The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-27 00:00:00

SHIP MAILS TO AMERICA.

The following correspondence respecting the de-
spatch of letter: by private ships to Matmoras was
issued on Saturday evening :

No. 1.
MR. HAMMOND TO MR. HILL.
Foreign Office, April 16, 1863.
Sir,—l am directed by Earl Russell to request
that you will state to the Postmaster-General that
it has been represented to his lordship by persons
interested in vessels employed between this country
and Matamoras, that the circumstance of those ves-
sels being obliged to carry a ship-letter mail may
in many cases have an injurious effect on the
vessels if visited by United States ships of war,
inasmuch as, although the persons interested in
such vessels and their cargoes may as far as
matters are within their control, be well assured
of the innocence of both, yet they can have no such
assurance in regard to the contents of mails en-
trusted to them by the Post Office, which, for
aught they know, may include correspondence to
which the United States, as a belligerent Power,
might fairly object.
I am, therefore, to request that you will state to
the Postmaster-General that Lord Russell is of
opinion that, under the peculiar circumstances of
the present time, vessels bound to Matamoras,
either from ports in this country, or from ports in
her Majesty's colonies and possessions, should be
relieved from the obligation of carrying ship-letter
mails; and if the Postmaster-General should con-
cur, Lord Russell would be glad to be informed of
his doing so, in order that he may apprise the par-
ties by whom the representation was made to him.
.--I am, &c.,

(Signed) E. lIA3imoND.

No. 2.
ME. HILL TO MR. 114111\101,.TD.
General Post-Office, April 17, 1863.

Sir,—flaying laid before the Postmaster-Gene-
ral your letter of yesterday's date, I am directed
by his lordship to request that you will state to
Earl Russell that he sees no objection to the pro-
posal made in that letter, that, under the peculiar
Circumstances of the present time, vessels bound to
Alatamoras from this country should be relieved
from the obligation of carrying ship-letter mails;
,kr,a orders will immediately be given that, for the
t;resent, no ship-letter mail be put on board any
vesseconcurrence sailing for Matamoras, unless with the full
of the commander.
With reeespeq to vessels sailing from ports in

her Majesty's colonies and possessions, the Post-
master-General would suggest that Earl Russell
should communicate with the Secretary cf State
for the Colonies, as, except at Malta tend Gib-
raltar, the management of the posts in the colonies
is now entirely under local control.

As bearing upon the present ques"on, I am to
add that on the 2d inst. the brokers of a steam ves-
Eel called the Sea Queen, bound for Matamoros,
wrote to this office, stating that they should be glad
to take a mail by her. But on the 11th instant a
further letter was received from them, pointing out
that, for reasons similar to those mentioned in your
letter, the owners wished to decline taking the
mails for which they had previously applied.
Before the receipt, however, of that letter, three
mails, containing eight letters and two newspa-
pers, had been put on board the ship at Gravesend,
and the vessel had sailed.

This circumstance was communicated to the
brokers yesterday, but the Postmaster-General has
now directed a further letter to be written to them,
informing them that if they still desire that the
mails should not be canied by the Sea Queen, and
will instruct the commander to put them on shore
at Falmcuth (where it is ur,derstood the vessel is to
call), his lordship will authorise the postmaster at
Falmouth, by means of the electric telegraph, to
receive the mails and to return them to London.--
I am, &c., (Signed) F. HILL.

No. 3.
MR. HAMMOND TO MR. CRAWFORD, M.P.
Foreign-office, Aprill7, 1863.

Sir,—l am directed by Earl Russell to state to
you, with reference to what passed at the interview
which he had the pleasure of having with you yes-
terday, that he lost no time in suggesting to the
Postmaster- General that, under the peculiar cir-
cumstances of the present time, vessels bound to
Matamoras from ports in this country should be re-
lieved from the obligation of carrying ship-letter
mails; and that he has been informed that in con-
sequence of his communication orders will be imme-
diately given that for the present no ship -letter
mails shall be put on board any vessel sailing for
Matamoras unless with the full concurrence of the
commander.--I am, &c,,
(Signed) E. HAMMOND.

