LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 645, 8 October 1851, Page 3

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

The English papers are chiefly occupied wiih tne threat Exhibition, which seems to be the engrossing topic. The Times slates the daily number of visitors to the Chrystal Palace to average from 45,000 to 60,000. The Queen Albert make frequent vi»uc vuFystal Palace, uHiiutely inspecting the several departments, and staying from 9 to 11 o clock. On the 2d of June between 400 and 500 exhibitors had been formally requested to be present, to offer to Her Majesty, in one of those morning visits, explanations, and give information respecting their productions. The Times, speaking of the ” extreme sensibilities of this class,” (the exhibitors), says, “ Lips and tongues that, before ordinary mortals, would run freely on in the labours of explanation, become confused and falter when the Queen asks what they have to shew. There were many manifestations . of this kind ; and one distinguished contributor, a manufacturer of warlike weapons too, fainted from excitement.” The Queen and Prince Albert with a numerous party of royal and noble guests from Windsor Castle visited Ascot races both days. The Queen’s Gold Vase was won by Mr. Greville s Cariboo, and the Emperor of Russia’s Plihe by Mr. Campbell’s Woolwich. Despatches were received, June 5, at the Colonial Office from the Governor of New Zealand. Her Majesty had graciously signified her intention of honouring the corporation of the city of London with her presence at a grand banquet to take place at Guildhall on the 2nd July in commemoration of the Exhibition of all Nations. The entertainment is be conducted on a scale of novelty and splendour surpassing any thing that has probably been seen within the walls of Guildhall, and conveying to the distinguished foreigners who will be present a tolerable proof of the wealth and liberality of the greatest city in the world. The invitations will include the Royal and Foreign Princes, Her Majesty’s Ministers, the Heads of both Houses of Parliament, the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition, the Executive Council, and if room can be obtained, the Mayors of the United Kingdom. It is thought that little short of two thousand persons will be present. The foreign jurors, the foreign commissioners, the members of the royal commission, the executive committee and the staff of the exhibition were expected to be present to a a banquet to be given to them on 16th June, at Birmingham, whither they had been invited to inspect the most remarkable manufactures of that great town. Among eminent persons recently deceased are the Earl of Shaftesbury,-chairman of the

committee of the House of Lords at his country residence in Dorsetshire, aged S 3, and R. Lalor Shiel Esq. at Florence on the 25th May in his 60th year. The select committee of the House of Commons on steam communication with India, &c., decided, June 3rd, by a majority, as we understand, of 11 to 5, ih favour of the route vid the Cape of Good Hope, as the most eligible for postal communication with Australia. The success of the screw steamers in performing the mail contract to the Cape has doubtless had considerable influence on this recommendetion but to form an opinion with regard to it the printed evidence, which will be furnished, must be carefully analysed. It is stated that the General Screw Steam Ship Company have offered to undertake the extended service, and to commence it early in 1852.— Times. At the half-yearly meeting of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company it was stated that the Pasha of Egypt had arranged for the construction of a railway (for the improvement of the transit route through his territory) which, under the superintendence of Mr. Stephenson will, it is expected, be completed in about two years. A grand festival had been held at Berlin on 31st May, for tjje inauguration of the statue of Frederick the Great which had been erected in that capital by the present king of Prussia. Among others who assisted at the ceremony, which was conducted with great military pomp, were eighty aged soldiers who bad served under the great king, the junior of the party being not less than four score years old. It is an equestrian statue seventeen feet three inches high, on a granite pedestal 25 feet in height, presenting on each face bronze groups of the great military commanders of the seven years war, on foot and horseback all the size of life, with has reliefs emblematic of different periods of the monarch’s life. The whole composition, which is very highly spoken of as a work of art, is the production of Christian Rauch the Sculptor. A line of Steam Packets was to be established between New York and Galway. The first vessel the North America was to leave New York positively on the 17th June for Galway, and was expected to make the passage in eight days and .a half, and it was reported would carry over about 150 passengers. It was expected that the railway between Galway and Dublin would be completed on the Ist August. A serious accident occurred to Mr. and Mrs. Graham the celebrated aeronauts who ascended from the Hippodrome at Bayswater on the 16th June. Al the appointed time the balloon rose gently, and ascended about twenty feet above the top of a pole which surmounted the building, but suddenly descended rapidly upon the pole which made a large aperture in the balloon. The grappling irons were then thrown out, but there was nothing to hold by, and the balloon drifted away towards the Chrystal Palace, when great fears were entertained for the safety of a portion of that building and of those who were inside. At the time alluded to there were between 35,000 and 40,000 persons in the building, when the balloon was directly over the transept of the Exhibition. The aeronauts seeing the fearfully dangerous position in which they were placed, let out the whole of their ballast on the roof of the Palace. At this time the grappling irons were within a few feet of the summit of the transept, and if a hold had been obtained, a vast mass of the building must have been torn away ; the Chrystal Palace however was at length cleared with the destruction of some of the flagstaffs. The balloon then drifted towards Grosvenor Gate and thence to Arlington street, when the grappling irons caught the parapet of Colonel North s house, and a gust of wind arising, the balloon again slightly ascended, bearing away by means of the renewed force imparted to it heavy coping stones and a large portion of the parapet, hurling them on the roof through which they descended into the staircase and hall below. Several other stacks of chimnies were knocked down, breaking in the roofs of the houses on which they fell, until the car of the balloon became firmly jammed between two blocks the chimnies of which had been torn away, when its further progress was arrested. Mr. and Mrs. Graham were thrown from the car on the roof of the house and received very severe injuries. The damage done to the different houses was estimated at £IOOO. THE EXHIBITION. The Exhibition becomes more popular from day to day. The question asked some months ago was, Shall the Crystal Palace ever be pulled down? The reply was enthusiastically in the negative. The question now is, Shall the treasures of the Exhibition be dispersed ? There is a general feeling, growing in intensity, that the assemblage of articles now classified together in the long avenues, spacious courts, and elegant galleries of that marvellous edifice ought to remain, a permanent source of instruction and delight to the people

