The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-29 00:00:00

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

The meeting at Exeter-hall, for the preservation of the
Crystal Palace en its present site, ought to have weight
with a Legislature which professes to represent all
orders and classes of the people. If there was not
" everyboly there," there was at least a very fair dele-
gation. Religion, morality, and benevolence had their
active representatives in Shaftesbury and Harrowby;
economy and public spirit in Hume and Wakley; from
Scotland there was the accomplished Thane and the
eloquent Presbyter; Lancashire sent a Heywood, and
Sir Joscph Paxton might well have appeared as the
prince of theists, but that his fame in that department
has been eclipsed by his conception of the edifice which
W 413 the subject of the tneetkg. There are not many

causes that command so wide aeoneurrence, or so varied
an advocacy. Our public men have their antipathies as
well as their sympaties, and it may be many years ha-
fore, as the altaanacks express it, we shall see so many
planets at once above the horizon. But the demonstation
was as comprehensive in its results as in its speakers.
We cannot call to mind a single objection to the pre-
servation of the building on its present site that was not
fully met, from the frivolities and dishonesties of Lord
Seymour's so-called " Report," to the frantic stuff we
occasionally see in the papers from here and there a
tradesman who ascribes his want of business to any
cause but the true one. With the offer to take the

building on a lease from the Crown, and to maintain it,
under proper regulations, on the self-supporting prin-
ciple, there is an end to all the interesting forebodings
about expense, public indifference, and failuie. It is
now placed beyond doubt that the real apprehension at
the bottom of these prophecies is lest the building should
prove too durable, the glass too proof against hailstorms,
and the Paxton gutters too cheaply adapted for perma-
nence; lest the vast area should find too many uses, the
building be made too attractive, and the frequenters
become too many and too constant. That is the real
bugbear which haunts on the one hand the aristocracy
of the neighbourhood, and on tho other a few tradesmen,
who, not having the necessary gift of addressing them-
selves to the changes around them, think all the world
is to stand still that they may do so themselves. Let
it be plainly understood—for there is now no other
construction to be put on the efforts of the mal-
contents—that they aro only too sure that the
Exhibition, once permitted to stand, will become
one of the institutions of the realm. The comprehen-
sive nature of the offer made to the Government leaves
uo other alternative; for the capitalists who have made
it, besides undertaking the improvement, maintenance,
custody, warming, and filling of the structure, aro pre-
pared •
to setqo the little questions of .1; s. d. with the
contractor over the way. It is difficult cult to say what more
they can do to meet the West-enu and " vested interest"
objections, unless they shall also undertake to convey
to and fro, in tunnels or in balloons, that plebeian but
numerous portion of the visitors who do not possess car-
riages of their own. We had almost omitted—for in-
deed it is scarcely worth notice—the story about the
solemn undertaking that the building should be removed
as soon as it had answered its purpose. Lord Carlisle's
letter disposes of that. If the promise was made by any-
body, it was made by him; it was made with respect to
a building which was never erected, and to a Legislature
which need not enforce the promise a moment longer
than it pleases. When the two parties to an engage-
ment are equally desirous to bring it to an end, there
need no longer be any difficulty about it.
It ought to be fully known and understood what is
the precise question now before the public. It is not
whether the building should remain on its present site
or be altogether destroyed—be banished to the Champs
Ely! ,s, disappear into space
—or be cut up into a
hullos( d provincial mimicries. R is simply, as wo are
given to understand, whether the above-mentioned offer
shall be accepted, and the building be permitted to stand
on its present site, or whether, in consequence of another
offer, it shall be removed and re-erected on another site
near the metropolis, and not without its recommenda-
tions. It has boon proposed to transfer the building to
Wimbledon-park, which, till lately, was little known to
the majority of Londoners, except by the large piece of
green that stood for it in the maps of London and the
neighbourhood; but which has, at last, fallen into the
hands of speculators. The site, the soil, the turf,
the woods, and the lake, will all bear coaiparison
with those to which the building owes so much
of its present attractions. The South-Western
Railway Company aro ready to lay down a new
line of rails from the Waterloo station right up to
the proposed site, and to carry the visitors for a penny
there and a penny back; that is, receiving twopence out
of every shilling ticket issued at Waterloo station and
presented at the Exhibition. The journey, therefore,
would be loss tedious, less costly, and less liable to an-
noyances than it proved to most visitors last year; and,
with the carriage there and back included in the shilling
charged for admission, the wonder of the ago would be
once more brought home to our doors. There are so
many things in favour of this proposal that we could
almost find it in our heart to give up Hyde-park once
more to the exclusive use of dandies, dowagers and lap-
dogs. Lot the aristocracy of the West-end be undis-
turbed in their enjoyment of our beautiful parks and
national gardens. Let them continue to show their pre-
sent laudable jealousy of royal and popular encroach-
ments. It is possible that the people may henceforth
secede to a park of their own. To the discovery of the
Great Exhibition, and the discovery of the Crystal
Palace, may now perhaps be added the discovery of a
system for the conveyance of a hundred thousand visi-
tors five miles into the country in the morning, and
back again at night. It is only a question of materials
and arrangement, and, if the demand is made, it will
be met before long.
Wo shall be told, perhaps, that this settles the ques-
tion. If there is no objection whatever to Wimbledon-
park, and plenty of objections to Hyde-park, let the
objectionable site be spared and the unobjectionable one
be adapted. But
the question is not so easily disposed
of. The Exhibition in Hydeepark will still be public
property in some sort, being leased under proper regu-
lations, and with a certain
in right of control reserved to
the Government. It will, in fact, be in the same position
precisely as the Zoological and Botanic Gardens in Re-
gent's-park. In Wimbledon-park the Exhibition will
be as thoroughly a private undertaking as Cremorne-
gardens, or Resherville-gardens, or the Surrey Zoolo-
gical, or the tea-gardens at Anerley, on the Croydon
line. Now, though we have reason to believe that the
gentlemen who propose to plant the Crystal
Palace in Wimbledon- park will endeavour to keep as
much as possible up to the standard of the Great Ex-
hibition, and preserve the prestige which they carry with
them, yet they will be under no express obligation to do
so, and will be under no special responsibility. Having
to attract and entertain myriads of vulgar excursionists
every day, they will be obliged to pay more attention to
the commissariat than the Royal Commission thought
suitable to the occasion; they will not feel themselves
bound to exclude intoxicating beverages; they may pos-
sibly allow cookery on the premises; and even go so
far as to provide out.of-door sports, perhaps dancing,
and theatrical representations. If the concern does not
otherwise answer they will certainly do whatever
speculators have been accustomed to do under
similar circumstances; they will part with a good
many scruples rather than be utterly ruined.
But without asking what they will do, or what
they will not do, there is ono point of difference
between the two sites about which there can be no doubt.
Like the Great Exhibition, Zoological Gardens, and the
Botanic Garden, the " Crystal Palace," if suffered to re-
main in Hyde-park, will be closed on Sunday. In. Wim-
bledon-park its chief chance of support will be
.its Sun-
day visitors, and it will doubtless become a principal fea-
ture of the metropolitan Sabbath. To the speculators it
will be a matter of necessity, and the Legislature will
not, in consistency, havo the right to interfere. Now,
considering the national antipathy th to the opening
oice 9f 0ur0.,.
public exhibitions on Sunday, we submit ch
difficulties to those who are hesitating between Hyde-
park and Wimbledon-park. The question extends, of
course, to all private sites. . Once out of the reach of the
State, the Crystal Palace will inevitably become a sticia
day exhibition; so they who wish to save it rorusuch
erofanation must take care to keep it at home.—Times.

