ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 38, 27 September 1851, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

Pabliamentauy.—From the excellent summary given in the English Spectator we gather the following parliamentary information for the short period between the departures of the " Bangalore " and of the " Lady Nugent." The termination oi the wrangle about the

1 Ecclesiastical Titles Bill seemed as remote as 1 ever. The " Irish Brigade," whose pranks we noticed last week, appear to have temporarily succumbed, when the bill was unexpectedly allowed to slip, into Committee. But they returned to their obstructive work with renewed vigour at the next meeting of the House. This kind of opposition was rebuked and remonstrated against by the Earl of Arundel and Mr. Roebuck. Mr. Duncombe moved the postponement of the first clause until the papal brief it refers to should be put in formally as evidence. This was likely to prove a serious clog to the progress of the bill. The difficulty of proving the document under which the several sees were assumed, is understood to have prevented recourse to the courts of law in the outset. Mr. W. J. Fox had again brought forward the

subject of secular education, moving the establishment of free schools for the purpose, supported by local rates, and managed by local committees. The motion was negatived by a large majority, but the temper of the debate was less discouraging than the division. Mr. Adderley, breaking loose from the associations of party, declared his cordial agreement with Mr. Fox's proposal; the tone of the opposition was exceedingly moderate, and gave some indications of a compromise being ultimately effected. Mr. Lacey's Bill for compelling the registration of religious houses, and empowering the district magistrates to visit without notice and release any of the inmates who might desire it, was thrown out of the Commons, Government declaring that no proof had been given of the forcible detention of persons in such houses

which the bill was intended to prevent,

On the question of the Kaffir war, the Chancellor of the Exchequer intimated that the hill

of costs for the war was swelling apace, and expressed a fear that he might be compelled to ask for a sum beyond the 300,000/. already voted.

The House of Lords, after a long interval of idleness, at last received from its masters, the Commons, something like business to transact. The second reading of the Episcopal and Capitular Estates Bill, for effecting a compromise between church owners and church lessees, and embodying the recommendations to that end issued by the Royal Commissioners in 1849, was carried by a majority of 46 to 28. The last part of the Bill gives the whole episcopal property into the hands of commissioners, for them to re-distribute it in more equal endowments. The second reading in the Lords of the Income Tax Bill, in which the duration of the impost has been limited to one year, afforded Lord Stanley an opportunity of safe display, it being agreed on all hands that the bill, as a money bill, must be passed unaltered, or not at all, and that to reject it was out of the question, his lordship indulged his critical mood boldly, a course from which he would probably have shrunk had a vote depended upon his arguments.

The Exhibition.—We extract from the " Illustrated London News" the following- paragraphs relative to the great object of both public and private interest -.—

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 rants 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 of the 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 strikingl. 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 " Chemin de Fei\" 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 sculptors and artists, 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 circumstances are new and cheering, and are among the minor amenities for which we have to be grateful to the Great Exhibition.

Bat che Great Exhibition has its unpopular as well as its popular side. City merchants and their correspondents say that it has " killed business" for the season, and they grumble accordingly. The caterers for public amusement are still louder in their complaints. The theatres do not iill; panoramas —of which the name is legion, and which succeed each other more rapidly than memory can keep pace with them —are losing speculations; and people are so busy with the one Great Exhibition, that they cannot encourage any minor ones, or find time for them if they would. But all these things will right themselves. Business cannot be "killed" when so much money is spent and spending; and although it is possible it may have slept for awhile, it is certain that it will awake in due season. As for public amusements, we believe that there is a chance even for the panoramas.

One of the most curious applications of physical knowledge of the present clay 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 iridiscent colours till it bursts, and thereby vanishes into the air. To Mr. De la Rue, sen., belongs the merit of not only havinoconceived 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 richlycoloured 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.

In Class 29 of the collection of Agricultural Machines, &c. is placed an elaborate model of Mr. Mechi's farm at Tiptree, Essex. All the roofs are moveable, and the machinery and other details may be closely inspected.

At the western end of the Building is Count Dunin's expanding model of a man. "The cause of its manufacture is sufficiently romantic. 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 ; and, as it is intended to facilitate the clothing of an army, it is so constructed as to he 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. California disappoints us dreadfully. We were promised specimens of the golden ore in sand and in quartz, of the rude machinery for gold washing and gold refining ; and examples of the many precious stones in which the true El Dorado is said to abound. We have, however, as yet, nothing except a machine for crushing gold-seamed quartz, and 1001b of quicksilver, contributed by a gentlemen from the unromantic locality of Old Burlington Street, London. A great lump of zinc occupies one conspicuous position, and, in another, a huge mass of copper ore from Lake Superior. One side of this Lake Superior district is, we believe, in British American, and the other in republican American territory. It is, perhaps, after the South Australian Burra Burra, the richest copper in the world. Mining, in the proper sense of the term, is scarcely needed. Ample quantities of nearly pure copper are to be obtained by simply digging. At present, however, the value of the richness of the ore is neutralized by the impediments in the way of conveyance to a market over the barren, rocky, swampy region which environs it for nearly 300 miles. The French department is at length beginning to make a display worthy of the nation which assumes, not without reason, to set an example of taste in all manufactures susceptible of artistic treatment.

A great deal still remains to be done. The galleries are only half furnished, and the hammer and saw are still at work in the bays leading from the great avenue; but enough has been arranged to attract and rivet the attention of crowds who had begun to fear that France had retired from the field.