The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-04 00:00:00

THE CIt.vSTAL PAL4CE.

This building, the fate of which has been the sub-
ject of so much speculation, has, after a long inter-
regnum, been partially made accessible to the public
in rather a singular way. It will be remembered
; h xt a Lam-. portion 'if the interior fittings was sup-
plied by Messrs. Fox and Henderson, the contrsc-
ee s. 'Deese fittings are now on sale by public auc-
tion, and, as it is necessary to admit purchasers, the
price of a catalogue, which is 6d., secures the entrée.
Where curiosity is excited people are not slow to
avail themselves of an opportunity, and the sale of
catalogu-s, which on the first day amounted to 200,
now, after the interval of a week, reaches 1,500.
Business men attend in sufficient numbers, and the
details of the auction-mart are animated to a degree;
so much so, indeed, that the first lot brought a price.
about twice its original value, and throughout the
purchases effected have been more or less affected by
the associations of the spot. But it is almost unne-
cessry to say that a very small proportion of the cata-
logues are disposed of to persons anxious to avail
themselves of them, and that the mejority buy as a
pretext to see the interior of the building. Nursery-
maids with their infant charges are, as soon as they
approach the south entrance of the transept, seized
with an irresistible impulse to participate in the
transactions in lumber going on within, and even
ladies' boarding-schools own the same influences.
Not less than 3,000 to 4,000 people were there yes-
terday, and wandered over the spacipus interior with
feelings of gratification and delight not difficult to de-
cipher in their faces. It is the commencement of a
new era in the history of this wonderful building,
which in itself contains features calculated to make it
permanently attractive, and, if the contractors only
play their cards well, they may render it so desirable
and popular a place of resort that its removal will
become an impossibility. At the same time it must
be remembered that in strict terms this wonderful
structure lies under sentence of death. Parliament
has suspended the execution of the extreme sentence
of the law until its pleasure be taken on the subject,
and possibly it may preserve, or dismember, or des-
troy. It may see fit to vote the amount
requisite to render the Crystal Palace per-
manent, or it may sanction its distribution,
giving a limb to Battersea, another to Kew,
and another to Victoria-park, in the approved style of
dealing with the carcases of traitors. It may also
as reject, __ .• .
the Royal Commission has already done,
ttlialeatabeheldlyvv,within which the honours and triumphs of
predict
and while
and while the
of finally
the aid of a
to state what
vihaterehaccumulated. No one can confidently
thet e result will be, but in the meantime,
wisdom of Parliament is still in reserve,
indeublic have not yet had an opportunity
the late Government b
Lords of tbee,Treas
building. persognaulp.their minds upon the subject by
Was
thinespection, it may be worth while
That committee substance of a report made to
nstnitteoe
bers—Sir W. Cubits, Dr.
ryytoa Committee
c appointed by the
winttiesiedsesresetyha,e question of the
Lioendisisted of three mem-
MOUT. They examined
nadndLordSey-
in substancr as follows
_ll. reported,_ we
believe,
would cos That
the Crystal
if retaine P t 200,0001 .to make it
Palace,
and adapt it for a "A te
permanent,
f the arts and ° r garden or
repository 0- manufactures and
contemplated. 2. That if
other objects c
d to Kew it - a portion
rsueove Would entail
of it were 0 Oca 3. That a t
an outlay of 8
e Dot worthy of ransposi.
Lion to IliflE4Seil -w4-serious
consideration ; And, I , that a structure better
AS .7 tfr
to which is; was contem-
plated
adapted for the purposei
ns I aiat- ,e should he applied might
thiAt the Crystal L than the a
he con%tructed at a stiller charg.
'awe give no Posi-
of 200 0001. specified. The coma , ,
tive opinim-, ~, to the retention or rein oval
O_Srd
..ot thet
bill ldiov, and their ri.port will go before l' Ilidtn Pn,
earl have its due weight si.,hg with the efft..ct r whichee
may be produced upon the public mind byarr
end unembarrassed in-pection of the interior before
the
the question comes on for discussion. As far as
Royal Commission are concerned, they have aban-
doned all idea of holding out a hand to help the in-
habitants of the metropolis who are interested in this
matter. Not only is the building absolutely in the
hands of the contractors, but the Commissioners have
issued orders to withdraw everything belonging to
them. Their collection, which is to form the ground-1
work of a trades' museum, is, in compliance with a de-
cision come to on Monday, to be transferred to Ken-
sington Palace, and in a few days every vestige of
their connexion with the Crystal Palace will
have terminated ; the building will then have -

LONDON,

to rely for its preservation entirely on public
feeling., an d it remains to be seen whether the
power which created it and gave it a world-wide
celebrity has also the will to render it permanent, for
the enjoym nat and a,lvantage of the metropolis and
the country at