The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-08 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY :OATEN!

I FIR A.

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

The very unfavourable weather of yesterday, of
course, influenced the number of visitors to the
building, but not by any means to the extent that
might fairly have been anticipated. Up till 2
o'clock there were comparatively few, but after that ,
hour they came in very rapidly, until the interior
was quite as well filled even as on the day after the
opening. Among the very early arrivals were some
of the suite of the Japanese Ambassadors, who re-
mained sauntering about the various court till late
in the afternoon. Though wearing their double
swords, as a matter of course, they were attired in
the plainest and most sombre manner,even the semi-
State spotted silk robes which they wore at the
opening being discarded, and their dresses entirely
consisting of dark blue or black woollen cloth. The
same insouciant air of quiet languor which seems
habitual to them was as remarkable yesterday as
on other occasions. Nothing appeared to excite
their admiration, and very few things attracted even
their notice. A glance to the right and left, as
they passed through the courts, was about the
utmost they vouchsafed to anything, except,perhaps,
the roof of the building itself, at which they were
constantly looking. So sombre was their dress,
and so quiet their movements, that they passed
almost unobserved among the visitors, who would
probably never have noticed them at all but that
their long curved swords, worn one on each side of
their waistbelts, at once proclaimed who they were.
Before the opening of the building to the public
yesterday a good deal of anxiety was manifested
by the exhibitors to ascertain how far the roof had '
proved water-tight during the heavy rains of the pre-
vious night. Of course, it had not proved water-
tight throughout, though the leakages were much
fewer than was generally expected. Some few of
these were caused by trifling defects in sashes or
glazing ; many by the stoppages of gutters, which
would never have been discovered but for the
sudden and heavy downpour. Most of these, of
course, were purely accidental,but some gutters had
evidently been wilfully blocked, and in one case
a column was not only stopped up but carefully
glazed across. A system, however, has now been
arranged by which almost instant notice is given of
any leakage in the space devoted to each class, and
a large staff of men are kept constantly on the watch
to remedy these defects at once, if possible ; so that
with two or three days' rain to show the weak
points, there is no reason whatever why‘the build-
ing should not be made as watertight as an ordi-
nary house. The canvass covering answers admi-
rably, when fixed, in keeping out both sun and rain.
We are very glad to announce that the clearing
of the nave, which we have so constantly pressed
upon the notice of Commissioners, is about to be ef-
fected. Long before the building opened we repeat-
edly pointed out the inconvenience to the public and
the injustice to exhibitors caused by their huddling
so many objects together in miserable disarray; and
since the opening of the building our opinion has
been so unequivocally endorsed by all who have en-
tered it that the committee have at last seen the
necessity of doing something to mitigate this most
unfortunate mis-arrangement. The only good view
of the interior is decidedly that from the dais down
the nave, and at present this is utterly destroyed.
Some objects will be removed to the side courts,
others will have conspicuous and far better positions
under the domes, where they really can be seen, and,
in short, the arrangements of the nave will be alto-
gether reformed. It is to be hoped that the exhibi-
tors will cheerfully acquiesce in the intended change,
which is,in truth, quite as much for their benefit as
it is for the convenience of the public. On ls. days,
with 50,000 or 60,000 people in the building, the
nave would be quite impassable. Even now,
when only season-ticketholders are present, it is
very difficult to move along it. Another grievance
which we ventured to bring under notice is also
to be redressed. The exhibitors in the Eastern An-
nexe are to have an entrance for visitors in the
north end, so as to make this most interesting por-
tion of the Exhibition one of the main avenues
to the building. There is now therefore a very fair
chance of this portion of the display receiving the
notice that it really merits.
Another most necessary improvement which it is
intended to effect is to ascertain the daily attend-
ance of visitors. At present the statement of num-
bers is formed almost entirely upon guesswork, or
when only the registers of the turnstiles are given
they are much below the mark, for, as we have al-
ready said, very many visitors, especially ladies,
prefer going round to passing through them, and
at one door at least they are left their choice. If
to these improvements the Commissioners will only
add one more, they will do much to promote the
pu bite conyeutuu,c--,.. mean 41an4 *1..7
allow a certain number of cabs to stand near the
chief doors of exit. There is plenty of waste space
in the neighbourhood to admit of this, and it would
really be a great public convenience, for, when the
building is closed, it is seldom that a cab can be got
within a mile of South Kensington. Yesterday
during the heavy rain this want of vehicles was of
course most keenly felt. The refreshment depart-
ments,and more especially that allotted to t heFrench,
have not yet succeed in giving the satisfaction that
was anticipated. There is some excuse for this
perhaps in the fact that both contractors took charge
while their premises were so incomplete that they
may have been prevented acquitting themselves at
the commencement as they would wish. But a hue-
gry public will admit of no excuse, and, however
true this justification may have been daring the first
few days, Mr. Morrish and M. Veillard will do well
to recollect that it cannot avail them much longer.
Both contractors we are aware have made great
preparations to meet all the wants of the public,
and the sooner they are developed in a practical
I form the better.

