The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-08-03 00:00:00

THE NEW CRYSTAL PALACE.

The first column of this marvellous structure will be
raised on Thursday next by Mr. Laing, M. P., the chair-
man of the Crystal Palace Company. The preliminaries
for carrying out thoroughlythe comprehensive design have
been concluded, and a thousand hands are already at
work, that faith may be kept and the building thrown
open to the public on the Ist of May, 1853.
The site chosen for the re-erection of the Crystal Palace
is an irregular parallelogram of 300 acres, extending from
the Brighton Railway, where it has a frontage of 1,300
feet ; between the Sydenham and the Annerley stations,
to the road which borders the top of Dulwich wood, where
it has a frontage towards the road of 3,000 feet. The fall
from this point to the Brighton Railway is 200 feet. It
was at once felt that the only position for the new building
was on the summit of this hill, and immediately adjoining
the road. The building, placed in this commanding posi-
tion. will be visible from London on the one side, and
from a vast extent of country on the other. In conse-
quence of the rapid fall of the ground an additional story
became necessary on the park front of the building; and
this will remedy a defect universally felt in the old build-
ing, namely, the little elevation of the front.
As regards the contents of the building, the whole of
the sides of the nave, transepts, and the divisions on
either side between the several courts will be lined with
the plants and trees of every clime, interspersed with
statues and works of art. On the north-east side of the
building will be arranged the historical galleries of
sculpture and architecture, with casts of the finest works
of sculpture, and portions of buildings of ancient art. On
the south-east side will be displayed similar collections of
mediaeval art, while in the north and south-west portions
of the building, as well as the whole of a 24 feet gallery
round the building, will be devoted to the purposes of
exhibition. The machinery will be placed in the lower
story on the park side, in a gantry 24 feet wide, extending
the whole length of the buildint.
Outside, the decorations will have reference to the fur-
nishing of the interior. The ends of the building will
extend into large wings projecting a considerable distance
forward into the grounds, and encompassing terrace-gar.
dens which themselves occupy more than 30 acres. At-
tached to one of the glass wings will be the railway sta-
tion, so arranged that persons descending from tile railway
carriages are at once introduced to the palace by the
wing. These wings will be terminated with grand glass
towers, from which will be obtained extensive views
of the gardens, fountains, and grounds, and also
distance.
a view
of the surrounding country to a very gat
Beyond the terrace gardens, which will be adorned with
fountains and statuary, Sir Joseph Paxton has under-
taken to carry out a design for waterworks, temples, and
statuary, in forms and on a scale hitherto unknown. Two
of the jets which he has in hand will rise to a height of
200 feet, and will form the main object of interest from
the glass towers already spoken of. Sir Joseph has also
in preparation an unequalled collection of hardy and
half-hardy plants, and an illustrative series explanatory of
the natural and Linnvean systems of botany. He has al-
ready secured for the Crystal Palace Company the magni-
ficent collection of palms and other choice plants brought
together during the past century by the Messrs. Lod-
dridges, specimens hitherto unrivalled in Europe. and is
daily adding to the number of his treasures by other spe-
cimens purchased from well-known collectors, or con-
ferred upon him as gifts.

MELANCHOLY DEATH OF A LADY BY FIRE. On
Saturday an inquest was taken by Mr. W. Baker. deputy
coroner, at the Ship and Royal Oak, Wapping-wall, Lon-
don, on view of the body of Miss Louisa Levick, aged 27,
niece of Mr. S-rle, the extensive importer of Portland
stone, No. 74, Wapping-wall, who was burnt to death
in consequence of her clothes being ignited by turpentine,
which she was preparing on a fire, for an embrocation.
Verdict—Accidental death.
A MODEL STEAM-PACKET.—We are credibly informed
that one of the most modern and expensively-built steam_
packets, called after one of the great routes to Australia,
achieves the very wonderful speed of nine knots an hpur,
by an expenditure of about 80 tons of coals per diem.
We frequently hear the most bitter reproaches cast against
the steamers of the Royal navy for their slow speed and
expensive working, but we hear little of the failures of
public mail companies, who are paid excessively,-9th the
understanding that the public work is done ezPed;tWasly.
.—United Service Gazette.

