The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-21 00:00:00

INTERNATIONAL EX-111Bli 0T141,--18-6-2-:

The following letter from the Commissioners for
the Exhibition of 1862 has been received by Sir
Thomas Phillips, Chairman of the Council of the
Society of Arts :

" Council•office, Feb. 20, 1861.
" Sir,—l am directed to acknowledge the receipt
of Mr. Foster's letter of the 16th of February, en-
closing the charter which has been granted to the
Earl Granville, K.G., the Marquis of Chandos, Mr.
Thomas Baring, M.P., Mr. C. Wentworth Dilke,
and Mr. Thomas Fairbairn, incorporating them as
Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1862.
"The Commissioners, on the 22d of November
last, agreed to act after a guarantee had been pro-
mised to such an extent as to show a strong
opinion in the public mind that the time for holding
a second International Exhibition in this country
had arrived—after the guarantors had expressed
an opinion that the absolute control of the under-
taking ought to be intrusted to five gentleman
named by them—and after the Commissioners of
the Exhibition of 1851 had intimated their appro-
val of the project, and their confidence in the pro-
posed mode of management, and had promised their
support and assistance. The Commissioners, there-
fore, gladly accept a charter which conveys to them
her Majesty's gracious assurance that she is ear-
nestly desirous to promote the holding of an Inter-
national Exhibition of Industry and Art in the
year 1862, and that she is pleased to sanction the
proposed arrangements.
The powers conveyed by the charter will, how-
ever, be practically inoperative until the deed of
guarantee has been executed. When this has been
done the Bank of England has agreed to advance
the necessary loan of money on liberal terms. The
Commissioners therefore desire me to request that
you will represent to the Council the necessity of
having the deed signed as soon as possible.
" The Commissioners, unwilling to lose valuable
time, have, during the interval required for the
preparation of the requisite legal powers, taken
such provisional steps as their position permitted.
" The most pressing point was the building re-
quired for the Exhibition. In 1850, notwithstand-
ing the possession of considerable funds, and the
assistance of the most eminent architects and engi-
neers, seven months elapsed before a design was
adopted. The Commissioners therefore left that
if they postponed the consideration of this subject
until they were a legally constituted body, the cost
of the building would be greatly increased, and a
serious risk incurred of its non-completion by the
appointed time.
" The arrangements made by the Society of Arts,
when negotiating for a site on the estate of the
Commissioners of 1851, and their announcement
that the Exhibition was to include pictures, a
branch of art not exhibited on the former occasion,
rendered it necessary to contemplate the erection of
a building in some parts of a more substantial
character than that of 1851.
" A plan was submitted to the Commissioners by
Captain Fowke, R.E., who had been employed by
her Majesty's Government in the British Depart-
ment of the Paris Exhibition of 1855. This design
was adapted to the proposed site, and was intended
to meet the practical defect which experience had
shown to exist both in the buildings in Hyde Park
and in the Champs Elysees. It appeared well
adapted for the required purposes, and its principal
features were of a striking character, and likely to
form an attractive part of the Exhibition. The
Commissioners submitted the design to the compe-
tition of ten eminent contractors, four of whom took
out the quantities. Three tenders (one a joint one
from two of the contractors invited) were sent in on
the day named in the invitation, but all were greatly
in excess of the amount which the Commissioners
could prudently spend, with a due regard to the
interests of the guarantors.
" The Commissioners have, therefore, had under
their consideration modifications of the plan, which,
without destroying its merits, would materially
reduce its cost.

" The Commissioners having learnt that the
French ,Government had applied, on the 3d of
November last, to the Foreign-office, to know
whether it was intended to hold an international
Exhibition in England in 1862, entered into private
communication with that Government, from whom
they have received satisfactory assurances of sup-
port, accompanied by a statement that it had been
the intention of the Emperor to hold an interna-
tional Exhibition in Paris in 1862, had the project
not been entertained in England.
" The Commissioners also requested the Duke of
Newcastle, the Secretary of State for the Colonies,
to announce the design entertained of holding an
Exhibition, and the intention of the promoters to
apply to the Crown for a charter ; and the Commis-
sioners have been informed that his Grace has
addressed a communication to that effect to all the
governors of her Majesty's colonies.
" The Commissioners have had under their con-
sideration the revision of the rules laid down in
1851 respecting the award of prizes, the constitutiuu
of juries, the affixing of prices, the distribution of
space, the mode of classification, and also the orga-
nisation of the additional department of the fine
arts.

