The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-28 00:00:00

Y.

JULY 28, 1842.

CII4RTIST CAMP MEETING.

On Sunday last, the Chartists held another camp
meeting on dronkeyshaw, a few yards beyond the limits
• the Co-ough of Rochdale. At the time appointed for
the meeting, two o:clock, there were about 1,500 per-
:ions present ; but by three o'clock they had increased to
above 2,000. The speakers, and those who took a lead
in the meeting, stood in a waggon which had been
brought. upon the common for that purpose. The 'day
being extremely fine, there were many females present,
who appeared to take considerable interest in what was
(voing forward. There appears to be a most decided
'Change in Chartist politics •, for dcctrines the very oppo-
site to those of Feargus O'Connor were promulgated
by the speakers on Sunday last. One person was at
considerab'ce pains to convince his hearers, that the
Chartists were determined Corn-law repealers, and
nothing would give him greater pleasure than to see
an union between these parties (Anti-Corn-law Leaguers
and Chartists), upon such a basis that the one cauld
not deceive the other. It was their difference on minor
points that made their common enemy strong. He
advised them to receive assistance from whatever quar-
ter it came, and not treat those who wished to give
them- their aid, as " repentant pickpockets," They
never could expect relief froM Sir Robert Peel, who
had told his minions in Parliament, that the God of
nature was the cause of the present distress ; and his
patron (the Duke of Wellington), who held a place in
the Cabinet, but did not consider himself responsible
for their deeds, stated that distress was periodical, and
could not be prevented. Was it the God of nature that
kept 1,500,000 quarters of corn from a starving people,
till a heavy tax had been levied upon it, and prevented
the industrious man from exchanging his work for food?
This would be the case till an end was put to class legis-
lation, and all those monopolies which enabled the few to
plunder the many. The speaker dwelt at considerable
length upon the standing army of .100,000 men ; upon
the national debt, and the money required every year to
pay its interest ; and upon the sums of money regularly
spent to improve the morals of the people ; while Whig,
Radical, and Tory acknowledged they were growing
worse instead of better. About half a dozen persons
spoke at greateror less length ; and the meeting broke up
at half-past four o'clock. Every person present con-
ducted himself with great propriety and order, except a
drunken man, who came upon the ground, and created
some little disturbance. One of the speakers in the
waggon said, he understood there were some of the police
in disguise present, and he insisted on them' doing their
-duty. The man being got. away, order was soon re-
stored. The Primitive Methodists had a camp meeting
at the same time, on the same common, and about 400 or
500 yards distant from that of the Chartists. A constant
stream of people were moving from one place to the other,
during the afternoon; but the Chartists had by far the
greater attendance. The Chairman of the meeting was
Mr. John Leach, of Rochdale.—Manchester Paper.

OPENING OF CROSBY HALL.
This ancient Hall, in Bishopsgate-street, to which so
many rich historic reminiscences attach, was opened
yesterday evening with an accompanying soiree, on the
occasion . of its
,conversion into a literary and scientific
institution, an inaugural address being delivered by T.
Bell, Esq., F.R.S. the President. The institution con-
sists collectively Of a suite of apartments, the entrance-
chamber, or refreshment-room, possessing an excellent
organ, and ornamented by a City artist with fresco paint-
ings, illustrative of the Third of the Plantagenets and
his actions. Descending by steps, three rooms con-
tiguous to the Hall contain specimens of a mu-
seum which is in course of formation, and in which we
observed, en passant, several fine specimens of marine con-
chology, and geological relics of the antediluvian world,
in the shape of huge fragmentary bits of various mega-
theria , with several of the tortoise and tapir species
complete war-skins of African Caffres and Boshmen also
embellished the walls. The entire library also, which
has been accumulating for three years past, while the in-
stitution was at Salvador House, consists of five or six
thousand volumes. The Hall itself, intended for lee-
turesi meetings, &c., and which had a doubly-magnifi•
cent appearance last night, when the antique beauty of
its architecture was enhanced by the attendance of 300
to 600 fashionable and select City people, measures about
60 feet in length, and about 37 in width, containing the
usual ranges of raised seats, and terminated at each end
by: elevated galleries. Mr. Davies,' the, architect em-
ployed, has used his best art and taste in restoring its long-
obscured and time darkened beauties ; for, as the able
lecturer on this occasion noted, this hall till within
these few days, was put to the vile uses of it packer's
warehouse—a hall. which . had been trodden by
princes and merchants, whose roof had resouni2ed
to the music of high civic feasts in the days of the fif-
teenth century; whose floors had re-echoed to the tread
of Richard; in which the classic More, a scholar and
Chancellor dear to fame and England, had resided and
studied; and in which the accomplished Sully, the rich
Spencer, and the princely Gresham, had lived or con-
stantly resorted to. The roof is especially noticeable, as
formed of that richly carved Gothic cedar-work, which
architecture had so much in vogue in 1472, the period
the halt was erected; the elaborately cut arches spring
from their stone-work rests or peditnents no less vigo-
rously than symmetrically. Cuistantly surrounded by
such associations as those enumerated above, the mem-
bers of this institution will involuntarily breathe in a re-
fined atmosphere of thought and intelligence, such as the
annals of history inspire. The youth, the mechanics, the
virtuosi, of the City and its environs, will here, for their
almost nominal annual subscription, find constant means
of improvement and pleasure, and the Committee cannot
be too highly eulogized fur the excellent project which
1 they have thus carried out and perfected in rescuing the
venerated hall from desecration and a lumber-room to its
present apposite and intellectual purpose. Mr. Bower-
bank, Mr. Ward, and other influential gentlemen, ho-
noured the assemblage with their presence.

