the education gone
through. The question therefore to which attention ought
to be directed during the next year or two was what should
be the sort of education they desired • working man to
have to fit him for his special calling. Their demands
must be moderate if they wanted to do any good ; it was
not for the ultimate good of the student that they should
impose upon him a long list of subject. which they knew
be could,only study in a fragmentary way, and catch
at by snatches; they must give him something which would
be a sound basis for all that had to come after, and they
must be content to put a good deal on one side, and so
place him in a position to cultivate the seed which they
bad been able to sow. (Applause.) Ile did not forget
that the subject of religion, of which he happened to be a
1 humble minister, like that of politics, was necessarily
omitted from the scheme of these mechanics' institutes,
but it must be deeply felt that so far as education could
he carried on in connection with religion, so far was a
great good gained and secured. (Applause.)

The Merchant Taylors' entertainment to her
Majesty's ministers, already announced, will be given on
Wednesday, the 17th inst., and will, it is stated, be con-
audit en a scale of extraordinary_ spleour. The whole
of the cabinet ministers are understoodnd to have accepted
invitations.

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DEATH 01 A PREBLNDARY OF ST. PAU' —The
death was announced yesterday morning of the Rev. Pre-
bendary John Honywoed Randolph, a name familiar in the
church of England, and especially in the dimes of London.