The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-07 00:00:00

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

The interior of the building presented a magni-
ficent appearance yesterday, crowded as it was, at
the fashionable hour, with the largest (half-crown)
company that has yet been returned. Every part
of the building appeared to be full and busy, and
the Eastern platform was especially thronged by an
audience collected to hear Mr. Distin's concert,
which, happily, on this occasion met with no oppo-
sition from the organ. Whilst we stayed a selection
from "Norma" was played, and it seemed to obtain
cordial acceptation from the company. The various
jewel cases were also terribly beleaguered by fair
assailants—so much so in the case of the Koh-i-noor
case, that the police were obliged once or twice to
clear a passage through the nave. Mr. Hancock's
beautiful collection was also almost unapproachable,
so attractive were the diamonds and the sapphires,
opals, and all the other varieties of precious gems
with which the public are now becoming so familiar.
There is also in this case perhaps the greatest rarity
in the whole building—namely, a piece of solid gold
plate, it being a singular fact that elsewhere there is
not a single specimen of the most precious of the
metals exhibited. This solitary representative of

the Australian gold fields is a handsome vase of the
value of £lOO, and was manufactured by Mr. Han-
cock, from pure Victoria gold, to be presented to Dr.
Adler, the chief rabbi, by some of his colonial co-
religionists. The intrinsic value of this beautiful
little article is not.very considerable, but being, as
far as we could learn, the only piece of gold plate in
so vast an accumulation of the world's treasures, we
have thought it deserving of some mention.
Their Royal Highnesses the Princess Helena and
Maude, attended by six or seven ladies and gentle-
men of the court, visited the Exhibition early, and
devoted a good deal of time and attention to the
Process Court, where the numerous sewing ma-
chines, the printing, and the pipe-making appeared
to attract considerable attention from the illustrious
visitors. The Princess Helena honoured Mr. Rey-
nolds by going into his workshop and watching
the process of making three or four pipes, all of
which were carefully put aside to be preserved as
memorials of the Royal visit. Her Royal High-
ness asked several questions which indicated eon-
siderable knowledge of chemistry and minera-
logy, and expressed herself much interested in
the simple but ingenious process which she had
witnessed. We regret to be obliged to add that the
royal party were forced to leave the building much
earlier than they had intended, in consequence of
the rude and shameless way in which they were

literally mobbed by persons wearing the garbs o
ladies and gentlemen. Some of the " ladies" rushed
forward and coolly peered under the bonnets of the
young Princesses, to the utter confusion and annoy-
ance of the latter, and in defiance of the expostula-
tions of the police. The men were quite as bad, and
when the police remonstrated, were insolent and
abusive, acting, in fact, as if they had an inward
conviction that the privilege of staring at the royal
Princesses in a manner which, if it had been done
to ladies of lower rank, would assuredly have pro-
cured for the offenders personal chastisement from
their male escorts, was a legitimate portion of the
value of the half-crown they had paid for admis-
sion. To the honour of the working classes, we
have to record, on the best authority, that on the
previous (shilling) day, when the building was
crowded with mechanics and their wives, the royal
party passed through the various courts compara-
tively unmolested. A considerably crowd followed
them, it is true, for a short period, after the quality
of the distinguished visitors became known, tut a
single word from the police-sergeant in attendance
was sufficient to induce the people to fall back in
the most deferential manner, and during the pas-
sage of the party through the courts the royal ladies
were wholly unobstructed. We have strong reason
for believing that the illustrious head of the Royal
family will visit the Exhibition to-day, but it will
be at so early an hour as to preclude the possibility
of annoyance such as was yesterday visited on its
younger members.
M. Rouher, the French Minister of Agriculture,
has arrived in town for a month's sojourn, during
which he will give the building and its contents a
careful inspection with the view of preparing a re-
port for the information of the Emperor. It is
whispered further that the visit of M. Rouher has
another object, namely, that of making arrange-
ments for an early visit from the Emperor himself
accompanied by the Empress.
In the evening Earl Granville and the royal
commissioners gave a soiree at the South Kensing-
ton Museum, to which nearly 4,000 of the fashion-
able world and all the foreign notabilities at pre-
sent in town were invited to meet their Royal
Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge and the Prin-
cess Mary, and her Serene Highness the Grand
Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz. The 'whole of
the courts and gallery were brilliantly illuminated
and tastefully decorated with flowers for the recep-
tion of the company. The new court, in which all the
rare " loans" which have recently been got together
by the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Cole, was a
powerful object of attraction. It is said that the
objects of art temporarily accumulated in this de-
partment reach the almost fabulous aggregate value
of two millions sterling. The Sevres china exhi-
bited is the rarest and most valuable in the world,
and there are also collected here for the first time all
the specimens that exist in England of the famous
Henri Deaux"
ware, of which there are only fifty-
three pieces in the world. English collectors have
contrived to secure twenty-three, and they were
yesterday evening by the company all inspected
the soiree. Three military bands attended, abun-
dant refreshments of the most luxurious description
were provided, including hot-house grapes at 16s.
was left undone to make the
a pound, and nothing
fete the most successful of many seasons.
Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously
pleased
graciously
pleased to intimate her intention to present 800 of
the female students of the Schools of Art through-
out the United Kingdom with
tickets of admission
to the International Exhibition, available on any
Friday and Saturday.
The namber of visitors yesterday was as follows: