ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 658, 22 November 1851, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The Queen's visit to the City.—On Wednesday, July 9, her Majesty, Queen Victoria, witbher royal consort, Prince Albert, left Buckingham Palace at nine o’clock to receive an entertainment in the Guildha’l, to which she had been invited by the Lord Mayor and corporation of the City of London, in celebration of the successful results of the Great Exhibition of Industry. The entertainment may be described as an evening party, a ball, and supper. To the first, the guests began to arrive at half-past six ; tea, coffee, and other refreshments were supplied during the evening in the adjoining apartments to the guests, and at half-past nine a flourish of trumpets and the cheers of the crowds who had tuionged the line of route f „ ~ TXT - . _ I . .» « i •. a.viu »»rsuuiosier, tnrougn me otranu to rue Guildhall, announced the near approach of her Majesty and suite. They arrived in eight carriages. The Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Abercorn, and Lord E. Howard were iu the party, the Duke being in the same carriage as the Queen and Prince Albert. Her Majesty wore a white satin dress, embroidered in gold, trin med with gold, silver, and white satin ribbons, tidily ornamented with diamonds. The head-dress was composed of poppies, golden oat and wheat ears, ornamented with diamonds. The ceremony of reception by the Lord Mayor being over, and the Queen having passed up the centre of the hall and taken her seat on the throne, the company, which could not have numbered much less than 3000, began slowly to defile before her, making their obeisances as they passed. This tedious process was enlivened by a quadrille, danced by special command. Precisely at twelve o’clock the Queen and her suite left the hall and proceeded to the crypt, where a very splendid banquet was prepared. Her Majesty retired at half-past twelve. After the departure of her Majesty, dancing, which was only partial during the evening, was commenced in the Guildhall, and the other apartments provided with bauds, and it was broad daylight before the majority of the guests could be induced to withdraw from the brilliant and festive scene around them. The illuminations on the line of road were magnificent. At the Oxford Commemoration, the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon

the Right Rev. A. Ewing, D.D., Bishop of Argyle and the isles ; Sir W. Page Wood, Knt. F.R.S., Sir B. C. Brodie,Bart., F.R.S.; Lieutenant-Colonel F. R. Chesney, Royal Artillery; the Ven. W. Williams, of Magdalen Hall, Archdeacon of Waiapu, in New Zealand. Despatches were received July Gth at the Colonial Office from the Governor of New Zealand. It has been stated in the House of Commons, that the Bishop of Gloucester had so ordered his renewals of leases, that in proportion as bis family will benefit after his decease, so will the Church lose. The committee on the Law of Mortmain haying occasion for the evidence of Cardinal Wiseman on certain points, requested his attendance before them, but that dignitary, shrinking from the upleasant task, sent bi* solicitor to appear in his stead. Some questions relative to the amount of propertv vested in the Cardinal for the purposes of his Church having been evaded by the professional gentleman, who refuted to answer them as involving a breach of confidence on his pan, orders were given to summon his Eminence officially and peremptorily, but he, not liking the interference of the too inquisitive committee, discovered that be had a Chapel to consecrate in Jersey, and some other equally pressing reasons for extending bis journey to Belgium, thus baffling the vigilance of the Serjeant-at-Arms. The commission named in Portugal to examine the reclamations of Don Pacifico have declared them to be entirely without foundation, and decided that if be had lost any papers at Athens, their value could not have exceeded £l5O. r T’L -J y • « spicuuiu museum collected by the late Earl of Derby has, in accordance with his instructions, been presented by the present Earl to the town of Liverpool. Monsieur Daguerre, the celebrated inventor of the Daguerreotype, died lately at Brie, a village near Paris.

Two men named William Canty and John Tyler have been committed for the robbery of the London and Westminster Bank. Canty appears to have been notorious for having been concerned in several’of the most noted Bank robberies. It is stated in the police report that -“A retired police-officer who has had a very intimate acquaintance with him professionally, haa-deciAted to the bench that his belief is tbst Canty has had not less than £500,000 of property, consisting of jewels and bank notes, through his hands during the last 30 years. Some of the ‘trifles’ in which Canty was more or less concerned in or privy to, are the £50,000 bank note and bill robbery at Messrs. Rogers & Co. He admitted very recently to .one of the detectives that he had all the notes in his possession for 18 days. He was also concerned in the well known custom House robbery, in which booty to the extent of £40,000 was obtained. The robbery at Sir John Penhorn’s bank was “ put up by Canty, the robbery having been effected by his Companion, Jackson, since transported for a robbery at St. Pancras Workhouse. The Andover mail robbery, and the Bath banx robbery also had the benefit of Canty’s experience. Canty has also declared to the police that the recent South Western gold dust robbery was “put up,” by him and he knows that not a grain of the dust has been touched as yet. It is stated that Canty has not lived at the rate of less than £2OOO a-year .or many years past. The Exhibition.—This still continues an object of interest—the majority of the visitors, however, being from the country. The building is daily inundated with admiring crowds, who seem to divide their time pretty fairly between the sight seeing and the refreshmemt courts. The place is one vast refectory during ihe day, every remote nook and corner, as well as the ample space of the open courts, being filled with hungry travellers. The sale of bread and cold meat is allowed and practised, a bountiful supply being obtainable for sevenpence. Although the committee, in the exercise of a sound discretion, have excluded malt and vinous liquors from tb.e place, stone jars and bottles are stowed away, and carried about all day, to ensure a “ drop of beer’ at meal time. The more temperate and economical resort to the fountains, which are generally surrounded by hundreds. The numbers of bottles of ginger beer and similar drinks opened during the day, in the central department alone, average between seven and eight thousand bottles. If we add to this the large quantity consumed in the eastern and western refreshment rooms, we may lorm some idea of the activity and energy displayed in ibis department of the Exhibition. Out of doors the great business of life goes on with equal briskness. Cantoniers and vivandiers perambulate in front of the different entrances with little casks slung across their shoulders containing sherbet or lemonade at a halfpenny a glass. Down Knightsbridge, on either side, the shops have been in almo.-t

