LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 683, 18 February 1852, Page 4

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS.

[From the Lyttelton Timet, February 14.] At the time when our latest arrivals left the old country, every one in it was making holiday, except those whom dire necessity or delusion chained to their allotted tasks. The Queen, who is always the first object of an Englishman’s public idolatry, and who was last heard of amid the mountain and glen scenery of Aberdeenshire, had resigned its poetry for the more prosaic associations of the region of manufacture and mercantile enterprise, and was making her progress through Lancashire. The route brought the royal party first to the ancient borough of Lancaster. The ceremonies of addresses and kissing hands being over, the Queen inspected the Castle keep, and then proceeded to Croxteth Hall, the. seat of the Earl and Countess of Sefton where she rested for the night. Liverpool, that northern London, was next visited by Her Majesty. The last occasion of a royal visit to Liverpool was in the reign of William 111, upwards of IGO years ago, but how different the circumstances! 1 hen, it was to conciliate a people, many’ of whom regarded their visitor as an usurper, while the rest were naturally doubtful, though hopeful, of the real benefits to result from the change of sovereigns ; now, to experience the homage of a people established in peace, and practising its arts, loyal and full of heroic affection for their Queen. The weather was, however, not so propitious as it usually is, and the rain fell heavily, notwithstanding which Her Majesty took a cruise of an hour upon the Mersey in the Fairy steam yacht, gaining thereby a view of the vast maritime resources of Liverpool. Sfter the presentation of an address in the Town Hall, the honour of knighthood was conferred upon the Lord Mayor, and Her Majesty proceeded by the London and North WestenaßaTlway to Particroft, and along the Bnugejva'ier Cmal in a state barge to residence of the Earl of Ellesmere, IlgKe she was greeted, among other mamfesWuons, with the cheers of 4,000 or 5,000 men employed on the Ellesmere estates, families. After dining, the Queen visited Salford, the Peel Park, (where the children of the national schools sung the national anthem,) and Manchester, conferred upon the Mayor

of Manchester, John Potter, Esq., the dignity of knighthood, and returned to Worsley Hall, whence she departed on the following morning for Windsor.

Among the many incidents of this progress, it may be mentioned that while the Queen was at Worsley, Mr. State, the patentee of the electric light, attended, and threw a bright moon into the shade by his brilliant illumination of the atmosphere. The Exhibition. —The provincial journals narrate, prior to the closing of the Exhibition, numerous instances of extravagant enthusiasm on the part of people determined to see it at any cost. One pawnbroker at Gloucester received in pawn no less than 100 wedding-rings, and ten beds, the proceeds of each being to defray the expences of a trip to London. The Custom-House authorities anticipate an arduous task in repacking the foreign goods. They came over in about 12,000 packages, from 3,000 or 4,000 different workshops, and must now be repacked in a given time. About one fourth of the whole will find purchasers in England.

Two notable additions were made to the United States’ department. The first was the Maynard primer, a substitution for the percussion cap, which is simply a coil of paper at intervals in which spots of detonating powder are placed. The action of the dogbead carries out from the chamber in which it is contained, this cheap and self-acting substitute for the ordinary gun apparatus, which is a vast economy in expence as well as in time. In its character the invention is one which admits of being easily adapted to every description of fire-arms at present commonly in ase, and that at a trifling cost. The other addition was a service of gold plate, presented to Mr. Collins, of steam navigation celebrity, by the city of New York, and the metal composing which was, only three months ago, still lying undiscovered in the diggings of California. Within that period, the gold has been found, brought to New York, and manufactured without alloy, by Messrs Ball, Tompkins, and Black, into a series of articles highly creditable to their good taste. There is nothing in the Exhibition at all comparable to the auriferous brilliancy of colour which this Californian plate possesses. 3he Custom House valuation of the service is £lOOO.

One of the patent bank Jocks which Mr. Hobbs recommends is at present in the hands of an opert English mechanic, whois endeavouring to pick it, Mr. Hobbs has, it is said, afforded to our countryman every facility that was at all reasonable, and has even handed over to him another lock exactly similar to that on which he is operating, in order that he may have the most complete means for examining the principle on which it is constructed. Punch asks if the Koh-i-Noor is sale while Mr. Hobbs is in the country.