A letter from Palermo, in Sicily, says —" The
King, Queen, and Royal Family, having intimated their
intention of being present at the approaching celebration
of the Feast of St. Rosalie, the Municipality is making
preparations for displaying an unusual magnificence.
'.'he Grotto in Mount Pellegrino, near Palermo, in
Which Str Rosalia lived and died, has an altar, above
whidll ls statue of the saint, recumbent and iu medita-
tion, her head et/Waned on her left hand, the right hand
holding a crucifix. It is coloured, and dressed in
sumptuous attire, the donation of King Charles 111.
it Comprises a robe of rich velvet, adorned with a
profusion of yearls, which at that time were worth
rio,ooof., a diadem, formed of diamonds, and a neck-
lacti of millique cameos of the highest price ; bracelets of
oriental totaq,es.; diamond rings on every finger, and
sandals set with amethysts. A statue of the Virgin
Mary, of white marble' at another altar in the Grotto,
F~ ill ilso be invested with rt splendid dress, which is being
niti44l for the occasion. The (grotto of St. Rosalia is the
Gretna -Green of Sicily, for the priest who officiates at
the altar is authorised to solemnise marriage between all
couplei who come there and desire to be united, provided
they take an oath that they are not already bound by
matrimonial chains. In general, those who come to claim
this office do so secretly, or in opposition to heir parents
and guardians ; but at the festival about to tales place,
upwards of 200 marriages between persons who have ob-
served all the legal formalitieswill be performed,. and
among them, it is said, will be some belonging to the
most noble and distinguished families of the kingdom.'
THE MELOPIIONIC GUITAR.--A concert was given
yesterday evening at the Hanover-square Rooms, prin-
cipally for the purpose of introducing to public notice
Id. Barelli's new musical discovery of the Melophonic
Guitar, which was played upon. and exhibited by
Signor Giulo Regondi. , The novelty appears chiefly
to consist iu a refined Melodiousness of the ordinary
guitox-strings ; for the body of the instrument is essen-
tially the same, as also the mode of operation.
Its mune, " Melophonic," or " Melodiously modulated,"
is exactly expressive of its character. A MS. concert, by
Schutz, a Fantasie Elegiaque, and the - Souvenir des
Huguenots were each performed upon it by Regondi, and
il:ese strings confessedly were proved to be capable of pro-
ducing much finer and softer instrumentation
ncert w than the
often tuneless strings commonly used. The co
given by its inventor for the philanthropic purpose of
getting lovers of music to patronize and adopt it, and so
afford work and occupation in a new line of factory art
to the English working-classes in want of employment.
Major-General Sir John M‘Leod, Lady Pottinger,
Sir Michael Stewart, Lord and Lady Rivers, Lady Msjori-
banlis, and Lieutenant E. Von Donor, left London on Tuesday
in the General Stearn' Navigation Coolpary's•storo•abip 'Soho,
for Antwerpand the Rhine. •