The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-18 00:00:00

CRYSTAL PALACE.

The grand display of fireworks last night resulted
in a triumphant success, and proved beyond all pos
sible doubt that the taste of the public—a five-
shilling public too—•is still as great as were those of
the olden time for exhibitions of this description.
Fireworks were amongst the principal features of the
famous Vauxhall Gardens, when in the height of pros-
perity, and when the admission was reduced to one-
fourth that hitherto charged, the fireworks were still
looked upon as the great source of attraction. But
the fireworks at Vauxhall, and we say it with a
vividrecollection of what they were during the reign
of Simpson, were small affairs compared with those
prepared for the visitors of the Crystal Palace, by
direction:of the always active and far-seeing general
manager, Mr. Bowley. Like all his efforts, the
pyrotechnic display was on a gigantic scale, and the
success, as we have before remarked, was commen-
surate with the occasion. It would be impossible
to give a detailed account of everything exhibited
last night, but we may say in brief that we had
rockets of every hue, stars of various garniture,
fiery Phcenix, toubillions, parachute rockets, set
pieces, the largest ever presented to the public, and
as a grand and dazzling coup d'ccil we had
at one and the same time the flight of 1,400 rockets,
with salvos of coloured shells and variegated stars
combined, a discharge of a thousand Roman can-
dles from the Rosary, with the whole of the series
of fountains in full play, lit alternately with dia-
mond, emerald, and ruby-coloured fire. It is cer-
tainly impossible to convey an adequate notion of
the grandeur of the display in writing, and we
doubt very much whether it can even be realised in
imagination : however, we feel certain that Mr.
Bowley will repeat the " firework gala," and that
Messrs. W. Brocke and G. Southby, the artists,
will enchant the vision of the thousands
who will attend on the next occasion
precisely as they succeeded in doing last
night. In the early part of the evening the glit-
tering Ethardo ascended his gigantic corkscrew
amid the wonderment of the vast assemblage, and
altogether a more successful fete could not have been
provided for the 15,000 persons who availed them-
selves of the attractive programme. At dusk the
interior of the Palace was brilliantly illuminated,
and after the termination of the fireworks thousands
returned within the building and remained there
until the last note of the grand organ performance
had died away.

POSTPONEMENT OF THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO BAL-
moRAL.—The Crathie correspondent of the Edinburgh
Evening Courant writes:— "Dr. Robertson, the Queen's
Commissioner, received a telegram on Monday at mid-day,
intimating that her Majesty, whose arrival at Balmoral was
anxiously expected on Friday, had resolved to pestpone
her visit at this time. The horses were countermanded
after they had reached Aboyne, and some of the servants
have arrived at Balmoral."

MADAME TUSSAUD'S.—This popular exhibition
will, we feel assured, receive its full share of patronage
during the Whitsun holidays. In the chamber of horrors
is a correct model of the guillotine as used in France dur-
ing the revolution of 1789 ; and there are likewise to be
seen the identical knife and lunette which, during the
Reign of Terror, decapitated soma 22,000 individuals,
amongst whom were Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, the
Due de Orleans, Robespierre, &c. Stc. ; and in the same
chamber are effigies, taken from life, of the notorious Char-
lotte Winsor, and Southey, alias Forwood.
EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY.—Some rare illus-
trations of prolonged existence appeared in the
obituary of the Times of the 17th inst., where the deaths
of six gentlemen and two ladies are recorded whose united
ages amounted to 704 years, giving an average of exactly
88 years for each of these eight persons. The oldest gen-
tlemen had reached the great age of 94, and the youngest
80 years of age; the ladies were 85 and 88 years respec-
tively.