The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-14 00:00:00

he the opportunity, would be as willing as he is
able to defend their rights. Still the complete
overthrow of a nation's hopes cannot take place'
without causing a signal change, and the remarks
of the Dagbladet are most opportune, and well
represent the true circumstances of the case.
That journal contrasts the present visit of
the Princess with the leave-taking of last year,
and points to the moral that is contained in the
"enthusiastic demonstrations," and the " silent
welcome." Such facts speak for themselves, and
do not need the tongue of wisdom to make them
plain, nor the voice of eloquence to make them
memorable. The Daybladet truly says that in the
expressions of delight at the departure of the Prin•
cess there was a double significance, they were
meant to celebrate not only a personal, but a
national union. Of course, in such a light, the
present moment is i❑ every respect different, there
is the sound of mourning for the voice of rejoicing,
and the bitter feeling of disappointment for the eager
expression of hope. There are no roses to scatter
before her, because they have all been strewn
upon the tombs of the warriors who had fallen.
After pet using this epitome of the national senti.
went, it remains to us to reflect upon the causes
that have produced such effects,. and the actions
whose issues have been such deplorable conse-
quences. Why is it that Denmark is desolated,
and the young Princess returns to find the land
of her birth wrapt in a pall, and the people re.
maining panic-stricken, as it were, in the valley
of the shadow of death. Why have the nations of
the world beheld a spectacle which has renewed the
thoughts of past days of tyranny and oppression in
the history of ages gone by. There can be but one
answer to all these querieo, and that is a painful
one to give. The conduct of England has been
the cause, the mainspring, and origin of the offence.
The fact is that nations, no more than
individuals, can play at power ; the strong
must show themselves willing to exert their
strength, or else it will be of no avail to those
whom they may wish to succour. It la very likely
that Earl RUSSELL and his colleagues really thought
that the moral influence of Great Britain would
have some weight in the councils of Europe, but
the event has shown how lamentably he was mis-
taken, and we are left to mourn over his mistake,
while the victims reap the bitter fruits of his inca-
pacity to think and his reluctance to act. This
subject of Denmark is an oft-told tale; but it is
true, and it cannot be too much dwelt upon. It we
are to seek the annals of the past for knowledge
the present teaches us still more and better, but
people prefer to comment upon subjects not so per.
Banal. It will long be a sorrowful era in the annals
of England that this spoliation of Denmark should
have been permitted ; and indeed the memory of
the defalcation will remain a lasting stain upon
the fair fame of her rulers. To abandon the weak
to the strong is always a base action, but to give
up a people who had reason to trust us •was indeed
dastardly, and no plausible explanation of the affair
can do anything to mitigate the nature of the evil,
or to lessen the enormity of the conduct according
to the reader of truth and honour.

