The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-30 00:00:00

officer, in a few words, announced to ns that Lord WEL-
LINGTON bad directed our division to carry the grand
breach. The soldiers listened to the communication with
silent earnestness, and immediately began to disencumber
themselves of their knapsacks, which were placed in order
by companies, and a guard set over them. Each man then
began to arrange himself for the combat in such a manner
as his fancy or the moment would admit of : some by
lowering their cartridge-boxes, others by turning theirs
to the trout, in order that they might the more conve-
niently make use of them ; others unclasping their
stocks or opening their shirt collars, and others oiling
their bayonets."

The above is a practical commentary on the use and
abuse of the stock, and the general inconvenience of the
accoutrements, which infinitely transcends theoretical
arguments, however feasibly they may be put, or how plau-
sible soever they may seem. From military inconvenience
to naval improvidence the digression is not unnatural,
nor is the step a wide one. A short time since, the public
mind was startled by the information that the fine steam
gun-boat Jasper had taken fire and been blown up almost
as she left the harbour. An inquiry has been made into
the circumstances, by a court-martial, and it turns out
that the fire originated at a point where the deck-beams
and the wood-work of the bulkhead were in close proxi-
mity with the boilers ; and, as might have been expected,
every officer and man exerted himself to the utmost to
extinguish the conflagration when discovered ; but the re-
quisite means for extinguishing fire on board had not been
provided, and the efforts of course proved unavailing. The
officers and crew werehonourably acquitted, complimented,
indeed ; and the court reeorded its opinion that the " Jas-
per had not been fitted with the requisite means to extin-
guish fire on board." For this sad, and indeed criminal,
neglect, surely some one must be to blame. Public feeling
points strongly in reprobation of such systematic careless-
ness as is here manifested, by the exercise of which a crew
of brave and intrepid men are sent to sea in a practical
furnace loaded with gunpowder, without the means of
rendering themselves the slightest aid when the calamity,
which was inevitable, has overtaken them. Really incon-
siderate or false friends are more to be dreaded than
open foes.
Among the whirls and eddies which beset the current
of affairs, few seem so singular on so equally marked and
unaccountable as those which disturb the stream of
theatrical affairs. It is but a short time since that every-
thingattempted in the capacious and commodious structure
of " Old Drury" seemed not only devoted to certain failure,
but even to threaten positive ruin to its contriver. The
greater the amount of talent employed, and consequently
the greater the amount of expense incurred, the more
certain and inevitable seemed the adverse result. With-
drawing the talent and abridging the expenditure only
procrastinated the final failure; but, recently, "a change
has come o'er the spirit of its dream." It has been devoted
to opera of a high character, performed at a low scale of
charges, and the speculation has answered. The company
maintained is one of great musical excellence, including,
among its list of artistes, Madame CARADORI, Madame
RUDERSDOEFF, Herr FORMES, Herr REICHARDT, Mr.
and Mrs. SIMS REEVES, Mr. and Mrs. WElss, besides
many other celebrities, and the house is nightly crowded.
Nay, more than that, the speculation is a paying one ;
and so surely is there

- a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,

that I verily believe the prestige of " Old Drury" is once
more revived—that fortunes will again be made out of it,
as if in mockery of the ruin it has of late years caused.
The event towards which the expectation of every
class of sight-seers, in London, and many thrOughott all
parts of the kingdom, is at present instinctively turned,
is the opening of the Crystal Palace at the close of the
week after next. Numerous visitors are daily attracted to
the spot, and the greatest anxiety is evinced in the pro-
gress of the works, which are being carried forward at a
rattling pace, under the immediate and energetic personal
direction of Sir JOSEPII PAXTON, who seems to fare,
indeed,
" As with a ma❑ busied about conditions,"