THE CONTEMPLATED MARRIAGE OF
LOUIS NAPOLEON.

_._....--

The late exhibition at Strasburg, the rapid excur-
sion to Baden, the triumphal entry of Louis Napo-
leon into Paris, where he was received with all the
homage that the army and the clergy could pay to
a victorious chief, are probably the precursors and
the foretaste of events and ceremonies more directly
calculated to exalt his personal dignity and to con-
solidate his power. 'We believe the real object of
the Baden journey was to bring to a close by a per-
sonal interview the negotiation which had for some
time been pending for the marriage of Louis Napo-
leon with the Princess of Vasa ; and if any symbo-
lical meaning is to be attributed to the bridge
thrown over the Rhine by the French army, we
hope that it implies no more than a closer connex-
ion between the head of the French government
and the family which reigns on the opposite shore,
who are already some of Louis Napoleon's nearest
relations.

The Dowager Grand Duchess Stephanie, of
Baden, was the eldest daughter of the last Count
de Beauharnais, a member of the family of the Em-
press Josephine's first husband, and adopted as
such by Napoleon. She was married in 1806 to the
Grand Duke of Baden, who became in consequence
one of the German Princes most devoted to the in-
fluence of France in the Confederation of the Rhine.
It is to a granddaughter of the Grand Duchess Ste-
phanie that the matrimonial views of Louis Napo-
leon have been turned ; for her eldest daughter
married Gustavus, Prince of Wasa, son of Gustavus
IV., ex-King of Sweden, and the issue of this mar-
riage is now the Princess Caroline of \Vasa, a lady
of whom report speaks most favourably, and who
will complete her 19th year on the sth of August
next. She is consequently related to-Louis Napo-
leon by the Beauharnais family, and descended by
her father's side from the legitimate, though now
dethroned, Royal family of Sweden. The Prince of
Wasa, her father, commands a regiment in the
Austrian service; but the family is connected byits
intermarriages with several of the reigning houses
of Europe. Such an alliance would seem, there-
fore, to be both politic and suitable to the present
position and the future views of the Prince Presi-
dent, and we understand that the interview which
recently took place at Baden between the high con-
tracting parties was so encouraging that the Prin-
cess immediately applied herself to master the te-
nets of the Roman Catholic faith, having hitherto
professed the Lutheran creed, in order that she may
be received into the bosom of that church of which
Louis Napoleon is so exemplary a member.
It is, therefore, not improbable that among the
ceremonies which will contribute during this present
summer to the diversion of the French people, a
wedding will take place ; and the world may specu-
late on the effect of such a marriage upon the pro-
clamation of the Empire, and the revival of all the
pretensions of the Bonapartist dynasty. Certain it
is that no internal obstacle or impediment will inter-
fere with the assumption of any title or rank Louis
Napoleon may think fit to adopt, and, as to his
power, that is already entire and absolute. For our-
selves, speaking with a view to the general interests
of this country and of Europe, such a change would
appear to be a matter of indifference; for what sig-
nifies a new fashion in the trappings of a Court after
the dismal change from freedom to servitude has
been accomplished and endured by the nation ?
Neither is it material whether the marriage precedes
the Empire, or the Empire the marriage, or by what
road Louis Napoleon and his adherents attain the
transcendant honours of a Papal coronation. But it
is by no means equally clear that this series of events
will be looked upon with indifference by the conti-
nental powers. The marriage of Louis Napoleon
would obviously be the most important step to the
establishment of an hereditary power in France, and
such a power would ere long, and perhaps imme-
diately, place itself on an imperial throne. To
recognise such a power, with all its hereditary
claims, is to surrender the principles of legitimate
monarchy still professed by the northern Courts of
Europe ; to refuse to recognise it is at once to afford
to that power a pretext for any undertaking it may
meditate against the security of the continent.—
Times.