No. 4.
MR. HAMMOND TO MR. SPENCE.

Foreign-office, April 17, 1863.
Sir,—l have laid before Earl Russell your letter
of this day's date, requesting that instructions may
be given for placing a Government mail agent in
charge of the mail which has been put on board your
vessel the Sea Queen, which is now at Falmouth ;
and I am directed by his lordship to state to you in
reply, that Lord Russell has been informed by the
Postmaster-General that the brokers of the Sea
Queen will be apprised that if they desire that the
mails should not be carried by the Sea Queen, and
will instruct the commander to put them on shore
at Falmouth, his lordship will authorise the post-
master at Falmouth by telegraph to receive the
mails and to return them to London.

I am further to state to you, that at the recom-
mendation of Earl Russell, the Postmaster-General
will immediately give orders that no ship letter mail
be put on board any vessel sailing for IVlatamoras,
unless with the full concurrence of the commander.
—I am, &c. (Signed) E. ITAmmomp.

1 No. 5.
MR. HAIIDIOND TO MESSRS. BENNETT AND WAKE.
Foreign-office, April 18, 1863.
Gentlemen,—l have laid before Earl Russell your
letter of yesterday's date, requesting that instruc
tions may be given for placing a Government mail
agent on board the Sea Queen, which is now at
Falmouth ; and I am directed to state to you, in re-
ply, that, at Lord Russell's recommendation, the
Postmaster -General will for the present relieve
vessels proceeding to Matamoras from the obliga-
tion of carrying ship letter mails.—l am, &c.,

(Signed) E. HAMMOND.

THE ALBERT MEMORIAL,

Lieutenant-General Grey has received the com-
mands of the Queen to acknowledge the receipt of
the Report of the Committee appointed to give her
Majesty their assistance in the consideration of
questions relative to the National Memorial to the
Prince Consort.

Her Majesty has directed that her best thanks
may be returned to the Committee for the valuable
services which they have rendered and the advice
which they have submitted to her Majesty.
The Queen very fully participates in the regret
expressed by the Committee that it has been found
necessary to abandon, for the present, the idea of
the Central Hall, which, combined with a personal
Memorial, would have appeared to unite the tribute
of national gratitude with the objects in which the
great and good Prince took the strongest interest,
and would also have for ever associated with the
Memorial the recollections of the Exhibition of
1851. This regret is, however, modified by the ex-
pectation that whenever the Commissioners of 1851
may be in a position to appropriate the vacant space
north of the conservatory in the Royal Horticultural
Gardens to the purposes for which the estate was
purchased a Hall may still form part of the build-
ings to be erected there.

The personal Memorial to the Prince was always
the first object, and the Queen never contemplated
the combination of the Central Hall until that was
adequately provided for.

Under these circumstances the Queen is happy to
see that the Committee have recommended for selec-
tion the design of Mr. Scott, to which her Majesty
had already given the preference among the many
beautiful designs submitted for her judgment.
Windsor Castle, April 22, 1863,
Sir Charles Eastlake.

" THIRD REPORT OF THE PRINCE CONSORT
MEMORIAL COMMITTEE.
"To THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
" We, the members of the Committee appointed by your
Majesty to consider the best means of giving effect to your
Majesty's wishes in respect to a Memorial to his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort, humbly leg leave to report to
your Majesty the result of our further proceedings with re-
ference to the matters committed to us.

sign.