The details of the Chicago Convention prove that
its proceedings were the effect of no mere local or
sectarian influence, but the expression of the long-
suppressed feelings of the great mass of the
Northern people. The enthusiasm of the assembly
knew no bounds, and found ready expression on
behalf of any allusion to the restoration of peace
and the recognition of civil rights. It was no in-
significant assembly in point of numbers, for it is
said that never before bas there been so great a
concourse. As one of the American journals de-
scribes it, writing on the day of gathering—" In
numbers, enthusiasm, sincerity of purpose, sad true
patriotism, the great Convention which met here at
noon to.day is without precedent in the history of
American politics." From every aide the people
came pouring into the town until the streets were
thronged, and the great hotels almost impassable
inside. On the Sunday, the day before the opening
alone, no less than 27,000 people poured into the
town, brought by the eleven different railroads
which centre there: Large delegations were con-
tinually arriving with bands of music, firing salutes
in answer to the cheers with which they were
greeted. It was calculated that more than a hun-
dred thousand visitors were in Chicago, and, in ad-
dition to the regular meeting, large mass meetings
were held throughout the day at the chief hotels
and in the streets. At night, on the 29th of August,
the day of the opening, four immense meetings
were held, and sixty thousand persons were in the
streets listening to the speeches. The Missouri and
Illinois delegations held mass meetings, and "en-
dorsed M'CLELLAN in the warmest manner." So
that the verdict of the great West is unmistakably
for peace; but it is not the verdict of the Western
States alone, since the New York delegation held
a meeting to vote for a nominee, at which the
names of four candidates were brought forward,
leaving General M'CLELLAN 53 votes; Judge NEL,
SON, the next in number, 11 ; CHARLES O'CONNOR,
2 ; and JAMES GUTHRIE, 1. So that the risk of
rivalry from these gentlemen is not a very serious
one for M'CLELLAN. Meanwhile, the interior
of the great hall was no less animated than
the streets of Chicago. The presentation of the
credentials by the delegates gave rise to vivid
demonstrations of enthusiasm, especially when the
representatives of the Western States came forward.
But when the delegates from Kentucky advanced
to the platform, the whole assembly rose to their
feet and cheered for old Kentucky. The recollec-
tion of the martial law established in that province
gave fresh zeal to the cheers that rung to the roof
at every allusion to the rights of the people. In
recognition of one of the most valuable of those
rights—a free press—the Chicago limes received
the compliment of a serenade from an immense
crowd, and speeches were made in answer to it'
declaring that the freedom of the press would here-
after be maintained at all costs. The address of
Governor SEYMOUR was in harmony with his openly
proclaimed opinions, and was strai;;litforward,
manly, and explicit. It the convictions
c which the people of this country earnestly desire
to see brought h°..-die to the heart of every Atneri.
can, and gulch have been long silently but surely
Pi:../1)g ground, until we see their full strength
evidenced in the assembly at Chicago. Four years
ago, said Governor SEYMOUR, the party which now
rules the States had its birth on this opal ; let it
die where it was born. Four years ago a con
vention met in the city of Chicago when the country
was peaceful, prosperous, and united. " Its dole.
gates did not wish to destroy our Government, to
overwhelm us with debt, or to drench our land with
blood, but they were animated by an ignorance of
the spirit of our institutions, the character of our
people, and the condition of our land." All these
direful results have been brought about, and, as
Governor SEYMOUR truly said, the party in
power have marched on step by step to con.
elusions which at the outset they would have
shunk from in horror. The refusal of the LINCOLN
party to entertain the idea of a compromise was
especially censured by all parties. They demand
conditions, it was declared, which have nothing to
do with the Constitution, and which they have no
right to ask. They put obstacles in the way of any

terms of reconciliation, and by the expression of
their own vindictive passions have hampered their
own cause so much that it is equally impossible for
them to restore the Union or to make peace with-
out it. No word was breathed at Chicago of recog-
nition or separation of the States. The Union was
everywhere spoken of, but peace and conciliation
and compromise were upon every one's lips. And
conciliation and compromise must lead to that end
which we are all hoping to see. When once the
sword is sheathed, and the smoke of the battle-
field is allowed to clear away, men will look round
and count the cost of the war. They will recog-
nise the utter hopelessness and futility of their
efforts to subdue a people as brave, as determined,
and far more united and singleminded than them•
selves. They will see, too, the inconsistency, we
might almost say the absurdity, of WASHINGTON'S
descendants fighting to enforce the very principles
Which he spent his life in opposing. It is the
principle of independence, the recognition of the
rights of States which has made America a nation,
and it is those principles which the North must
acknowledge in the inevitable recognition of
Southern independence, to which the Chicago Con-
vention is the first decided step.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

No. IV.

Its Peerless Capacity as a Music Hall.

The Diameter of the Handel Orchestra has
already been spoken of as exactly double the dia•
meter of the Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. From
that one consideration alone, it will, upon the in-
stant, be recognised that, in the mere scope of the
arrangements permanently made within the edifice
for its various musical performances, the Crystal
Palace, as a melodic arena, regarded simply as a
Music) Hall, stands forth, here also, as it does in so
many other particulars, altogether unrivalled. -
The magnitude of the area set apart thus for orches-
tral purposes—upon a scale so gigantic and hitherto
unexampled—is.attributable to the gradual after-
expansion of what was originally a very grand
enterprise on the part of the designer. And the drop.
ping of the pebble, us one may say, from the which—
ring upon ring—there has subsequently expanded,
circle upon circle, tier above tier, this magnificent
choral and instrumental amphitheatre, was—the
carrying out of the project of the First Great Handel
Festival in 18571 Since that occasion, the enter-
prise then happily set on foot has been developed to
its present vast and unrivalled dimensions. The
Orchestra—thenceforth to be known as the Handel
Orchestra—grew and grew until it came at last
to occupy, as it does now, permanently, the
whole of the western portion of the Great
Central Transept. It has contrived at last to
assume such dimensions, there, in fact, that it
can be said of it (not by any means extravagantly
or hyperbolicall3 ) that, if need were, it could
contain within it, and that comfortably seated
before their music stands, the six largest orchestras
in the United Kingdom. It could so accommodate
those six largest orchestras, and yet, even then, have
elbow-room ! In point of fact, no farther back
than in 1862, at the Great Handel Festival—then
given with a pomp that a pagan might have
said must for a certainty (shall we say, for a dead
certainty !) have soothed the manes of the giant
composer, nay, that that pagan might almost in
the old heathenish classic times have regarded as
Handel's Apotheosis—more than Four Thousand
vocal and instrumental performers were ranged to•
gether, there—immediately below and upon either
hand of the great organ—upon the benches of the
Handel Orchestra.

