The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-25 00:00:00

THE CRYSTAL PALACE

The Approach of the New Season,
If May Day is no longer celebrated by rural
sports and dances round the Maypole —it is at least
marked for Londoners by one most exhilarating
festivity, the commencement annually of a new
season in the People's Palace and Garden down at.
Sydenham. Astronomically viewed, the year begins
on the 20th of March, when the sun enters upon his
annual round of the zodiac at the sign of Aries.
Conventionally, since the Gregorian Calendar was
accepted by the nations of Christendom, the year
begins upon the Ist of January. Financially, the
year opens, three months later. By Parliament it
has come to be inaugurated, intermediately, in the
first week or so of February. But—taking a
hint • (as it happens very delightfully) from the
fashionable world of London, from the Belgravians
and Tyburnians, the Upper Ten Thoi.sand, the
creme de la creme, the saunterers down Rotten-
Row, the loiterers round the Ring—the crystal
Palace Company, yonder in their lovely haunt at,
Sydenham, wisely begin their year, their season,
their annual round of festivities, upon no other dal
than May Day. Their new year, their Twelfth
Season begins, in this way, therefore, on Mon-
day next, the Ist of May, 1865. Between the first
of May and the 30th of April, that Annual Season.
Ticket, that Guinea Ticket, runs (saving only,
alas ! that it should be so, upon Sundays) un-
interruptedly throughout the whole twelve.
month. It is—we do quite seriously believe,
everything considered, and beyond a moment's
doubt of it—the most wonderful guinea's worth
anywhere procurable—this Season Ticket to the
Crystal Palace. It is for the Londoner very much
what the Ring or the Lamp was to Aladdin in the
old Arabian story. Finger it ! and see what it does
not—that substitute for Aladdin's Ring or LaniP,
the Guinea Season Ticket to the Crystal Palace
admit us to, us Londoners ! To a Fairy Palace of
gigantic dimensions and of exquisite beauty, to
begin ! To a Fairy Palace, moreover, that is reared
in the midst of a Fairy Garden of its own—the
Garden itself surrounded in turn by a radiant stretch
of the green country-side ! Within the Crystal Palace
—specimens of all the wonders, or at the least of
the very pick of all the wonders gathered together
from all the countries and peoples under the
sun. Not a mere gewgaw bazaar, either, is this
astonishing accumulation of curious, wonderful,
beautiful, or interesting objects, objects illustrative
of the ingenuity or of the genius of the human race
—it is not, in other words, so much mere lath
and plaster, veneer and tinsel. Take, as affording
instant evidence of this, take but the nierest
glance at some of th 4 contents of merely one e'
the departments of that veritable Microcosm, th!
Crystal Palace as it now is ! Turning into tn'
French Court, for example—look for a few seconds
at the display now on view there of Chinese jewels,
spoils from the Summer Palace of Pekin ! Booty
gained by that happy-go-lucky Captain in the French
army, M. de Negroni, who commanded in the
regiment which sacked that same Palace of the
Chinese Emperors. We should hardly mind by
the way being, for once, given the sack (thus)
ourselves ! What do we see there in that
one department alone now actually on view in
the Crystal Palace ? Pinchbeck ? Glass beads ?
Shagreen ? Tin foil ? Well—instead of that—among -
other trifles in the way of jewellery, a couple of
Diamonds, 50 carats each, each worth £15,000
sterling ! A Sapphire, two inches and a half in
diameter, weighing 742 carats, valued at (a were
bagatelle!) about £166,000! And so on in regard to
other baubles littered about, there--a single Ruby,
weighing 24 carats, Emeralds like lumps of green
light, and precious stones of various other kinds Of
similar splendour in the way both of lustre and
of dimensions. Apart from these kind 0'
show-marvels, however, there are there, under
the crystal roof of the Palace, prominently visible
among the multitude of its decorations--
What ? Well, in regard Statuary—copies of all
the rarest Masterpieces of modern times and of anti-
quity ! In respect to Music—the hugest Orchestra
in the World—one of the noblest Organs—and an

accumulation each season (take this one. as an in-
stance!) of all the most rarely-gifted performers that
can be gathered together from both the Opera'
Houses .and elsewhere, Patti and Titjiens, Mario
and Giuglini, Santley and Ronconi, with a radiant
catalogue of other renowned artistes. Out of
doors—glancing into the gardens—the Fountain°,
there, are the very largest ever constructed, fax
beyond the Great Waters of St. Cloud and Ira"
sailles. Within the building—turning back again
for a saunter, let us say, down the Mantl"
facturing Court—one may see any day there,

in a single afternoon, in action, the various pre"
ceases of pin making, needle making, silk vreaP:
ing, wood turning, medal striking, and so forth I
It were needless, however, to attempt anything like
a succinct narrative of what the visitor may see, if
he cares to make use of his eyes, in this department
or in that department, to the right hand or to the
left, upstairs or downstairs, in that marvellous
world of wonders, put, as such wonders ought to be,
proverbially, under a glass case—here, as it happens,
under that most wonderful of all glass cases, tho
glass case of the Crystal Palace ! Londoners are,

year by year, getting to be more and more familiar
with the glory and the beauty of it. And they are
now likely, thanks to the early prospect of the WO
Level Station being opened opposite the front of the

Centre Transept, they are now likely to be more

rapidly than ever brought into daily communic3"
tion withthis the favourite haunt, already, of the
great mass of intelligent Londoners ! So that the

attractions of the Season Ticket, of the Guinea
Ticket for the whole year, to the Crystal Palace,
are fast multiplying—are, indeed, becoming so very'

obvious, at last, that what was recently looked upoll
as a luxury is beginning to be viewed rather
the light of a delightful necessity. There iB
now no conceivable reason why every well-to-do
household in this vast city of ours, peopled by three
millions of inhabitants, should not, for mere health e
sake, for health alike of mind and body, have
season ticket of its own to that Sans Souci of the

People, the Crystal Palace and the Crystal Palace
Gardens, down yonder in that lovely neighbourhood
of Anerley, Penge, and Sydenham.

VICTORIA , 4„1
LABOUR-MARKET.—The number cu.
migrants who arrived by sea in Victoria during the met
of January last was 2,819, of whom 1,092 were from the
United Kingdom. The departures from Melbourne duri'4
the month were 2,036 persons. The rates of wages in the
colony were from £3O per annum for single farm labourer
to £6O for married labourers without children, and 100
£l5 for nursemaids to £35 for cooks. The number a 3111-
migrants remaining at the Government depot in Melloll.llo
on the 18th of January was 33.
The Town Council of Rochdale held a sPec+b
meeting on Saturday, to pass a vote of condolence with -
widow of their late member. It was stated that the el,er
tion had prevented this step being taken at an eating
period, but the speeches which were made at the meet as
showed how sincerely the memory of Mr. Cobden w
revered in the borough.
The
THE IRISH REPRESENTATIVE PEERAGE. sea
election of a representative peer to fill the vacancy ct"liire
by the death of the Earl of Desart has commenced•
rant
understand that two candidates are in the field—V,_jela-r1
Gort, representing the Conservative interest ; and tlL°,,aire
of Listowel, the Whig interest. The last ten electionsce
passed off without a contest, none having taken place 5,!",4
Lord Talbot de Malahido's unsuccessful contest with IA
Bangor.^.-1)14/in Evening