" In our second report, dated the 27th of June, 1862, after
referring to the difficulties which had compelled us to
abandon the scheme of an obelisk, and to your Majesty's
wish, communicated by a letter dated the 19th of April,
1862, from Lieut.-Gen. the lion. Charles Grey, that we
should turn our attention to some other mode in which the
great object in view might be more satisfactorily effected,
we stated that, in reviewing the various suggestions that had
been made, we had become aware that a large proportion of
the public appeared to be desirous of connecting the in-
tended monument with some institution intimately associ-
ated with the Prince's name. We stated that a reference
to his Royal Highness's recorded declarations and views
had led us to conclude that there was nothing he had more
at heart than the establishment of an institution for the pro-
motion, in a largely useful sense, of science and art as ap-
plied to productive industry.
" In considering the question of the site and special pur..
applicable to such objects wepcaloBurihdlansecodt
poses of a building
of
with
funds
opinionnodusrefthe
Great that
Exhibition the ground
whandichalvrae
reidoyusheesetnablpislhaemeden, tsuncodnernehctiesd
iwtietyh.aalr. tHanidghsnci—eeentailes
auspices—wouldguidedhy
the Prince's be th e
wfittethesets,foareSecondand
R stille.
Re-
port of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, we
came to the conclusion that the most appropriate structure
suchstateda in building;
thelldl ng ;
would be a Hall, forming a centre of action for men of science
and art, where the results of their labours could be com-
munleated, while, to use the words of the Commissioners,
it would at the same time afford ' the means of establishing
the connexion between them and the public, which would
secure permanent relations of reciprocal interest.'
"In obedience to your Majesty's suggestion, communi-
-1 cated in General Grey's letter above referred to, we then
sought the advice and assistance of some eminent architects.
The following were those to whom we applied :—William
Tite, Esq., M.P. ; Sydney Smirk; Esq., R.A. ; James
Pennethorne, Esq., Philip C. Hardwicke, Esq., Thomas
L. Donaldson, Esq., George Gilbert Scott, Esq., R.A., and
Matthew Digby Wyatt, Esq.
" Those architects, in a letter dated the sth of June,
1862, addressed through Sir Charles Eastlake to the Com-
mittee, expressed their opinion that the fittest site for the
proposed flail of Science and art would be the vacant piece
of ground at the northern boundary of the estate of the
Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851. We were our-
selves enabled to state that the Commissioners, on their
part, were pleased to express their readiness to reserve, for
a reasonable time, a suitable site for the Hall, of the extent
required.
,* In the proposed general arrangements the effect of the ,