---
WRITING ON NEWSPAPERS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE EXETER AND PLYMOUTH
GAZETTE.
Sir,—Some time ago it was stated among your notices
to correspondents, that on application at the Exeter
Post-office, you had been informed that it
spap was not al-
lowed to write upon the cover of a newer, even
though the usual postage stampwas duly affixed to it!
A friend of mine, thinking so absurd a state of things
could not be posible, took the
trouble to write to
" head-quarters" for information. The following is a
copia sera of the reply transmitted in due form:—
1852.
" General Post-office, Bth April,
"Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 19th ult. I beg to
acquaint you that the charge upon the newspaper, of
which the enclosed is the cover, is correct.
~ Newspapers sent by the post may have wri,tinbguutptohne
them when a postage stamp has been affixed
privilege does not extend to the cover.—l am, Sir, your
obedient humble ser va
Vnt,
" V. TILLEY, Assistant Secretary,"
Now, as it clearly cannot make the slightest difference
to the revenue whether the said " writing" be ptlahceoldlgoin
the paper or on the cover, " provided always"
piece of red sticking-plaster, popularly called " a VieY
spittle," is duly daubed on, the affair exhibits another-
sking illustration of the well-known remark of Voi
taire, namely, that " John Bull will tamely submit to-
any kind of absurdity provided it comes in the form of
au Act of Parliament."—I am, Sir, your most bedient
A LOVER OF RATIONAL RFoFoRm.
servant,

N. MACFARBEN'S MATINEEs.—The first is fixed
for Saturday next, at the Beethoven Rooms, and we do hope
tho room will b© crowded in every part. Mrs. Macfarren
has acquired sonic fame as a inamsie, and will be assisted on
the occasion by a numerous coils of professionals, added to
Which, when we state that she has a husband who has lost
his si
artist: ght, and rendered incapable of following his profession
we feel
, convinced that the most extensive
as an
patron*, will gof en to thll praiseworthy eirsgt•