The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-07 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR

BALMORAL, SUNDAY.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince
Albert went yesterday to the Bal
The Royal dinner party yesterday included her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and Lady
Augusta Bruce.

The Oxford University Commission met yes-
terday at the official residence of the First Lord
of the Treasury, in Downing•street. Present—The
Bishop of Norwich, the Dean of Carlisle, the Master
of Pembroke, the Rev. H. G. Liddell, J. L. Dampier,
Esq., the Rev. Professor Powell, the Rev. G. H. S.
Johnson, and the Rev. A. P. Stanley (secretary).
Dispatches from the Governor of New South
Wales, and also from the Governor of South Aus-
tralia, were received yesterday at the Colonial-office.

THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

The first day of the last week of the Exhibition
has passed off in a manner at once gratifying and
surprising. Everybody was prepared for a great ac-
cession of numbers to the usual average of shilling
visitors, but the most extravagant expectations could
hardly have anticipated anything so remarkable as
the actual reality. Yesterday 107,815 people entered
the building, and the sum of 5,175/. 16s. was taken
at the doors. Facts so astounding speak fur them-
selves, and derive no additional force from expatiat-
ing upon them. Were it not so, we should despair
of describing the scene which the interior presented.
Popular demonstrations are always grand. Taking
place in such an arena they exercise a transcendent
and overpowering influence. In the presence of such
an assemblage as yesterday was collected together
the highest triumphs of industry and art are forgot-
ten, and the mind has only time to think of that
great mass of humanity tendering its homage at the
shrine of Labour, and vindicating the nobility of toil.
If any lingering doubts have been entertained that the
Crystal Palace has not been popular among the
masses, its closing hours will set them completely at
rest. Great as the influx of visitors was yesterday, it
will most probably rise still higher to-day ; but it is
satisfactory to think that however vast the numbers
that present themselves the building will be found
capable of accomodating them all. The
dreaded limit of 100,000 spectators has
now been exceeded, and without any extraordinary
inconvenience. In the Crystal Palace, as elsewhere,
the people are their own best police, and from hour to
hour crowds leave to make room for the gathering
tide that enters. Yesterday they began to ooze
away as early as 11 o'clock, and so well balanced
were the departures and arrivals that until the doors
closed it was possible, without much effort, to make a
systematic and effectual survey of all the principal
objects and departments. We have no doubt that
with considerably increased numbers this will con-
tinue to be the case, and a sanguine hope is enter-
tained that no pressure will arise so great and incon-
venient as to render it necessary to check the flow of
visitors. That nearly 108,000 people should within
one day and under one roof have enjoyed the grandest
spectacle that the world has ever witnessed is of it-
self a sufficient marvel, but that they should have
done so without a single known casualty to life or
property is almost incredible. So, however, it is,
and we leave to revolutionary and discontented minds
the study of facts which place in so clear and un-
questionable a light the love of order and the genuine
kindliness of spirit which pervade all classes of our
population. Yet, while we dwell with a natural
complacency on those evidences of a happy and pros-
perous people, circumstances are constantly occurring
to warn us of possible disaster. Such an event took
place yesterday.
Shortly after three o'clock, and when upwards of
100,000 persons were in the building, the Duke of
Wellington entered at the east end, and was loudly
cheered by those who recognised him. The intelli-
gence soon spread in the eastern half of the edifice,
and the crush and crowding which ensued to catch a
glimpse of the veteran, was such as to produce a
momentary sensation of apprehension as to the fate of
the building. Thousands ran along the galleries, and
each court and avenue poured its torrent into the
nave, while numbers in the transept hearing the dis-
tant noise, and seeing the confusion, but ignorant of
its cause, rushed out of the building, under the ap-
prehension that some casualty had occurred. By dint
of pure physical force Superintendent Pearce, and
several other police-officers, succeeded in opening a
narrow pathway for the Duke—who, after having
passed through the eastern half of the building, left
at the southern entrance, where he mounted his horse
and departed, amid the cheers of thousands outside
the building. It is most satisfactory to state that not
a single accident occurred; and those who have on
former occasions favoured the public with their opi-
nions as to the destructive effect of the rapid and
irregular movement of an immense crowd upon the
building, will be surprised to hear that not a single
girder or " snag" has given way ; and we may add
that, although upwards of 100,000 persons were pre-
sent in the building, there were many portions of it
which were comparatively unoccupied by the masses,
the nave and transept being, of course, the most
crowded portions of the building.
A chart, showing by diagrams the fluctuations in
the number of visitors during the time that the Ex•
hibition has been opened, was yesterday completed by
the Sappers and placed in the transept. It is a pro-
duction of great merit and of much public interest,
resembling those scales of mountain elevations which
are usually prefixed to atlases. The shilling days
form themselves into the Ilimlayas and Andes of this
return ; the half-crown and five shilling days being
represented by heights of much lower altitude. The
loftiest peak, rising to a mawanurn of more than
70,000, will now be far eclipsed by the results of yes-
terday, and it is probable that within the next five
days still greater and more astounding figures will
he reached. In the meantime, it would appear that
Tuesdays have been the chief shilling days, Mondays
coming next; after these Thursdays, and Wednesdays
being the worst. Of the two half-crown days, Fri-
day seems to be that which brings with it the largest
amount of popularity at the Crystal Palace.
A trial has taken place before the Cleveland Agri-
cultural Society of the respective merits of M'Cor-
muck's and Hussey's American reaping-machines,
and the report of the jury of practical men appointed
by the consent of both parties to decide the question
of merit is favourable to the latter implement. This
decision throws considerable doubt upon the justice of
the award of a great medal at the Exhibition to
M‘Cormack's : but, however interesting the matter
be
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and such new features introduced, as may render the
examples now exhibited comparatively antiquated and
out of date.