The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-02 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.
NATIONAL CONCERTS.
The Berlin chorus appeared aCthese concerts on
Saturday for the last time, and in common with every
lover of choral music we cannot but express our
regret that the further prolongation of their stay was
impos ibie. The directors of these concerts have by
the engagement of the Berlin choir given an impulse
to the cultivation of choral music in this country, the
power and importance of which it is at present im-
possible to estimate. Until the performances of the
Berlin choir were heard our choral performers re-
mained. in a state of contented mediocrity, because
our audiences, never having heard better choral exe-
cution, were content to accept theirs as perfection; but
now, the audiences having a knowledge of what may
be done by a chorus, will insist on having it done,
and we expect that in the course of the next three or
four pars we shall find our English choruses vastly
improved in every respect, and for any such improve-
ment, be it remembered, we shall be indebted mainly
to the exertions of the directors of the National
Concer;s.

The .f ,lowing distinguished individuals honoured
these concerts with their presence during the past
week :- -The Marquis of Headfort and Lady Olivia
Taylou-r, Dowager Marchioness of Ely and the
Ladies Lofrus, Lady Poulett, Lord Ward and Hon.
Dudley Ward, Lady Anne Beckett, Lord and Lady
Batema n, Lord George Paget, M.P., Viscount
Malden , Viscount Canterbury, Do wager Lady
Abinge r, Sir John Burgoyne and the Misses Bur-
goyne, Lord and Lady Francis Gordon, Hon. Mr.
and Mr t. Wriottesley, Hon. Spencer Lyttleton, Sir
Edward D-ering, Sir John Gibbons, General Upton,
Hon. li. Portman, General Meade and the Misses
Meade, Marchi mess of Ailesbury, Lord Charles Wel-
lesley, lgarl of Mount Charles, Viscount Clifden, Lord
Temple more, Lord William Lennox, Lady Dover
and the .Hon. Mi!,ses Ellis, Countess Grey, Lady Alice
Lambton, Sir A. Woodford, Hon. H. Grey, Lady
Hislop rind Miss Elliott, Lady Caroline Lascelles and
Miss L; Leicelles, Hon. R. Bourke. &c.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE;
OR. WHEN-WHERE-WHY-HOW.

WHEN? --Thou art the symbol of time, recurrence,
numha-, - - - - - -

Tkie7)o- gt,'s bread, the sehoolb:q's dread, whom dates

divert from slumber.
WHERE —Thou bidst us go and try conclusions with

inlinii :y,
Till t.or grown, wo settle down to Euclid's plane

geom. ?try .
War?— • Thou bidst us seek for phenomena of every name,
Some sort of cause, at first one hypothetical and very
lame, _ _

Such as sought the Greeke, and Moderns too, until the

great :Lord Verulum
Taught men to track inductively the true cause of the

very slime;
So in all its glorious compaas of tone so deep and high,
Science is but responsive to the questions—When ?
Where ? Why ?
But How ?—Pray have you ever heard the brief and
curt " flow do,"
The gre..tting of the Iron Duke, a delicate pooh-pooh,
To idle 'waste of time and words unsuiting him and you:
Unsuitin g him who went and did what he alone could go

and de►,
The hero, of an hundred fights, the honest and the true,
The cool est head, the stoutest heart that beat at Waterloo.
His warrior arm achieved the peace, which we are using
now

To rear :a noble temple in, wherein the world may bow
To the genius of industrial art, lane of the mighty How.
In ancienit Egypt men had learnt, some thousand years

ago,
The force sublime which science lends to Art's inventive
flow;
And in Rorne's bloo3y circus the imperial luxury
Would prodigies of skill display—to popularise cruelty;
And so in mediaeval times had wondrous siructures risen,
Which rt.:, were like old Egypt's fines, to superstition

given.
It rests f ►r these enlightened days,beneath a purer faith,
To unite all high intelligence to sound the breadth and

depth
Of the mans which God has given us to vanquish social

By bending thought to useful aims with well•direeted

skill,—
Leading the world to know the worth of Peace's golden

reign,
And less( ning the fearful sum of human want, and grief,

and pain.
Sr,, full of hope we look upon this second Babel-tower,
Where many tongues will not confound, but harmonise

the hour, -
And from every side, from every land, incoming fast we

hear
The general shout of gathering praise, the universal

cheer.
The farmer at his fireside joins in the jubilee,
The merchant on the mart applauds, the sailor on the sea,
The Lord Mayor of great London, and the knight
mayors that would be,
The prelates toe, and eke the judges. minus Ex C. 8.,
Sing, " Jam jam efficaci do manna scientim;
Vivat Aleertus magna caecli, magna nostri Gloria
Cui numen eat Prudentia, cui conjux CSt VICTORIA."

H. M.

SINGULAR ADVICE TO CONVERTS TO ROMANISM.—
A writer in the Catholic Magazine writes thus :—" Converts!
to you I address myself. You are joining us in scores ;
clergymen, titled men, guardsmen, and Oxford men—take
pity on our Catholic girls. Instead of entering into holy
orders, take unto
.yourselves wives of our sweet and pure
Catholic maidens ; let it appear that their religion is no
longer a hinderance to their wedded advancement—demon-
strate that it is rather a recommendation—that it insures a
bon parti. So will you recommend our faith to hundreds of
worldly-minded parents who are repelled from us by the
thought that it might mar the prospects of their daughters ;
so will you make hundreds of Protestant girls think how
enviable is the lot of a Catholic girl, who is sure of picking
up a nice, sentimental, serious, loving, thoughtful-eyed
husband ; so will you prove Catholicism to be the best reli-
gion for husband-seeking daughters, as it has always been
(so Charles 11. said of it) the only religion of a gentleman ;
so will you be not only converts yourselves, but the means of
conversion in others." And then—the confessional !