he having been installed and exercising a full dictatorship
within that fairy realm. Under his tasteful sway, order
is rapidly springing up out of the charming chaos of
sculpture, of floral and of arboral beauty, and of decorative
art, which has been mingled in. sweet confusion in the
further end of the etherial fane; and the several speci-
mens are now being ranged in their ultimate positions,
a faint foreshadowing of the final arrangements of nave
and transept now begins to show itself ; the general design
unfolding its instructive beauties day by day with rapid
stride. From what has been already achieved in this way,
even the uninitiated can perceive the improvements dictated
by experience and suggested by deep study over the
splendours of the Hyde Park Palace. Here, every arrange-
ment which tended to divide the old Crystal Palace into
subdivisions, and detract from its general effect of magni.
tude and impressiveness, has been avoided, the lengthened
sweep of the nave being unbroken, save by OSTLER'S
famous crystal fountain, which will still occupy the inter-
section of the nave and transepts, thus acting, as of old, as
an easily recognised point of rendezvous, and as a measure
of magnitude ; the latter a service it will be aided in by
the noble specimens of arborescent vegetation by which it
is surrounded. Utility is so combined with beauty, and
displayed in such a favourable array, as to afford the finest
lessons of botanical arrangement. In this respect it forci-
bly reminds me of an incident in which Sir JOSEPH PAX-
TON performed a conspicuous part. The time was in the
autumn of 1851, during the hot controversy which, for the
time being, raged as to the propriety of declaring the
sitting of the original Crystal Palace permanent in Hyde-
park ;" the scene a gay one, far removed from the noise,
and hurry, and smoke, and unnatural excitements of Lon-
don, and placed amid the swelling uplands and verdant
vales of North Derbyshire. A large assemblage of hunt.s and
gentlemen, headed by a deputation of the Arelmolooiesl
Society, and invited by his Grace the Duke of DEVONSHIRE,
were on an inspecting visit to Chatsworth, " the Palace
of the Peak." The conduct of the party through the gay
parterres and sylvan avenues, as well as through the
stately galleries and noble halls of Chatsworth, devolved
upon Sir JOSEPH, and to those who know him it is need-
less to say a more courteous, obliging, and intelligent
cicerone could not have been found. The occasion was in
all respects an interesting and exciting one, and here
amid the beauties which in a great degree owed their
origin to his genius he expatiated with judicious and unob-
trasive fondness upon the charms by which the scene was
surrounded. Chief among the many objects of attraction
by which Chatsworth is adorned is the noble palm-house
or conservatory—the root from which all the crystal
palaces have sprung—and within its precincts its origi-
nator appeared more than usually at home. Aided by the
mechanical and chemical appliances for regulating or
changing, for concentrating or diffusing the temperature,
and having for illustration of his theory the gorgeous
specimens of vegetation to be met with in tropical or frigid
climes, which have been collected with such perseverance
and at such cost by the noble owner of Chatsworth, Sir
JOSEPH PAXTON unfolded his ideas of an educational
plant conservatory, such as the then Hyde-park erection
could furnish. The central portion, he proposed,
should represent the equatorial or torrid region of
the earth, with its intensity of heat and moisture,
and the not less wonderful magnificence of its flora ;
the temperate, and even the frigid zones, having
also their representative at the extreme ends of the build-
ing. The details of this arrangement he minutely de-
scribed ; while his mechanical contrivances and botanical
resources, even at Chatsworth, were extensive and varied
enough to furnish him with means for demonstrating all
the vicissitudes of aerial temperature, from the languid
torpor of equatorial calm, through every gradation of
change—from the grateful influence of tropical zephyrs,
barely sufficient to abate the oppressive heat and gently
rustle the rank and heavy foliage, gradually increasing in
power as the current agitated and stirred the stately palms,
throwing their long broad leaves about in wild confusion,
and swaying their graceful stems with creaking sound
and rapid motion—to the wildest varieties of atmospheric
strife which accompany the tornado and give character to
the hurricane—and these means enabled him again as
suddenly to withdraw the stormy influence and ex-
hibit the lovely scene bathed in sunshine and smiling
in repose. To many a studied educational thesis I
have listened in my time, but such a piece of prac-
tical teaching, enforced as it was by the natural and
earnest eloquenoe of him who, having conceived, planned,
and harmoniously arranged its order and concomitants, it
never was before or since my happiness to meet. As
cv.rrc“skoa,
from all ; and when, at its conclusion, Sir JosErn inti-
mated that what he had been enabled to show through
the munificent and cultured taste and the princely li-
berality of the DUKE of DEVONSHIRE was scarcely a
shadow of what he could effect with a structure of such
magnitude and varied resources as the Crystal Palace in
Hyde Park, if its permanency were conceded, and the in-
stitution backed by national support, the anxiety and en-
thusiasm of every one present, for the preservation of that
edifice, bust forth in loud and long-continued acclamation.
If effects so wondrous, so gratifying, and so instructive,
could be produced by one master-mind under such circum-
stances, what may we not be justified in expecting from
the undertaking at Sydenham, where the genius of Rex-
TON has been allowed to revel and "to wander at sweet
will," assisted by the leading spirits in every art and
science. To those familiar with Chatsworth, and its
numberless fountains, its endless groves and sparkling
cascades—its floral loveliness, and natural combined with
artificial beauty, it will be enough to say, that at Syden-
ham those attractions are multiplied a hundred-fold, and
all of them are on a greater scale,—to those who have not
the pleasure of such familiarity it is not too much to say,
that Versailles, in all its splendour, pales before it, and
that it will bear a favourable comparison with the feigned
gardens of Bagdad, and will not suffer in contrast with
the fabled fields of the classical Elysium.

ON Sunday week (says the Leicester Mercury), dur-
ing religious worship, the congregation of the Wesleyan
Chapel, Twyford, was disturbed by a person entering,
and in a most violent manner beating his wife, who was
among the congregation.
ARRIVAL OF IMMIGRANTS.—There arrived at this port
on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 9th and 10th inst., 4,418
immigrants, as follows :—From Antwerp 1,899, Havre
1,881, Dublin 204, Bremen 357, Glasgow 20, Liverpool 57.
Some of the vessels bringing these passengers and others
from Europe, report having experienced very severe
weather, and also seeing large quantities of field ice and
numerous icebergs. The brig Detroit, from Neuvitas,
reports, April, 28, in lat. 30 25 lon. 79 20, was struck by
lightning, which shivered the fore royal mast to pieces,
split fore topsail and fore topgallant yard and head of fore
mast, severely stunning one man. The ship Atlantic,
from Antwerp, arrived yesterday ; reports 20th April, in
lat. 466,10 n. 34 38, passed a large clipper ship, bound west,
with loss of top gallant masts and fore topsail yard, pro-
bably the Challenge, Kenney, from Havre, March 29th ;
same time saw two other ships, with loss'of top gallant
masts and other spars ; 26th, lat. 44 25, passed four large
icebergs; crossed the Banks in lat. 42 30, and saw large
quantites of field ice ; lost during the voyage six pas-
sengers, namely, Christian Wilbert, aged nine months,
Eva Benner, 50 years, James Schmidt, three months, Aug.
Banman, six months, Carolina Klumback, 14 years, Frei-
erika Banman, six months. The schooner Edwin, from
St. Mary's, Ga., reports, Bth inst., off Cape Henry, saw a
ship with a signal flying at her wizen-peak ; could not
arrived
dis
make it out ; the ship was painted black, with painted
ports ; she fired seven guns,
but they
in distress.
get near
enough to ascertain what she was, or if n distress. The
clipper Challenge,
89 alludedpass
passengers.—New
ers above,.hasNe
ty sinceek
Courier,
masted,
bringing 7