Mr. Bennett, of Cbeapside, who placed forty of his standard thermometers in various parts of the building, has published an account of the variations of the temperature therein, made from numerous observations. During the month of May and for -j part of June the mean temperatures continued below their average values as much as 4 deg. Fahrenheit; on the 19th of June there was a sudden rise, amounting to 10 deg. This was a shilling day, with 63,853 visitors, and matters continued to grow worse till the 26th, when the mean temperature was 78'6, or two degrees above summer heat. On. that day. at 4.p.m. the thermometer at the north-east corner of the gallery, among the wax flowers, registered 97‘. In consequence of the inconvenience and suffering to which the heated state of the atmosphere gave rise, vigorous means were adopted in order to secure better ventilation, and with such success, that since the 7th of July, when the changes made were completed, the temperature of the building has been well under the control of the authorities. The Executive Committee had given the Messrs. Dickinson, of New Bond-street, permission to exhibit a most brilliant series o r sketches, made for them by Mr. Nash, and forming part of a large collection, in the preparation of which Mr. Lewis Hague, and Mr. David Roberts, R.A., are also associated. These sketches are intended to perpetuate the aspect of the different portions of the building without relation to specific objects, now that the whole display has terminated, and, as they will be lithographed in colours, the internal arrangements, and most striking pictorial effects of the Exhibition will thus be preserved with a fidelity for which the names of the artists employed afford a sufficient guarantee.

The work of destruction has fairly commenced, and already a great quantity of the richest and most valuable of the more portable articles are removed, and the fittings are rapidly disappearing from the more prominent positions. The first removal was the crystal fountain, to make way for the erection of the platform on which the final act of the Royal Commission in immediate connexion with the

Exhibition itself was to be enacted ; and soon the removals became almost painfully apparent. Landing stages for goods are erected at all the doors, and carriages, hack-ney-coaches, and omnibusses, give way to carts and waggons exteriorly, while order, silks, and broad-cloth, are replaced by disorder and fustian jackets. The complete work of clearing the building will take some time, but the rapidity with which the wotk has been commenced promises to shorten it very considerably. The closing was not permitted to be of so very ordinary and business-like a character as certainly was intended by the authorities, although they subsequently sanctioned an arrangement by which all the organs should at a given signal commence playing “God save the Queen” at five o’clock, and a corps of singers were extemporised, and a good effect was produced by this spontaneous outbreak of feeling. Every one seemed unwilling to give up his place in the building, and it took a considerable time to clear it, notwithstanding the persevering efforts of the bell-ring-ers and gong-players, the latter of whom thrashed their instruments with more than usual energy. On tbe'last day but one 4G,913 persons entered the building, and the receipts were £4914 Is. 61.; and on the last the numbers were 53,061 visitors. The total receipts, in round numbers, reach £500,000, and the number of visitors amounts to six millions. There is one little fact which does not redound to the credit of the well-to-do classes, and that is, that £9O in bad money was taken at the doors, with the exception of one halfsovereign, entirely in half-crowns, no bad shillings having been taken, or so few as not to be worth naming. This latter fact is a most significant proof of honesty in the humbler classes, whilst the former tells fearfully against the want of it in those who know and ought to do better.

The weather was most unpropitious : this, together with the absence of her Majesty, whom everybody seems determined to expect should be present, although it was distinctly announced that she would not be, tended to cast a degree of gloom over the business which accorded with the feelings of many who were present. The rush for tickets of admission showed how earnestly every one felt, in their desire to bid adieu to so much that had tended to enlighten, instruct, and gratify them ; and this was fully confirmed by the numbers who were present in spite of the weather. As regards the ceremony itself little can be said, inasmuch as it was nothing more than the recognition of a principle, and was got over as rapidly, and with as little formality, as circumstances would allow. That thanksgiving which was urged as a fitting completion of the prayer and blessing of the Ist of May, was duly rendered, and the silent and respectful attention of more than 50,000 persons, whilst it was offered up by the Bishop of London, was something worth seeing and remembering, in connexion with the marked success which has attended this great undertaking. The final visits of her Majesty, the Prince and the youthful Princes and Princesses’ proved most conclusively, if required, the deep interest they took in the Exhibition. It was only at twelve o’clock on Tuesdav, when the exhibitors and their privileged friends were rapidly filling the building, that her Majesty ami the Prince, accompanied by the Princesses, took their final leave of a display from which they have derived so much gratifica'ion and instruction ; and through which they have been enabled to knit still closer those ties of affection which so happily bind them to the people.

The exhibitors’ days were marked by much intensity of examination. There was no lounging; everyone seemed determined to see all he could during the brief time allowed for doing so; and certainly many persons contrived to see much more than they had ever before seen in one day.