" When, therefore, the guarantee deed has been
executed, the Commissioners hope to be able to pro-
ceed at once with the construction of the buildings,
and to announce the rules and regulations for the
arrangement of the Exhibition.

"I have the honour to be, sir,
" Your obedient servant,
"F• It. SANDFORD."

D.fATH OF M. EUGENE SCRIBE.

The death of this celebrated French dramatist
is announced. The following sketch of his career
is taken from Inigkes Cyclopedia :
" Augustin-Eugene Scribe, one of the most fer-
tile and successful of the French dramatic writers,
was born in Paris, on December 24, 1791, the
son o f a merchant, who on his death left him a
considerable fortune. His first studies were
directed to the law, but his dramatic talent was
indicated so early that his guardian, the
advocate Bonnet, recommended him to abandon
the bar for the stage. His first drama was
produced in conjunction with his school-
fellow, Germain Delavigne. It was entitled
The Dervise,' and was performed in 1811 with
great applause. His course has been uninterrupted
ever since, and the number of his productions
almost innumerable. He has not only supplied
the French stage, but through translations, adap-
tations, and suggestions, the stages of the greater
part of Europe, and especially that of England.
Scribe's productions are of a peculiar character.
He is by no means a dramatic poet though
he possesses facility of invention it is shown
more in the clever development of his plots
than in the imagining of the higher and nobler
description of character. Where he has
attempted this he has failed. His distin-
guishing merits are a remarkable ingenuity and
inexhaustible variety in the construction of his
plots, a lightness and ease in their development,
the conversational fluency and point of his dialogue,
and a correct conception and vigorous delineation
of character in what may be called the outside
I circles of civilised—or rather, Parisian—life. In
his operas, for many of which he has produced
librettos, he has well adapted his language to
the music, but, as we have said of his
ohdoeear writings, he does not reach—probably
he
not less than his industry, and
of" aim at—the poetical. His succehsei
is said
has been
d
to have received immense sums for many
of
were
his
pieces,
originally. t wo u
hbas saverseyalised considerable
wee to enumerate all
his
othem, vaudevilles especially,
w
ed under assumed names ; but
a mangylns d
issued
not
t among those by which he will be known to Eng-
lish readers we may mention Le Comte Ory,'
Le plus beau Jour de la Vie,' L 9. Muette de
Portici,' Fra Diavolo,' Robert le Diable,' Les
Diamants de la Couronne,' ' Bertrand et Raton,'
La Verre d'Eau, all of which, as well as numer-
ous others, have been reproduced at English
theatres. A selection from his works was pub-
lished in 1845 in seven volumes ; and a romance of
his has been translated and published in England,
called The Victim of the Jesuits.' "

ROLL OF THE LORDS.—The roll of the Lords,
spiritual and temporal, has just been printed. There are
30 spiritual lords and 427 temporal, reckoning Lord Auck-
land among the former as Bishop of Bath and Wells. The
spiritual lords are 26 English prelates and four Irish, the
Irish prelates on the roll this session being the Archbishop
of Dublin and the Bishops of Down, Ossory, and Cork. Of
the temporal lords three are of the blood royal—the Prince
of Wales, the Duke of Cumberland (King of Hanover), and
the Duke of Cambridge. There follow 20 dukes, 22 mar-
guises, 131 earls, 28 viscounts, and 223 barons. This, how-
ever, is reckoning them technically, aceording to the titles
by which they sit in the House. For instance, the Duke of
Buceleuch is placed among the earls because he sits, not by
his Scotch title, but as Earl of Doncaster in the English
peerage, and the Duke of Argyll is reckoned only among
the barons (Baron Sundridge) ; the Earl of Roden is Lord
Clanbrassill ; the Marquis of Clanricarde, Lord Somerhill ;
Lord Panmure also remains among the barons, his newly
inherited Scotch title of Earl of Dalhousie having no seat
in the House annexed to it. Assigning all such peers to
the rank and title by which they are commonly known, and
speaking popularly, the temporal lords are—a prince, a
king, 27 dukes, 37 marquises, 170 earls, 31 viscounts, and
162 barons. The whole number in the House, therefore,
is:ls7; a geueration Pgo it was hot 400.