The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-28 00:00:00

The Crystal Palace,

An interesting addition to the thousand attrac-
tions of the Crystal Palace has just been made, In
response to an application to the Lords Commis•
sioners of the Admiralty. they have kindly granted
permission to the directors to have for exhibition in
the Palace two of the armour plates which have been
submitted to experimental firing by the heaviest
ordnance. The view these massive plates of iron
present, perforated and shattered to pieces as they
are by the heavy projectiles hurried against them, is
most remarkable, and will serve to give the general
public some idea of the power of the monster guns
and shot which have lately excited so much attention.
Accompanying these armour plates are several
varieties of steel and iron shot, from those weighing
500ibs to the ordinary 68-pounders; also a piece of
a 13,k-inch armour plate, the thickest ever rolled,
the entire plate having been 17 feet long and 6 feet
10 inches broad, and weighing 28 tons. These have
been kindly furnished from the Atlas Steel and
Ironworks, Sheffield, forming altogether one of the
most interesting exhibitions of the power likely to
be expended offensively and defensively in any
future naval warfare.

.
The Cambridge Music Hall.

This newly-established music hall has, under the
courteous and efficient management of Mr C. Gre-
ville, met with a continuous and unqualified success
since the opening night—so much so indeed that
Mr G. W. Nugent (the proprietor) has in his enter-
prise spared neither pains nor expense in placing
before his supporters a Christmas bill of fare that
will bear comparison with any of its kind in
London. The features ore very numerous, and the
corps operatique boasts of a prima donna (Miss El•
lison) whose rendering of the Casta Diva in the
selection from " Norma" stamps her equal (if not
superior) to any music hall singer ever introduced
in London; and again in Signor Mordini they have
a tenor of no ordinary ability ; while in Miss
Jenny Stanley and Miss Riseani they find excellent
supporters as well as very pleasing ballad singers.
These then, in addition to theTransformationDancer
(Mr Charles Burton); Bernand Sloman, an extraor-
dinary imitator of birds ; West, the stump orator ;
Mr J. G. Fords, the well known patter singer; Nelly
Power, a clever little serio•comic singer, about 12
years of age; and the Brothers Cavallini, Italian
clowns and gymnasts, who were specially and
exclusively engaged in Paris by Mr Greville, and
whose debut on Monday night was of the most
flattering description ; Annie Adams, the serio-
comic singer ; the comic Fred. French and George
Lsybourne, who has greatly improved since his last
appearance in London—make up a programme that
affords an excellent evening's entertainment to the
hundreds who assemble within the walls of this
really elegant hall—which (both last night and
the night before) would have been literally crowded
to suffocation but for the commendable conduct of
the management, who as soon as the seats were
fairly filled, refused to admit any more persons.
The performances commence with the Soldiers'
Chorus from " Trovatore," which is admirably
rendered, and in the course of the evening a selec-
tion from "Norma" is played, in which (as already
stated) Miss Ellison elicits the enthusiasm of the
entire house, and a chorus from " Masaniello"
closes the performances.

ENGLIOU GYMNOSOPIIISTS.—It is in such titles
as these, and in some parts of the artist's conduct,
that the indications of insanity are recognised. For con-
duct, what should we say of the man who would take his
little back garden in this grimy metropolis for the Garden
of Eden, and, to the horror of all his neighbours, might be
seen in the costume of our first parents sauntering about it,
his wife bearing him company ? Mr Butts called one day
upon Blake, and found him with his wife in the summer-
house, all innocent of clothing. "Come in," cried Blake,
" it's only Adam and Eve, you know." Husband and wife
had been reciting passages from " Paradise Lost," and to
enter more fully into the spirit of the poet's verse, they had
dressed, or rather undressed, for their parts. Blake had a
great opinion of the gymnosophists, and would insist on the
virtues of nakedness. Nor was he alone in his views. He
got his wife to accept them undoubtingly ; and we are told
of a family in the upper ranks of society, contemporary with
Bloke, though unknown to him, who had embraced the
theory of "philosophical nakedness," Believing in the
speedy coming of a golden age similar to the pristine state
utlinr lcence,!the elders in this Itionly taught the children to
run naked about the house for a few hours every day, and
in this condition the little innocents would run and open
the door to Shelley. Their mother followed the same prac-
tice more privately, locking herself in her room ; but she
declared to her friends that the habit of going about every
day for a time in a state of nudity did her much moral
good, " She felt the better for it—so innocent during the
rest of the day."—Macmillan's Magazine.

HISTORICAL DISCOVERY.-1110 Debats publishes
a letter from M. Feuillet de Conches, editor of the corre-
spondence of Queen Marie Antoinette, in which the writer
states that a discovery has recently been made in the pri-
vate library of the Emperor of Austria of a series of letters
between Maria Theresa and her daughter Maria Antoinette,
from the marriage of the latter to the death of the Empress.
There are 94 letters, of which 30 of the original have been
found, but the copies of the others are being fully
authenticated. The letter adds that M. Arneth, member of
the States of Austria and Deputy Conservator of the Impe-
rial Archives, is about to publish those letters.