France has made wonderful progress since the
opening day, and, large as is the space allotted to
her, there is scarcely a case in the department which
the severest critics would wish to suppress. When
all the huge boxes are unpacked—though the supply
seems inexhaustible, and as fast es one is cleared
out another takes its place—the display will be mag-
nificent: Every branch of the articles de luxe, in
which our neighbours shine so conspicuously, is
fully represented. Messrs. Christofle occupy a waole
Court to themselves with beautiful specimens of
ofeverie and argenterie, and the splendid platsau-
which they have manufactured for the Hotel de Ville
will be one of the chief objects of attraction in the
Exhibition. Mellerio's display of diamond neck-
laces and bracelets is besieged all day long, and it
has been found necessary to assign to it a special
policeman, In the same case are some very fine eme-
rald breeches set in diamonds, though perhaps there
is more taste shown in the exquisite pearl orna-
ments which hang close by. The display is alto-
gether most dazzling, though it is said the most
costly specimens have yet to arrive. There are nu-
merous cases, too, of gilt and imitation jewellery
and of plated articles, which show more taste and
workmanship than we are generally accustomed to
find in this class of goods. Though the art does not
appear to be of a very high character, the church
plate shown by Messro. Poussielque and Rusaud is
very superb ; and a reliquary-box, which they have
manufactured for Notre Dame, profusely adorned
with precious stones, presented for the purpose by
the ladies of Paris, is well worth searching out.
Rudolphi has sent some most beautiful specimens
of his oxydised silver, and the enamels of Dotin are
of the highest class. The Gobelins and Beauvais
tapestries are for the most part as yet covered, but
the three or four fauteuils visible yesterday show
that the Imperial establishments are still unap-
proachable in these manufactures. Of ornamental
furniture in every variety there is, of course, a large
display. Nothing is more remarkable in the
French department than the exquisite taste and
skill shown iu the arrangement ct the silks and vel-
vets, ribands, and other fabrics, and our West-end
drapers and milliners would do well to study the
valuable lesson here offered to them. The same
may be said of the array of artificial flowers,
in which our neighbours are certainly unsur-
passed. The Algeria Company
exhibit some remark-
able specimens of their now onyx marble; their
Timis XV. chimneypicce in particular shows off the
beauty of the material with great effect.
Complete justice is hardly done to the display of
porcelain from Sevres from the manner in which it ,

is nassed together, and if a little more space could
be tllotted to it the effect would be much more
strking. The Italian department is making rapid
progress towards completion, but the efforts of Mr.
Dojle to set out the many beautiful articles which
are contributed from Rome—at present a department
entirely separate from the rest of Italy—are very
much impeded by the constant flow of visitors at-
tracted by the beautiful works already displayed.
Within the last day or two some very important
additions have been made to the collection. A table
still more beautiful than any of the mosaics which
havealready described, was unpacked yesterday
I: displays within its circumference every kind of
Leman marble of the most brilliant colours, blended
together with exquisite taste. A small enamel of Pio
ITono, of great beauty, also awaits a fitting place
aid over the entrance to the Court has been placed
a life-sized medallion of his Holiness, in white
rouble, contributed by Cardinal Wiseman. A case
waich illustrates all the different processes of cameo
cltting is well worthy of careful examination ; and
there are also some remarkable carvings in ivory
an wood, contributed by Cardinal Antonelli. The
space allotted to Rome is much too small. There
is no part of the building which will be more
crowded, and we cannot help thinking that the
Cemmissioners even now would be acting wisely in
throwing in a few feet to the scanty area, if pos-
slble. The next neighbours to all these unrivalled
a:t treasures appear to be a lot of French railway
metals, which rear their heads very incongruously
a3ove the screen. These would certainly show as
well in the machinery annexe, or, at any rate,
half-a•dozen of them would probably exhibit the
s?ecialities of the manufacture. At present there
are enough of them to replate the Merrimac. Great
preparations are being made on the dais under
the western dome for the display of the works from
the Royal Berlin factory. These, as we have had
before occasion to observe, are as characteristic of
the Berlin manufacture and as excellent in their
kind as those which draw so many visitors and
purchasers to the Dresden Court. Some very hand-
scme silver candelabra of Prussian manufacture are
already displayed in this area, and the whole collec-
tion, Austrian and Prussian, which is waiting to
take its place, will, we think, be found to merit
this very compiotauuo position. The Austrian
Courts still continue closed, except to a favoured
few, but it is announced that they will positively be
finished before the end of the week. The display of
the famous talking instrument in this Court is
looked forward to with much curiosity, Only one
other instrument of the same kind exists in the
world, though in this the difficulty of clearly pro-
nouncing the " Th" has not been quite overcome.
It is said however that in the machine about to be
exhibited in a few days not only is the pronuncia-
tion perfect, but even in several languages.
The building is now open from 10 in the morning
till 7 in the evening; at Midsummer it will be open
from 10 till 8, and unless there was another staff of
executives and subordinates it would be impossible
to extend these hours.

TILE TRADES' LNION OUTRAGE

NET SHEFFIELD.

The Home Secretary has advised her Majesty to
grant a free pardon to the three men who were con-
victed at the last York Assizes of blowing up two
shops with gunpowder near Sheffield. The men
were set at liberty on Sunday from Wakefield pri-
son, and -returned the same day to their homes at
Chesterfield and Belper. The case had been through-
out a most remarkable one, and excited a great
amount of interest. A short narrative of the facts
will be interesting. For some months towards the
close of last year there had been a strike among a
number of horse-nail makers employed at a little
village called Thorpe Hesley, near Sheffield. Two
men named Butcher and Hattersley refused to join
in the strike, and were in consequence frequently
annoyed by the Unionists, who were taunted and
threatened because they would not leave their em-
ployment. One Saturday night in December last
the shops of these two men, which were situated
apart from each other in theivillage, were destroyed
with gunpowder. Near one of the shops, a few
minutes before the explosion, a young girl named
Butcher and her sweetheart were standing. The
night was very dark. A few minutes before 11
o'clock the girl noticed three men pass her in the
direction of the shop, but she did not at that mo-
ment particularly observe their appearance. In
about 5 minutes she heard the men come running
back down the lane, and heard one,of them cry out
to the others to hasten. Just at that moment an
explosion was heard, and the girl and her sweet-
heart saw that the nailmakers' shop at the top of
the lane was in flames. The same night she gave
information to the police, and in a few days after-
,' a.e. araprabortdoa—Tno Wafers.,
of Belper, and Isaac Emmanuel Watson and Joseph
Tomlinson, of Chesterfield. The evidence against
them was very strong. The girl Butcher distinctly
swore that the prisoners James Watson and Tom-
linson, whom she had known for years when they
lived at Thorpe, were two of the men who ran past
her in the lane at the very moment the explosion
occurred. A policeman swore that he saw the two
Watsons on Thorpe-common, about a mile from the
village, an hour before the explosion occurred, and
that he saw them go into a public-house on the
common. It was also proved that the three pri-
soners were together at Chesterfield on the after-
noon of that day, that they were inquiring the
times of the departure of the trains, and that they
left just before a train was due which would take
them within a short distance of Thorpe Hesley.
But the most important evidence against the pri-
soners was found in the shop occupied by Tomlin-
son and Isaac Watson at Chesterfield. In the
exploded shops at Thorpe Hesley were found the
fragments of the " infernal machines," roughly
constructed of tin, in the shape of a large can, with
the upper edges knocked over the lid, to strengthen
it, and a hole drilled in the bottom for the reception
of the fuse. In the shop at Chesterfield was found
a precisely similar instrument, and also a number
of fragments of sheets of tin, from which large
pieces had been cut. These fragments were com-
pared with those found in the two shops, and the
pieces, which were cut in a peculiar manner at the
edges, corresponded with such exactness as to leave
no room to doubt that they had originally formed.
part of the same sheet of metal. This was substan-
tially the case against the prisoners, and it was met
by one of the most remarkable and apparently con-
clusive alibis that was ever set up in a court ofjus-
tice. The case was tried before Mr. Justice Mellor,
at York; and Mr. Price, Q.V., who was leading
counsel for the prisoners, was so confident of an
acquittal that he asked thelhry if they would go
on with the case, even before he had done more
than indicate the tenour of the evidence he was
about to adduce. The jury, however, refused to
stop the case, and thereupon no less than 17 wit-
nesses were called on behalf of the prisoners. The
explosion took place at 11 o'clock on a Saturday
night, and three members of the Chesterfield police
force, including an inspector, swore positively that
the prisoner Tomlinson was drunk in the streets of
that town at the very moment when he was said by
the girl Butcher to have been at Thorpe, nearly 20
miles away. Each of these _witnesses spoke to the
prisoner on the evening in question, so that there
could be no mistake as to identity ; and, moreover,
he was well known to them. The landlord and two
of the customers at the publichouse on Thorp-com-
mon distinctly swore that on the evening of the
explosion two strangers did go into that house, but
they were not the two Watsons. A number of wit-
nesses from Belper were called, and stated that
James Watson was in the market of that town
on the evening of the explosion, at the very time
he was said to be 30 miles away at Thorpe. The
witnesses were all of a respectable class—small
tradesmen, with whom Watson had done business,
and his neighbours, and their evidence was not
shaken in the least in cross-examination. At the
conclusion of the evidence of the three policemen,
Mr. Justice Mellor asked the jury if they thought
time would be profitably occupied in a further in-
vestigation, pointing out that the evidence, if it
were to be believed, totally overthrew the case for
the prosecution. But the jury, after a briefconsul-
tatiou, determined to go on. In his charge Mr.
Justice Mellor was evidently in favour of an
acquittal, considering the weight of evidence
for the prisoners; but the jury, after a very long
trial, Convicted all the prisoners. His Lordship
passed s..etence of 14
_years' penal servitude. The
publication of the details of the case excited strong
sympathy for the prisoners, and Viscount Dun-
gannon commented upon it in his place in the
House of Lords. The Sheffield Town Council
were asked to memoralise the Crown in favour
of a free pardon for the men, but they declined to
interfere. A small and entirely uninfluential public
meeting adopted a different course. It is under-
stood that Sir Geo. Grey, after consulting with the
judge, determined to advise the Queen to pardon
the prisoners, and they were accordingly released
on Sunday, to the great joy of their friends.