of all ranks and classes—a living museum of the arts and industry of the living world. It seems likely that funds will not be wanting for the purpose, and that, after all expenses are paid, sufficient will remain to keep up the building, and to purchase the most important articles exhibited. Such a result, which no one was sanguine enough to imagine a few months ago, is now considered by sober people as highly desirable, and not at all impracticable. There remains but another step in the progress of opinion to be made, and then we shall have the realization of Mr. Paxton’s idea, of a gratuitous admission of the people on certain specified days. The cosmopolitan aspect of London is striking. We have not only the Illustrated London News in French and German, appealing to the sympathies of our guests in their own language, and telling them all about the Exhibition and other matters, but the daily papers are interlarded with French and German articles. With a kind regard for the stranger, our police and other authorities have become as polyglot as the press. An announcement in the Strand directs the German to the “Eisenbahn,” and the Frenchman to the “Cheminde Fer.’’ The Government aids the good work of fraternization, and throws open the arsenal at Woolwich, and the great national dockyards to the inspection of strangers.; and our great nobles throw open their picture galleries and parks to the visits of the people generally, whether native or foreign. The city of London is about to entertain the Foreign Commissioners. The artists of England have given a public dinner to Herr Kiss and the other foreign artists and sculptors, whose works have tended so greatly to the beauty and utility of the Exhibition; and other festivities of a similar kind are spoken of. All these ciicumstances are new and cheering, and are among the minor amenities for which we have to be grateful to the Great Exhibition.

One of the most curious applications of physical knowledge of the present day is that of fixing Newton’s soap bubble. Every child must have observed that when a soap bubble is blown, it becomes thinner and thinner, and exhibits the most beautiful irridiscent colours till it bursts, and thereby vanishes into the air. To Mr. De la Rue, sen., belongs the merit of not only having conceived the idea, but also of having, by his own ingenuity and delicacy of manipulation, fixed this iridiscent bubble, and then rendered it applicable for the arts. To this purpose he uses a little varnish, into which are inserted various other substances. A few drops of this are allowed to thin, till it covers the water and becomes iridiscent, when by dexterous manipulation the object to be covered is raised from the basin, and draws with it the delicate film, which possesses all the properties of a soap bubble. The name he has given to this glorious triumph of physical philosophy is “Opaline;” and having been greatly interested with the specimens shewn at his stall, we have been favoured with a sight of other specimens, which have been made for different purposes. In future years, the visiting card is destined to be as brilliant as the brightest mother-of-pearl, or the richly-coloured Haliotus. Our walls are to be papered with iridiscent colours, which vie with the natural hues of the birds and butterflies which flit about the tropical groves. The -colours upon these papers are of the same kind with the colours on the wings of the Emperor of Morocco butterfly, the most beautiful beetle, or the brightest shell; and, curiously enough, the invention is one of the few human productions which will bear the microscope, and still gain, instead of losing, by the more minute examination.

At the western end of the building is Count Dunin’s expanding model of a man. The cause of its manufacture is sufficientlyromantic. Having in early life become involved in the cause of the insurrection of the Poles, he was banished the country; but, being desirous of again visiting his fatherland, and enjoying the estate of his ancestors, he betook himself to mechanical pursuits, that he might expiate his offence, real or imaginary, against the Emperor of Russia, by shewing that he might be useful to the country if he were restored.—The figure represents a man five feet high, in the proportions of the Apollo Belvidere, and from that size the figure can be proportionally increased to six feet eight inches ; ana, as it is intended to facilitate the clothing of an army, it is so constructed as to be capable of adjustment in every part to the particular proportions of each individual. To obtain this result, the most complex contrivances are required, and the number of springs, screws, and other movements, render it a marvel of human ingenuity. The tailors regard it with admiration, but its costliness of construction renders it an instrument too expensive for them to purchase. It is a marvellous sight to see the model expand, and it is well deserving a careful inspection. The mechanism is composed of 875 framing pieces, 48 grooved steel plates, 163 wheels.

202 slides, 476 metal washers, 482 spiral springs, 702 sliding plates, 497 nuts, 8500 fixing and adjusting screws, with numerous steadying pins, so that the number of pieces is upwards of 70,000. — Illustrated News.