The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-19 00:00:00

7 THE SUN, LONDON, SAT E"RD Y VE NING-', APRIL 19, 1862.

Administrative Battalion R. V. ; total, 400 ; uniform, 5
companies dark Oxford grey; 1 company Government grey;
rendezvous, Enclosure F.
2nd, Major Gaisford ; Ist Sussex Administrative Batta-
lion, R. V. ; 319 ; grey and black.

3rd, Lieutenant-Colonel Gage; Ist Cinque Ports Admi-
nistrative Battalion ; 17th Kent, R.V.C. ; 294; steel grey.
4th, Lieutenant- Colonel Bartelot ; 2d Susses Adminis.
trative Battalion; 475; dark grey.

4TH BRIGADE.

Brigadier-General GARVOCK, Commanding.
Capt. Hon. Chetwynd, Aide-de-Camp.

Capt. Jones, 20th Foot, Major of Brigade.
Ist Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Elcho, cont.
mander ; 15th Middlesex R. V. C. (London Scottish) ;
total, 384 ; uniform, grey ; rendezvous, Town-hall and
Pavilion Gardens, E.
2d, Lieut.-Col. Brewster; 23d Middlesex R.V.C. (Inns
of Court) ; 435 ; grey ; Pavilion Gardens, E.
3d, Major Richards; 3d City of London R.V.C.; 32d
Middlesex R.V.C. ; 452; scarlet; Pavilion Gardens, E.
4th, Lieut.-Col. Lord Grosvenor; 22d Middlesex R.V.C.,
Ist Battalion (Queen's Westminster) ; 495; grey; Queen's
Park Tavern, and Pavilion Gardens, E.
sth, Lieut.-Colonel Lord Gerald Fitzgerald; 22d Mid-
dlesex R.V.C., 2d Battalion (Queen's Westminster) ;
495 ; grey ; Queen's Park Tavern and Pavilion Gardens, E.

THE INTERNATIONAL _EXHIBITION,

Some definite arrangements are now being made
with regard to the details of the opening ceremony
on the Ist of May. Up to the present no official
decision has been announced, but if all that is in-
tended is carried out in the spirit in which it is
deaised the whole ceremonial will as a spectacle be
one of the richest and most noteworthy that has
been seen in this country for a long time. The
greater part of the formal portions of the fete will
take place in the centre of the nave in the open
space midway between the English and
foreign division. Guarantors and official and
invited visitors' are to enter the building
under the west dome. The Royal Commissioners,
with distinguished foreign visitors who are to take
part in the proceedings of the day, are to enter
from the south entrance in the Cromwell-road. The
superb programme of music will be performed in
the orchestra, under the eastern dome. The re-
served and other seats for season ticket-holders
will be so arranged as to give them the best view
of the most important portions of the ceremony,
though, of course, in a building of such great
magnitude no seats can be so placed as to enable the
occupants to hear and see everything. In the
open space between the English and foreign
classes a canopied throne is to be erected on the
north side of the nave. The design and whole
structure of this have been furnished by Mr.
Crace, and if the complete effect of anything can
be judged from its drawing, this certainly pro-
mises to be one of the finest temporary thrones ever
erected. It will be on a raised dais of eight steps,
and the height from the chair of state to the canopied
velvet roof above will be more than 40 ft. The whole
aspect of the design, in fact, very much resembles
that of the throne in the throne-room at St. James's,
though this at the Exhibition will be more than
four times the size, to keep it in something like
proportion to the interior in which it is shown. On
either side of the chair of state busts of her Majesty
and the late Prince Consort will be placed, but the
chair itself, as being, in fact, the throne for the
time, on this occasion will, of course, not be occu-
pied. On the first platform of the raised dais in
front of this, and just beneath the canopy and mas-
sive velvet curtains, the Royal Commissioners will
stand in their robes of state. Here the addresses
and prayers will be read, and from this dais the
building will be declared opened. From the
throne extending to the Western Entrance a num-
ber of military bands will be placed, alid troops
will be on duty in the building to mark the
line of the procession and add to the gene-
ral effect of the spectacle. That this effect will
be one of the richest and most beautiful possible
those who have seen the interior can easily imagine.
Already the rich colours of the exhibitors' stalls
fill the building with a glow of tints, and when
these become a background, so to speak, to a pro-
cession of nearly a thousand persons, all in robes
of state, uniform, or Court costume, the spectacle
will really be most magnificent, and as much
superior in show to the opening ceremonial of 1851
as the present Exhibition will be superior to that
of Hyde Park. Both before, during, and after the
formal opening the impressive programme of music
specially composed for the occasion will be per-
formed in the great orchestra. This huge amphi-
theatre is already finished and being draped, and it
seems to fill the east end of the building so appro-
priately that it is almost a pity that it should only
be erected for a single day. This orchestra will
accommodate nearly 2,000 vocal and instrumental
performers. The various pieces of music which
Auber, Meyerbeer, and Bennett have composed
are in hand, but Verdi's contribution has not
yet arrived., Report already speaks of the musi-
cal programme for the Ist of May as likely to be
one of the finest of its kind, and from the care
and attention which are being bestowed on the most
minute details of its rehearsal it is evident that
a surpassing effort will be made. The immense
variety of preparation forifhe opening haS up till
now rather tended to distract public attention from
this great adjunct to the ceremonial, though our
readers may rely upon it that it has not been
from want of sufficient importance being attached
to it, for the Commissioners and all connected
with carrying out this part of the programme
seem determined to make it as far as possible a
unique performance. Having said. thus much of
the mere outline of the opening ceremony, we must
for a moment direct attention to the question of how
far the building as an exhibition will be ready by
the date fixed. The foreign portions, with few ex-
ceptions, cannot be completed in time. It i 3 very
well to say that we are now only in the middle
of April, bat any practical contractor who knows
what Easter week is—bow very rigidly to-mor-
row, Easter Monday, and even a great part of Eas-
ter Tuesday are observed by workmen—will see at
once that taking off the Sundays and Saturday half-
holydays will leave little more than eight clear
working days between this and the opening. Of
curse, with a proper subdivision of labour, eight
days will see a great deal accomplished, but there
really is such a mass of work to be done that unless
each exhibitor exerts himself individually the ar-
rangement of the interior will be very little, if at
all, better than at the opening in 1851. Messrs.
Kelkand Lucas, the contractors, have done their
work in spite of every difficulty, and the quickness
and admirable manner in which they have carried
everything out have elicited praise from. all sides.
It is now the turn of the exhibitors themselves, and
they must really set their shoulders to the wheel,
and empty their packing-cases and send them
out of the building without loss of time. There is
a greater hindrance to the work now arising from
the enormous number of packing-cases strewed all
over the floors than from any other source. Not a
day should be lost in endeavouring to remedy this
evil, and some steps should also be taken to remove
the little mountain of empty edscs that almost block
the road outside the shed for machinery in motion.