MAY 8,

11862,

GENERAL BEAUREGARD S ADVICE
TO ILIS OS'OLDIERS.
General Beauregard has issued the following in-
structions to his soldiers :—" Head-quarters, Army
of the Mississippi, Jackson, Tennessee, March 14,
1862.-1. Field and company officers are specially
enjoined to instruct their men, under all circum-
stances, to fire with deliberation at the feet of the
enemy. They will thus avoid over shooting, and,
besides, wounded nun give more trouble to our I
adversary than dead, as they have to be taken from
the field. 2. Officers in command must be cool
and collected ; hold their men in hand in action,
and caution them against useless, aimless firing.
The men must be instructed and required each
one to single out his mark. It was the deliberate
sharpshooting of our forefathers in the revolution
of 1776/ and New Orleans, in 1815, which made
them so formidable against the odds with which
they were engaged. 3. In the beginning of a
battle, except by troops deployed as skirmishers,
the fire by file will be avoided. It excites the
men, and renders their sabsequent control difficult.
Fire by wing or company should be resorted to in-
stead. During the battle the officers and non-com-
missioned officers must keep their men in the ranks,
enforce obedience,and encourage and stimulate them
if necessary. 4. Soldiers must not be permitted to
leave the ranks, even to assist in removing our own
dead, unless by special permission, which shall only
be given when the action has been decided. The
surest way to protect the wounded is to drive the
enemy from the field. The most pressing, highest
duty, is to win the victory. 5. Before the battle,
the quartermaster of the division will make all ne-
cessary arrangements for the immediate transporta-
tion of the wounded from the field. After consul-
tation with the medical officers, he will establish the
ambulance depot in the rear, and give his assistants
the necessary instructions for efficient service of the
waggons and other means of transportation. 6. The
ambulance depot to which the wounded are to be
carried direct for immediate treatment should be es-
tablished at the most convenient building nearest
the field of battle. A red flag marks the place and
way to it. 7. The active ambulances follow the
troops to succour the wounded and remove them to
the depot. Before the engagement about five men,
the least effective under arms to the company, will
be detwilpit to nssaßt the ambulance conductors in
removing wounded, providing water, and otherwise
assisting the wounded. These men will not loiter
about the depots, but must always return to the
field of battle as soon as practicable. 8. Before and
immediately after the battle the roll of each com-
pany will be called, and absentees must be strictly
accounted for. To quit their standard on the bat-
tle-field under fire, under pretence of removing or
aiding the wounded, will not be permitted. Any
one persisting in it will be shot on the spot, and
whosoever shall be found to have quitted the field,
his regiment, or his company without authority
will be regarded and proclaimed as a coward, and
dealt with accordingly.—By command of General
BEAUREGARD, T. JORDAN, Acting Adjutant-Gene-
ral."