The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-15 00:00:00

GLOUCESTER MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

The 139th festival of the three choirs of Worces-
ter, Hereford, and Gloucester was brought to a con-
elnsion nn Saturday morning. At first there were
misgivings as to the result, but happily these were
removed by the enormous attendance at the con-
cert, on Thursday, and last oratorio, yesterday. At
the latter there were 2,517 persons present, against
2,800 in 1859, and yet the place appeared much
more crowded than it had ever been before. Cri-
noline seems to have been injurious to the festival,
for in consequence of the necessity of extending the
area of each person's sitting in the high-priced places
fewer could be accommodated. This perhaps may
have been one reason why the stewards raised the
prices for admission to the cathedral.
The daily receipts, as nearly as they can now be
analysed, were :

Tuesday £l67 16 6
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

£949 15 10

Some additions to this amount are still expected.
Next year's festival will be held at Worcester, and
already a goodly list of stewards has been secured,
while £l,OOO has been raised
,to enlarge the Shire-
hall at Hereford for the purpose of placing in it an
orchestra for the festival concerts.

ANEW EXHIBITION PALACE INF RANCE.

The success which has hitherto attended Univer-
sal Exhibitions has induced a few capitalists to
enter upon a colossal speculation in the shape of a
Permanent Universal Exhibition Palace, which is
now actually in progress of construction at Auteuil.
This edifice, which forms a rectangle 500 metres long
by 110 in breadth, has its principal front on the
new boulevard which goes from the Place de la
Fontaine to the Porte de St. Cloud. As yet, the
walls do not rise more than a metre or so above the
ground; but the design will consist of six pavilions
connected by vast galleries, those in front receiving
light from 36 large arched windows each. The
central pavilion of the principal front will have an
elegant arched entrance, 20 metres in height by 17
in breadth, richly sculptured and adorned with
groups of figures, the central one of which will
be five metres in height; The second facade,
opening on the military route parallel to the boule-
vard, will consist, like the other, of two corner and
one central pavilion, with an entrance, the archi.
volt of which will be adorned with mouldings exe-
cuted in a kind of enamel, These two entrances
will be connected by a transverse gallery, bisecting
the two former ones, and a central longitudinal
one ; at the centre or point of intersection a vast
dome will command the whole. A group of
majestic cedars, which happened to grow in the
midst of that portion of the park that has been
cleared to make room for the edifice, has been pre-
served, and will form a prominent ornament of the
central space under the dome. The middle gallery
will be 40 metres wide, and the two others 24.
Each window will be 121 metres in height and
broad. The company intend to let out the places
to exhibitors at so much per metre, which, they
conceive, will ensure an ample return for their out-
lay. The architect is M. Liandier.

An exhibition of fruits is to take place at Vienna
early in October, to which English growers have been
invited to contribute. The Royal Horticultural Society
have accepted the challenge, and will send over not only a
magnificent display of English grapes and wall fruit, but a
deputation of eminent cultivators.

M. Fechter, who was for some time in Paris,
intending, it was said, to give a series of representations in
English, has, we hear, returned to London, where he will
open the Lyceum Theatre earlier than was at once an-
nounced. Shakspeare's "Romeo and Juliet" will, it is
understood, be the first play M. Fechter brings forward.
The Hartley Institute is to be opened on the
15th proximo. Lord Palmerston will inaugurate the open-
ing. His lordship will be met on Southampton-common,
and will enter the town in a grand procession. The cele-
bration of the opening will last two days, and will consist
of the opening ceremonies, a banquet, concert, and ball.
Last week Richard Weaver, the revivalist, ga's e
a tea party to the widows of Macclesfield, to the number of
800. Several clergymen and ministers were present at this
remarkable gathering, and interesting addresses were de-
livered.

John Murphy, the boy who set fire to the con-
tents of a pillar letter-box, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by
dropping a lighted match into the box, was on Friday
mulcted in a penalty of £5 and the cost of the letter-bag ;
or, in default of payment, to be imprisoned for 14 days.
Two bottles have just been blown at the glass-
works of Lodelinsart, in Belgium, each containing 250
litres, and weighing 25 kilogrammes. These are the largest
bottles of the kind ever made. The biggest previously
blown in France held only 130 litres.

GAOL BIRDS AND THEIR TRICKS.—Now we
change the scene. In the cell, at the door of which we
now stand, is incarcerated a return felon--one who has
spent the greater part of his life in prison. On a
former occasion he assumed madness, in order that he
I might be sent to a lunatic asylum, where he would
lead an idle life. He has been playing the same trick
here, but was detected. The day previous he turned
sulky, would not speak, and broke the small windows
of his cell; whereupon the Governor ordered him to be
dressed in a strait-jacket of his own invention. The door
is open, and the wretched hang-dig looking fellow stands
before us, having more the appearance of an Egyptian
mummy than anything else. Stripped of his boots and all
outer clothing, he is swaddled in canvas from the shoul-
ders down to the knees, and buckled round with three
leathern straps. He is now perfectly tamed for the
time being—unable to hurt himself or anybody else.
He promises the Governor that he will behave
himself and do his work, upon which he ordered the
" jacket" to be removed. But this is not the only case by
hundreds where prisoners have assumed illness or madness,
in order to avoid work, and in some cases they have done
so successfully. When Mr. Weatherhead entered upon the
office of governor here, now three and a half years since,
there were nine persons in the infirmaries who were said to
have fits. From certain indications, Mr Weatherhead was
led to believe that in the majority of cases these fits were
assumed. With the consent of the surgeon, therefore, he
put them into nine separate cells. The best remedy for
these fits, the doctor said, was water. Accordingly, the
Governor had placed at the door of each of these cells
three or four buckets of water. The warders were in-
structed to watch these prisoners closely, and whenever the
fits came on, to supply them plenteously with the cooling
stream. This appears to have had a wondrous effect.
In less than three weeks eight of them were sufficiently
recovered from their fits to be enabled to work on the wheel.
The ninth proved to be a real case, and he was taken care
of. It is now a bye-word among the old gaol-birds, that
" it's no use to have fits at Holloway.”—City Press.

The Mechanics' Magazine states that Mr. CyrLs
Field is once more on his way to this country, and that he
brings with him an additional proposal from the United
States Government for uniting the two eouthlents by tele-
graph.