whole, as pointed out in our former report, would in a
great measure depend on the straightening of the public
road, in itself a considerable improvement, but which could
onlybe effected by taking in a few feet from the Park. This
object, trifling as is the proposed alteration, could only be
obtained by an application to Parliament for its sanction.
A reference to the subjoined plan will explain the nature
and extent of the proposed alteration.
"After consulting further with the architects referred to,
we decided that the memoral itself, with which the proposed
hall was to be associated, should be placed opposite the
centre of the area to be occupied by the hall, but en the
higher ground north of the Kensington-road.
"Having thus endeavoured to reconcile the original and
primary object of a Memorial with the erection of a build-
ing in its immediate neighbourhood applicable to those
especial objects which his Royal Highness the Prince
Consort had been anxious to promote, we proposed, iu our
second report, to invite a certain number of architects to
furnish detailed designs for the Memorial, with sufficient
indications (as we afterwards explained) of the relative
position, extent, and character of the hall.
"Your Majesty's entire and cordial approval' of the
scheme above described, and of the course proposed to be
adopted, was communicated in a letter dated the 18th of
July, 1862, addressed as before, by General Grey to Sir
Charles Eastlake.
" The architects whom we invited to furnish designs
were the same whom we had before consulted. Two of the
number—Mr. Tite and Mr. Sinirke—having declined tho
invitation, we addressed ourselves to Charles Barry and
Edward M. Barry, Esquires. Those distinguished archi-
tects having accepted our conditions the proposed number
of candidates remained unaltered.
" The architects originally consulted by us did not omit
to observe, in their letter dated the sth of June, 1862, that
the sum available for the Memorial is supposed to amount
to between £50,000 and £60,000, which probably would not
be more than sufficient for a work of art worthy of the na-
tion, including the cost of forming a site to receive it.
" On our part, in our invitation bearing date the 19th of
July, 1862, to the seven architects, five of whom had affixed
their names to the letter above quoted, we adverted to the
same condition by reminding the candidates that one im-
portant consideration would be ' the amount of the fund
which may be available for the cost of the memorial itself,
for that of the proposed straightening of the public road,
for the arrangement of the area in Hyde-park with its
decorations, and, if possible, for the hall on the south side
of the road.'
" The various designs were submitted in February last
to your Majesty's inspection.
"The ability, ingenuity, and taste displayed in all the
designs are such as to prove the wisdom of the course sug-
gested by your Majesty, and we trust that on future occa-
sions, in questions relating even more directly and exclu-
sively to sculpture, it will be found advisable to csnsult
those whose studies and practice lead them to regard mo •
numental works with reference to the site they are to oc-
cupy, and in relation to surrounding objects.
"At the same time we are aware, on the one hand, that
designs for statues or groups of sculpture by architects, can
only be required to indicate the position and dimensions of
such works, leaving the sculptors themselves uncontrolled
in all other respects ; and, on the other, that the judgment
ought not to he influenced by any defects of detail in such
necessarily vague representations of sculptured forms.
"In proceeding to the onerous duty of pointing out
designs, one of which might, subject to your Majesty's ap-
proval, and with due modifications, be chosen for execution/
we had to bear in mind the amount of the funds subscribed
as compared with the estimates of the candidates. As re-
gards the Hall, we had, in our second Report, before
referred to, stated that we could do no more than express
our earnest hope that sufficient funds might be provided to
insure its completion. What effect the announcement of a
definite scheme and chosen design may produce we cannot
anticipate, but we are bound to state that at this moment
the amount subscribed barely exceeds £50,000. We have
to add that the estimates which the candidates have sub-
mitted for the Memorial, irrespectively of the Hall, are with
one exception, larger—in some instances considerably so—
than that sum.
" Before submitting our opinion on the relative fitness in
other respects of the designs we prefer, it may be necessary
to advert to the general question respecting the durability
of statues in the open air in this country. We observe that
those architects who propose that the principal sculpture
they have introduced should be of white statuary marble
have placed such works within a building. Bronze, with
or without gilding, and in some cases Sicilian marble
(which latter it is assumed is durable even when exposed
to the atmosphere), are the materials selected for external
decorations in sculpture. We are of opinion that in any
case, even including architectural details, the surface of the
Memorial and its accompanying decorations might require
to be cleaned from time to time; and that, assuming bronze
to be preferred, a light colour might be adopted, and by
such precautions might probably be preserved.
"Next to the apparently indispensable condition of an
estimate for the Memorial within the means hitherto con-
tributed, we were disposed to consider the designs with
reference to the important question of due connexion with
the site and proposed structures on the opposite or south
sfridoetnofththe esoKutehnpsionignttOsn-ourtoaad. comTmhaengdrinound g
sitegrfoarduthaellyrising
Memo-
rial, and suggests a definite termination not only to the por-
tion of the site in. the Park, but to the whole area on the
south side of the road, with the buildings now or hereafter
to be comprehended in the estate of the Commissioners for
the Exhibition of 1851. The Memorial, we conceive,
should, in an architectural sense, be in intelligible relation
and connection with that estate, in itself a monument of the
Prince's efforts for the promotion of Science and Art; and,
as occupying the highest point in the ground, considered
as a whole, should, in its mere plan as well as in due eleva-
tion, have the character of a boundary adorned with a fit-
ting monument.
" We are of opinion that, in its general conception, the
design by Mr. Philip C. Hardwick exhibits an especial at-
tention to these requisites.
"In considering the general character of the different
designs for the Memorial we find admirable suggestions for
structures partaking of the nature of a mausoleum. But
we conceive that the Memorial in the neighbourhood of ins
stitutions which, with regard to their present and proposed
objects, exemplify the labours of the Prince for the public
good, should rather convey the impression that it is a pub-
lic tribute to his great qualities; and that, while the pro-
posed Hall of Science and Art would represent in the most
general form the useful objects which his Royal Highness
promoted, the Memorial itself should be essentially a na-
tional testimonial.
" We, therefore, recur to the idea, that has been promi-
nent at all times among civilized nations, of a statue in a
conspicuous situation, sufficiently large to form, in refe-
rence to that situation, a commanding point of attraction,
and with becoming accompaniments at different heights to
enrich the mass and sustain the impression intended to be
conveyed.