In our last notice of the progress of the works we
remarked upon the exceedingly crowded state of
the trophies in the English portion of the nave.
This great defect, far from abating, is actually get.
ting worse, for other things in the way of statues,
&c., are being added in all sorts of out-of-the-way
nooks where something like a passage-way hitherto
existed. Anything more incongruous and more
utterly inartistic than the effect of this sad jumble
can hardly be conceived. Lighthouses, jostle sta-
tues, fountains overlook squat glass cases, huge te-
lescopes are levelled like gigantic cannon at the
roof, and only a perfect forest of cupolas, spires,
peaks, obelisks, and cases is visible from the raised
dais beneath the dome. Everything or anything
in the nave is by courtesy called a trophy, and the
result is a mere aggregation of very large and
often very ugly things, which choke the way to,
and spoil the view of, some really fine objects
which are among them. Viewed from the galleries,
the general effect of this portion of the building
is something like looking from the first - floor
windows
into Cheapside when the roadway has
come to a
dead block. How it may look when
all the scaffolding and bricklaying and plumbing
apparatus is removed, of course, we cannot say,
though every 0110 seems
t" entertain a very strong
opinion that, look how it Ai, op; nerer jeek

well. It is mere justice to the whole of the execu
ive in the building to say that no one is in the least
degree responsible for this mal-arrangement of the
nave. From the very first moment it was seen that
the mast of a lightship has, among this collection,
enjoyed the distinction of being unanimously con-
sidered the ugliest. We have now, however, to re-
cord its deposition from this post of notoriety, inas-
much as the toy trophy which is being erected
(from a design taken from the early twelfthcake
style of architecture) bids fair to be the most vulgar
and tawdry thing of the kind in the building. Un-
less space could be got for the exhibition of an
advertising van, which is the only object we can
suggest as at all likely to compete successfully with
the toy trophy, the lightship mast mast be content
entirely to relinquish its claim to being the ugliest
work. In mentioning the competitors for the most
unsightly trophy we certainly must not omit the
claims of that erected for the reception of woollen
goods. With a little more care it might have been
made to compete on a small scale with the exterior
of the building itself. We are very glad to say
that there ale signs of a break-up in the most unjust
combination into which the Northern railways en-
tered as to the maintenance of high fares and stop-
page of excursion trains till after Whitsuntide.
The London and North-Western and the Great
Western Railways have consented to certain im-
portant abatements for visitors to the opening
ceremony. Let us hope, however, that this is only
the beginning of reasonable concessions, and that
we may soon have to record others still more fair
and liberal.

evening the Palace will be lighted, to allow visi-
tors leaving as they feel disposed," was perhaps in-
tended as a delicate hint that the sooner their visi-
tors got to the platform the better for themselves.