That superb instrument just mentioned, The
Organ—so to speak, the palpitating heart of the
whole Orchestra—an organ, expressly built for the
Crystal Palace by the Messrs Gray and Davison—
it should here be remarked at once at this first
mention of it assumes high rank among the
noblest specimens yet fabricated in that im-
perial class of instumente. Tt ia worth mak-
ing a journey, indeed, round the upper gallery,
immediafe:y at the back of it, to peer in
through an obscure looking door, which there some•
times stands ajar, at the throng of men standing in
a cluster there, working away for the bare life of
them at the bellows which give it breath ! Breath
to those glorious sounds rolling out day after
day, at an appointed hour (according to the
varying announcement in each day's programme),
under the touch of the master-hand of
Mr. James Coward, the Company's Organist.
Glorious sounds rolling forth at that touch
under the every movement of the accomplished
performer's hands from an instrument having an
array of Four Rows of Keys—an organ containing
within it upwards of Seventy Stops, and consider.
ably more than Four Thousand Five Hundred
Pipes ! The Stops of this Mammoth Organ,
in point of fact, number exactly 74—the
Pipes of it no less than 4,593. Hearkening
at limo to the enormous volumes of sound
pouring forth from the instrument, sounds
reverberating under the arch of the great
transept, and rolling in re-echoing peals, to the right
hand and to the left. down the loneperspective of
the Nave, it seems almost incredible that they can
emanate from the momentary touch of that one
isolated performer. Ranging, as they do, from treble
to diapason, varying from trumpet: to flageolet,
breathing now with the dulcet tones as of a solitary
hautboy, now as with a very tumult of horns and
ophecleides, it seems more like.the performance of
a whole orchestra than that of a single instru-
mentalist.

Reverting, however, to the mere mechanical
arrangements of the interior structure here raised
in this western portion of the Great Centre Trans.
sept, it is especially noticeable among these, how it
has come to pass that so signal a triumph has been
there won over a world of acoustic difficulties,
The secret of the success thus achieved may be
recognised,
in truth, at aglance—in the wooden
ceiling arched in a single span over the whole
vast area of this unrivalled orchestra. Remora-
boring that, in the clear span of it, this immenee
wooden arch—about the largest timber arch
ever constructed—remembering that this spas
cions arch is in the clear span of it upwards of
One Hundred Feet—that it has a depth of
considerably more than Two Hundred, and that,
besides this, it rises more than thirty feet in
the centre, where it reaches an attitude of upwards
of eighty feet from the floor of the Orchestra—it
mutt be allowed to have been very exquisitely
adjusted, indeed, in its component parts, when it
comes to be added, after all this, that no lateral
pressure whatever has been thrown from it upon
the edifice of glass and iron within whioh the who!e
of this supplementary framework has, with such
wonderful ingenuity, been contrived. That, in
other words, it is self-sustaining, upon its own
foundations.

Here it is, in effect, under this stupendous sound-
ing•board, that between Four and Five Thousand
Performers, vocalists and instrumentalists, can
interpret, as nowhere else can be interpreted, nay,
for that matter, here it is that they have so inter-
preted the sublimest imaginings of the demigods
among our musical composers—a Handel, a
Beethoven, a Mendelssohn.
As a music-hall in quite another sense, the
Crystal Palace is no less, than in the ono i❑ which
we have been here examining it, wholly and entirely
without any competitor. As an aviary of song
birds—it is altogether unrivalled. Loitering within
the Crystal Palace, of an evening, when the sun is
verging westwards, and when the whole glittering
Pane, nave and transqte and wings, kindles under
the horizontal beams—one may listen there
—among the statuary and the verdure—to
the notes of all the various song birds that make
the Cr) stal Palace their perpetual haunt, flitting
about, hither and thither, free as air under its
transparent roof, nesting among the boughs of
that indoor garden—melodious singers as varied in
their skil: as the thrush, the robin, the blackbird,
and the nightingale.

The Preaehership of Archbishop Teniamee Chapel,
Regent-atreet, has been conferred on the Rev, C, R, Gor-
don, M,A,