The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-07 00:00:00

THE At IL COMMUNICATION WITH 11NTERNA7I,
AMERICA.

There are six steam packet liras which ply be-
tween England and the United State's, viz. !
Cunard, inraan, Canadian, Bremen, Hamburg, and
New York lines. Cunard's vessels run from Liver-
pool every Saturday, and from Queenstown every
Sunday, for Halifax and Boston and New York
alternately, leaving New York or Boston every
Wednesday. Inman's leave Liverpool every Wed-
nesday, and Queenstown every Thursday, and New
York every Saturday. Those of the Canadian leave
Liverpool every Thursday, and Londonderry every
Friday and every Saturday for Quebec in the sum-
mer, and Portland in the winter. Those of the
Bremen and Hamburg lines leave Southampton on
three Wednesdays in the month between them, and
those of the New York line leave Cowes the other
Wednesday. A steamer belonging to one of these
four lines leaves New York every Saturday for
Cowes. Canard's line numbers nine ships, viz., the
Asia, America, Niagara, Europa, Canada, Africa
Arabia, Persia, and Australian. At present the
two latter ships are withdrawn from the mail line
to carry troops to Canada. Inman's line consists
of the City of Edinburgh, City of Washington, City
of Glasgow, City of Manchester, City of Baltimore,
and the Kangaroo. The Canadian line consists of
the North American, Jura, Hibernia, Bohemian,
Norwegian, Nova Scotian, and Etna. The Bremen
line consists of the Bremen, New York, and Hansa.
The Hamburg line consists of the Hammonia,
Saxonia, Borussia, and Bavaria. The two former
are at present withdrawn to carry arms and am-
munition to the Federal States. The New York

line consists of the Arago and Fulton ; the latter
has been withdrawn and taken up by the Federal
Government for war purposes. By means of these
31 ships there is a communication between Eng-
land and the United States four times a week.

-02 VAL EXRIBITION 0E1862.

The visitor who at the present period of progress
on the Exhibition works approaches them by the
Brompton way, might very easily fall into tle error
of believing that th6y commenced at II) de-park-
corner, so general throughout the whole route is
the process of repair and resuscitation. The in-
stincts of trade, which seldom err, are all alive to
the prospects of the ensuing summer, and every
shop, great and small, all over the district, is being
new-fronted, glazed, and decorated, in order thar,
betimes, it may be ready for the traffic of the
world's fair. Even that old, decayed, lodging-house
boulevard on the right-hand side of the Brompton-
road, with its trees which never in the most verdant
season look any other colour but brown, is begin-
ning to exhibit its piles of brick and its heaps of
mortar on the esplanade, as if it, too, expected to
imbibe some small portion of the coming commer-
cial vitality. Many private houses are being turned
into shops, and the shops are sprouting out in
various styles of architectural decoration, whilst
all other doings in this neighbourhood arc equally
symptomatic of the earnestness with which the
whole trade of western London is looking forward
to the Ist of May.

As for the building itself, its progress is really .1
marvellous, an interval of a single week being quite
sufficient to make the most palpable progress. The
eastern dome rapidly approaches completion, all
th© heavy work beilig now nearly completed, and
the western one, which it must be remembered
was begun seven weeks later, is exceedingly
well advanced. In this portion of the works,
the great ribs are half finished all round, and their
remaining halves lie ready close at hand. Nobody
of course expects that the domes will be actually
finished by the 12th of February, nor will it be
necessary that they should be so, as the work to be
commenced on that day is the receipt of goods, and
for that the building is sufficiently advancedalready.
The French court, the nave, and the picture gallery
are all complete, and goods might be stored in them
without any inconvenience.

The nave may be said to be finished, with the
exception of the colouring, which yet remains to be
decided on. The great travelling scaffold, the
largest machine that perhaps ever ran on a railway,
is kept moving up and down, and men perched on
its various stories paint a pillar blue hero and a
cornice green there, in order to ascertain which
colour would most successfully throw out the rather
deficient light. The last colour that was tried was
pink, and up to the present moment pink is still the
favourite ; but our own impression is that a greater
amount of actual light must be given before any
colour with which the nave may be decorated can
be seen to advantage. This might easily be done
by removing the flat lead roofs which at present
cover the two galleries, and replacing them by
glass, or else piercing them with skylights at fre-
quent intervals. Even then the light would be
much less than in the nave of the former exhibi-
tion, where on bright summer days, it was some-
times excessive, as the flooring of the galleries
would tone it down sufficiently for the promenaders
and exhibitors below. The refreshment rooms,
which require an immense mass of very solid
brickwork, do not show as much progress as other
portions of the building, but as they will not be
required until the opening, no uneasiness need be
felt on their account. They will be both finished
and supplied with their eatables and drinkables
quite in time for the first influx of visitors. Of
the annexes, one may be said to be nearly
finished, and the other is in a promising state
of progress; and as an indication that the
works generally are well forward, we may
add, that the great entrances are now being finished,
and that the principal staircase has been commenced.
Another symptom of nearing the goal is that the
issue of season tickets is ordered to commence next
week, and that the whole of the staff are under
orders to remove from the Strand to the new
offices on the premises at the commencement of next
month. It is to be hoped that, in this sickly sea-
son, all sanitary precautions, such as airing, Venti-
lating, &c., will be previously taken, as new walls
are very apt to deal harshly with the human
system. The Commissioners have before them
ample evidence that the season is more than ordi-
narily prolific of colds and rhenmatisms, seeing that
out of 800 cases in which allotments of space have
been cancelled, more than one-half the intending
exhibitors have pleaded indisposition as a reason for
not having accepted their allotments within the time
stipulated. Not a single accident of any conse-
quence occurred at the works during the past week,
although the principal business was the rearing of
the domes, which, of course, is looked upon as the
most hazardous portion of the undertaking. There
were upwards of 1,000 visitors on Saturday, of
whom a very large proportion were French, and
other foreigners.