" These conditions appear to us to have been carefully
borne in mind by Mr. Hardwick; and, as regards the im-
portant question of expenditure, his is the only design ac-
cording to which the Memorial itself, irrespective of the
Hall, could be executed at a cost within the amount sub-

scribed. At the same time, we aro of opinion that the Hal

forms so essential a feature of his general plan that its
omission would greatly detract from the merits of his de-

" We now proceed to notice, as especially worthy of your
Majesty's favourable consideration, a magnificent design,
by Mr, Scott, for a Gothic Cross, the statue being within
the structure, but open to view, and, in a great measure,

open to the air.
" In the letter of the architects, in reply to our first in-
vitation that they would favour us with their advice, among
various kinds of monuments which were by them considered
objectionable the Gothic Cross, if approaching the slender
proportions of an obelisk or column, was included. We
advert to this only to remark that, in the first place, Mr.
Scott's design does not come under that particular descrip-
tion of structure; and, secondly, that in a letter dated the
9th June, 1862, referring to the opinion above quoted, be
claimed for himself perfect freedom of choice in the style of
his design.

" While admitting the somewhat sepulchral character of
what are called Gothic Crosses, we cordially appreciate the
feeling which led Mr. Scott to adopt in his design, to use
his own words, the style . , of the most touching monu-
ments ever erected in this country to a Royal Consort,' and
to give to an architectural structure the character of a vast

shrine expressive of the value attached to the statue which

it protects.
" We, therefore, do not dwell on the objection, likely to
to be urged, of a certain want of originality in a monument
of this kind, because we believe that the beauty of this
example, if it could be carried into execution without sacri-
ficing the richness and completeness of its effect, would
b l a,n,
Icte will
to o tbhee roias ts.reur
vc teurd etshcaotm:ln
abundantly compensate for any actual or imagined resem-
, of a Gothic Crogs
rg.
Su tic
odt errs th e denomination
is proposed menu.
ment not essentially connected with any present or pro-
posed buildings on the south side of the public road. But,
inasmuch as it would correspond with the central line of
area on that side—the statue, of course, fronting in that di-
rection—We conceive that tho required connection might
be sufficiently attained by the arrangement of the ittitne-
diately surrounding ground ; and, although the isolated and
independent character of the structure in itself would seem
to fit it for any open situation, wa by no means consider
such a circumstance of sufficient weight to open again the
question of site. . _

"A Gothic monument in the position already assigned
for the Memorial might, in the opinion of some judges, in-
_ .

volve as a consequence that the hall, if ever to be built,

should be similar in style to the Memorial, and consequently
again dissimilar from the bindings already in existence on
the estate of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851,
We think, however, that the intervening space might be a
sufficient reason for some change of style, if desirable, in the
hall.

" Having noticed these-general but, as we consider. not
insuperable difficulties, we come to a much more formidable
objection—the cost of Mr. Scott's proposed Memorial, after
reducing the height from 185 to 148 feet—an alternative
proposed in his printed description—and not without some
other changes, cannot, we fear, be estimated at much less
than double the amount subscribed.
" To this mast be added that no calculation is made for