' into eating houses and stripes and stars, the the union jack, and the uoat in friendly rivalry side by side without, as well as within, the Exhibition. Woe betide the unfortunate wight who ventures through this region on foot. He is beset by waiters and touters in one continuous line announcing a list of tempting dishes a| some ridiculously low sum, but which the result proves to be the full value of the entertainment. However, travellers must ear, and from the princely Symposium of Gore House, down to the tavern just set up under the nose of Apsley House, all are fully tenanted ; and our only surprise is, that with such an enormous additional consumption, beef and mutton are not half a-crown a pound. Mr. Hobbs, the American locksmi’h, intends in the course of a day or two, io iuvite the attendance of a number of persons connected with the Exhibition”—aulO.ig V.'l'.OUl IS Mr. Commissioner Mayne—-when he will undertake to pick and open any locks that may be submitted to him. The issue of the challenge is looked to with considerable interest by all persons engaged in the lock trade. The process of examining the interior structure of locks, and the mode of operating upon them, are of extreme simplicity, and there is scarcely any person who, after having witnessed the mode adopted, would doubt his own ability to pick almost any lock that might be laid before him.

Among the more interesting incidents of the day on Monday, was the arrival of Mr. Gladstone, M.P., accompanied by 50 of the poor male parishoners of the parish in which he resides ; the same number of female parishioners having, a few days ago, received a similar kindness from Mrs. Gladstone. Four hundred boys belonging to the upper school at Greenwich also arrived during the day, their expenses having been paid by the Lords of the Admiralty. We understand that public entertainments in connection with the Exhibition are in contemplation in Norwich, Nottingham, and others of our large manufacturing towns, Mr. Paxton will be honoured with a public entertainment at Derby on the 4th of next month, and a fete upon a magnificent scale, to which all the foreign ex will be invited, is in contemplation by the Botanical Society. Il is in contemplation, in order to admit of the Exhibition being closed at that time, to give increased facilities to visitors by lighting ; up the building in the evening. To persons occupied during the day, this arrangement will be a great boon, and it will enable many thousands to visit the Exhibition who would otherwise be completely prevented from so ■doing.

The removal of the glass from the eastern and western extremities of the building and the sides of the transept has had the effect of reducing the temperature considerably, the highest point attained during the first two days of the week being 77 degrees, notwithstanding the large numbers who literally blocked up the avenues. It is observed that wherever the police interfere actively with the circulation, an immediate congestion is the consequence, while, when the people are left to themselves, they get on as comfortably as could be expected in such a crowd. The only man who seems to understand the marshalling of the eager sight seekers is a little foreigner who stands at the entrance of the Milan sculpture room, and who, with a graceful wave of the band, moves me uiosi obese visitors with wonderful celerity. Among the various benefits likely to result from the Exhibition, the establishment of public waiting rooms” in the metropolitan thoroughfares occupies a very important place. The want of such conveniences bas long been 'felt, but the difficulties to be encountered in securing them appeared almost insurmountable. Various attempts have been unsuccessfully made by the Commissioners of Sewers atiu other bodies. At last the Execut ve Committee and the Society of Arts took the matter up, and it was determined that the disposition of the public to support these conveniences should be fairly tested in the Crystal Palace. During the month of May £228 was taken for the retiring rooms ; and in the last ten days of the month, £l6 10s. 6|d for the washing-rooms.

T-he project of a winter garden is rapidly gaining ground in public opinion. The Marylebone petition has already received 38,000 signatures, and similar demonstrations are progressing in other districts. But as an opposition is a thipg essential to the English constitution, a party, small but active, is strenuously setting itself against the general feeling of the public. From being composed chiefly of the inhabitants of the houses on the opposite side of the road, who feel annoyed that regiments of omnibuses should daily pass “ between the wind and their nobility," it is called in the gossip of the Crystal Palace the *’ Prince’s Gate party,” and its members are straining every nerve to get signatures to hostile petitions, but hitherto with very indiffer-

ent success. The fact is, that the public are determined to preserve the Crystal Palace, and it is only their conviction that it will not come down that prevents the most active demonstrations. z