Every one now seems desirous to get rid of all responsibilities as quickly as possible. The jury reports are rather flung before the public than properly presented. The organization for the removal of the goods seems calculated to make very quick, if not very sure, work of the distribution, and in a few weeks all will be a memory of the past. Whether the palace itself was to share the fate of its contents, was long a doubtful and an interesting question. We believe that all doubt is now at an end upon this point, and that although the press, with a rare unanimity, was loudly an‘d earnestly in favour of retaining it as a permanent addition to the few public buildings in London of which an Englishman cares to boast, and although the people were convinced that such au°act ef Vandalism as its demolition was so incredible that they did not even take the trouble to petition or remonstrate against the designs or whims of the few who entertained a contrary opinion—the building must come down. The fiat of destruction appears to have gone forth,

and we suppose that in a few months tl tering palace of iron and gl ass t - 16 $l- - and remarkable building in th 6 ®° Jt will be ns entirely a thing of the past 6 ice-palace of the Empress of R Us ’- thawed in the summer sun, or the h* at garden and glittering halls of a BabT 8 shorn of its glory three thousand vear= The sale of the Illustrated News ], creased since the opening of the Exl'l’-I’* 1 ’* by 20,00 copies. During the period Vi 0 ’ published no less than 773 engravings o f. rious scenes and articles. One of its sun ments alone cost £l2OO. e ” The Eurine, Captain Evans, arrived Southampton on Saturday. Amongst Z passengers was his Excellency Skefiahßl an ambassador from Persia to the Coun"' St. James. As an accredited ambassa/ from the Court of Teheran is but rarely in this country, considerable interest is 56 '” tached to the arrival of his Excellency, u" is a fine handsome man, about forty -,- ssr -,« i • I ' * a 8 OlQ'jp He was dressed in the costly and pictures'’' costume worn by the highest ranks in Persj/ The sleeves and collar of his coat wereorna mented with gold embroidery ; the clasp his girdle was studded with diamonds, and brilliant star was suspended on his breast lie wore the high conical cap of his country He was accompanied by a dragoman and a servant. An extensive suite accompanied him from Persia to Turkey, nearly the whole of which he took leave of at Constantinople On arriving at Southampton, the ambassador claimed the courtesies from the Government authorities invariably accorded to the accredits! representatives of foreign countries ' Unfortunately, however, the Custom-house authorities had received no notice of his an-' ticipated arrival, nor any Treasury order to pass his baggage, consisting of about 30 packages, without examination. His Excel, lency stated that Sir Stratford Canning, out ambassador at Constantinople, was aware oil his mission to England, and ha ' engaged to acquaint the English Government with it, Of course, all the courtesy which the authorities at Southampton could show the ambassador, consistent with their imperative du. ties, was shown him, and telegraphic announcements to the Government departments in London were sent by them, stating the arrival of the ambassador, and soliciting immediate instructions how tract. His Excellency, however, left Southampton for London by an early train, apparently displeased with his reception at Southampton, and leaving all his baggage in the possession of the Cus-tom-house authorities. At the Southampton railway station, the railway autlioiiti-s paid him every respect, and the superintendent of the station gave him a coupe for himself and the secretary. After their departure, orders were received from the Government to allow him all the rights and privileges accorded to ambassadors of the highest rank. 'File gold news had been abundantly confirmed. The Thomas Arbuthnot, which took the first cargo, arrived on the 28th September, and lumps of the metal were exhibited the next morning in various parts of the metropolis. It is said that “ with the lull confirmation of the gold news, Australian gold mining associations will probably start up io England, as the repugnance felt to embarking capital in societies whose agentsand vvorkme l ' are de facto beyond (he control of the shareholders, in a country where the restraints of the law are little felt, as in (he case of Cali-' tomia, will no longer be experienced," The Victoria Reyia water-lily continues flowering beautifully in the open pond at Messrs. Week’s nursery, King’s Road, Chelsea. The whole plant has a gigantic appearance, having twenty leaves, each leaf twentyfeet in circumference, and the foot stalks thirteen feet in length. Several distinguished persons, amongst them Sir William Jackson Hooker, are of opinion that the plant grows equally as well in the open air as under a glass stiucture. In a recent number of the Literary Gazette, it was stated that M. Simonides, 8 Greek sauruff, had discovered in the old papers of a Greek convent an indication that the original MS. of the “Acts of the Apostles,” was buried in an island in the Sea of Marmora. We now learn that a search has been made in the spot pointed out, and that it has led to the discovery, not of the “Acts, but a copy of one of Aristotle’s treatises, and a map of the islands. They appear to bsve been interred by a monk about the year 1204.