ALLEGED CURE FOR MADNESS.—Cedrone seed,
recently discovered in the valleys of Costa Rica, and said to
possess the property of curing madness, and of neutralising
the virus of the bites of dogs and venem, us serpents, is at-
tracting the attention of the faculty in Paris. A medical
congress, including representatives from the different states
of Europe, is shortly to be held, to test the efficacy of cedrone
seed in mental disorders and epilepsy.
A man named Philip Gibbs, a ganger on the Great
Northern railway works, near Shillingthorpe, was seriously
injured yesterday, in an affray with some of the navvies em-
ployed under him. In consequence of insubordination, he
docked several of the men of a portion of their pay. For this
they resolved to give him a quid pro quo, a 41 three of them
having caught him alone, they savagely assaulted him, frac-
turing ono of his arms, anti inflicting a fearful wound on the
scalp, into, which a man who went to his assistance stuffed a
quid of tobacco to stop the blood ! The ganger was conveyed
to the surgery of Mr. R. N. Newcomb, at Stamford, where
his wounds were attended to; it was found they were not
dangerou —Stamford Mercury.
At a time when Holborn was a rural village, and
two or three country houses occupied the space which is now
the Strand, Queen Elizabeth was so much concerned at the
magnitude of London, that she issued a proclamation
against further building, affirming that, if the metropolis
grew any larger, there would be no possibility of pro-
viding fool, at reasonable prices, for so vast a multitude of
inhabitants.
PURE WATER PURELY CONVEYED.—A patent has
been taken out in America for glass water pipes, and they
are already coming into general use. A glass pipe, one and
a quarter inch in diameter, was tested as to strength, and
withstood a pressure of 200 lbs. to the square inch, or a
column of water 450 feet high. We hope, on the Govern-
ment plan of supplying London with pure water coming into
operation, this mode of conveying the supply in glass pipes
will meet with consideration.—Expositor.

•
LUCKY ESCAPE FOR ALLOTTEEB.-Sir George Rose
decided on Wednesday, in the case of the London and South-
end Railway, which was brought before him for settlement,
" That all those persons in the position of class three of
allottees, who had shares distributed to them, but had paid
nothing, should be struck off the list as liable, on the ground
that there was a specific condition in the letter of allotment
that, unless the deposit was paid by a given day, the shares
would be re-allotted."

BROOKSBY.—This fine estate, which has been for
some time in the market, has, we hear, been bought by Mr.
Jones Lloyd, the wealthy London hanker. We believe the
purchase money is about 75,0001. Country Paper.
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COMMUNICATION WITH
ENGLAND. The Belfast News-Letter states that the British
Electric Telegraph Company have selected that part of the
Channel between the north-east coast of Ireland and the op
posite coast of Scotland as the most convenient, if not the
only practicable, route for the transmarine portion of their
line. The distance is small, and the depth of water great;
the coast is extremely bold, and there is no danger of inter-
ference from shipping. Owing to the depth of water, and
the facility with which the wires may be carried out to deep
water, the disturbance and rubbing produced by the action of
the waves may be wholly disregarded. The distance is not
more than 20 miles, or thereabouts.
DEATH OF A MILITARY KNIGHT OF WINDSOR.
Lieutenant C. H. Lorimer, on the retired full-pay of the Bth
Royal Veteran Battalion, and one of the senior military
knights, died at Windsor on the 25th ult. lie entered the
army in 1805, and served in the Peninsula, afterwards at
Waleheren, and at the siege of Flushing. He served with
the 3d battalion of the Royale, under Sir D. Baird, in the
north of Spain, and in the retreat, when closely pursued by
the enemy, saved a convoy of provisions with which he had
been entrusted. He was severely wounded at the battle of
Corunna, and at the siege of Flushing Lieutenant Lorimer
was wounded in both legs by the bursting of a shell from
the enemy's battery. He had received the war medal and
clasp for Corunna. Lieutenant Lorimer had for many years
been on the foundation at Windsor.
NEW MILITIA AcT.--ThE,re are still rumours that
the Duke of Wellington has at last convinced the Govern-
ment of the absolute necessity of balloting the militia, and
that we shall have a new Militia Act, and also a Bill for en.
listing seamen, introduced next session.
THE GCEAT GLOBE.—It has been stated that Mr.
Wyld's 56-feet globe will be put up in the Hyde-park build-
ing, but this will not be the case. A negotiation is on foot
to obtain the area of Leicester-square fer its erection.—The
Builder.

A PoRPOISE CAUGHT.— L ist wok some fishermen
at Torquay eaugt a porpoise in the b t3', anal having brought
it into harbour, toehed a tope to its to 1, and threw it
overboard, when to the amusement of many persons„it tow d
the- bout, about the harbour fur some time. nging
ate British nAnd.LisTortlx 'American RoyaV-Vlail
eteatArtqlip ,t3.1114q; iciption lAtinn en satfed frith the Mer-
,sl Be3cOn Sat4rd'aYP"Plcg, Prn
'land Mistori,7itU. the
]hetv4ert 50' trO pastyttgero. Y 7,