FROM THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT.

FOREIGN-OFFICE, AritTL 17.

Earl Russell, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, has received from her Majesty's Con-
sul-General at Algiers a copy of the Illoniteur d' Algerie,
of the sth instant, in which is inserted the following cir-
cular letter from the Governor-General of Algeria to the
prefects of departments, relative to the abolition of pass-
ports between Algeria and Marseilles, and along the coast
of Algeria :
POLICE ADMINISTRATIVE.—PASSEPORTS.
Mesures de tol6ranee a l'egard des Voyageurs. Instructions

Compl6mentaires-,

riis Excellency the Governor-General has addressed the
following Circular to the Prefects of the Algerine Depart-
ments :

Algiers, April 2, 1862.
M. le Prefet,—ln my cireniat of the 6th of March last, I
acquainted you with the measures of tolerance which had
been concerted by his Excellency the Minister of the In-
terior and myself, regarding travellers going from France
to Algeria, and vice versa.
The carrying out of these measures has caused some
doubts to arise which I shall dispel in answering the dif-
ferent questions which have been addressed to me.
First question :—As regards travellers going from Algeria
to France, can only those who land at Marseilles dispense
with passports ?
Marseilles is at present the only port of France where
there exists a regular service for the transport of travellers
from the metropolis to Algeria, and therefore that port alone
has been mentioned. But it is self-evident that the measure
will apply successively to the other ports of France, where
transport services of a similar kind will, in time, be estab-
lished.
Second question —As regards travellers going from
France to Algeria, does the measure apply to all our coun-
trymen without distinction ?
Doubtless; and, in order to impress on the Algerian
authorities the extent of the measures of which it is com-
posed, I think it right to recapitulate the terms of the
Circular on the same subject, addressed, on the 15th of
March last, by the Minister of the interior to the PrefeeB
of France :

" The formality of the passport will no longer be obliga-
tory on travellers from France to Algeria, as regards—
' Ist. Our countrymen.
"2d. Foreign subjects who are by reciprocity authorised
to entor France without passports.
" 3d. Foreigners of all countries already domiciled in the
interior of the empire.
" 4th. Lastly, foreign emigrants, who, provided with
regular letters of colonisation, delivered in the name of the
Governor-General of Algeria, would wish to visit our pos-
sessions in Africa at their own expense."
Third question :—As regards French subjects coming
from Algeria, would dispensing with a passport no longer
apply to them if they had to continue their journey into
the interior ?
Obligation to carry a passport, not having been sup-
pressed in regard to those French subjects travelling in the
interior of the Empire, the measure could not have the
effect of bestowing, upon the Algerian French, an immu-
nity which their countrymen of the metropolis do not
enjoy. It would therefore be prudent on the part of those
who would have to travel in the interior of the Empire, to
provide themselves with passports before their departure,
to avoid the trouble which the necessity of their procuring
them at Marseilles might occasion.
Fourth question the passport always obligatory for
French subjects and foreigners travelling on the coast of
Algeria and into the interior of the country.
My circular of the 6th of March last did not give any ex•
planations on this subject, because it only treated of mea-
sures concerted with the Minister of the Interior; but,
since the question has been made to me, I do not hestate to
answer it, in accordance in the spirit of tolerance which
dictated the first measures. In fact, I see no plausible rea-
son why a formality should be demanded from those travel-
ling on the shores or in the interior of the colony, from
which they would be freed from, on entering France.
I have decided, in consequence, that a passport will no
longer be necessary in travelling from one port to the other
of the coast of Algeria, or in the interior of the country, as
regards those travellers to whom my measures of tolerance,
which form the subject of my instructions of the 6th of
March last, and of the circular from the Ministers of the
Interior of the 15th of the same month, apply. Besides, it
must be well understood, that the suppression of the pass-
port, in certain cases, in nowise does away with the surveil-
lance over travellers, on the arrival and departure of steam-
boats, on the coast and in the interior of the colony. The
toleration granted to those who travel for the purpose of
affairs of science or of pleasure, could not be extended to
vagrants and vagabonds, to fugitives from justice, and to
dangerous persons, of whatever kind they may be.
Therefore, M. le Prefet, in the interest of public security,
and in accordance with the laws and rules of police, tra-
vellers may always be required by the agents of the autho-
rities to make good their origin and their identity, and to
produce, in default of regular passports, family papers,
trust-worthy documents, or any other testimony, the worth
and truthfulness of which should be carefully verified.—
Accept, &c.
The Governor-General of Algeria,
Marshal PELISSIER, Duke of Malakoff.