MANCHESTER AND ITS GUEST.
Tore event of the age is one that has not yet happened, bit is g,oing to happen ; the North of England already feels its indluelee--a re- fraction of the rising sun senne(Weeks before the event def come to pass. Queen 'Victoria is to visit- Manchester, or rather Alladhester is to be visited by Queen Victoria. Now Manchester is a very II, its.!#eikkre plain men, Proud of their solid- . The gemus'offragehes- ter resides in its unadorned factories=those palaces of hick and whitewash. Manchester takes a sensible view Of -.tittligiL4Litilej treme, not aristocratic, nor servile; it tests :things:bylielrilSefur-, ness; their safe mediocrity, their profitableness .:' But noW", thii plain! utilitarian Manchester is undergOing, an i'lidiabeen undergong ferl
several weeks, a perfect paroxysm of unprecedentee, paralleled, indescribable. The parosz. ..; .AeiFed upon the-mholW surrounding district. We have seek'senie such fever Wort, at,, other times and in other parts of England : when loyallyipernits: its exorbitant sun to shed a passing gleitilion the scene,"thewitole world is usually wearied with details of thelihmnothenen. tails may be always the Same, but it is not SHthe same to the
cigar place brought out for the hour into conspicuous faille liyAbe brilliancy, of the passing light. 'As 9 a dull,'• grey, prosy kind of day, a passing gleam of sunshine maYsl:ie iseenJoitriiverse the Side of the mountaini, picking out village after village -in single:and momentary brilliancy, so does the passing splendour of royalty show forth each country-town. For the moment, the eyeS4 iht world are -open Eatandswill; or Little Peddlington, or Pendleton,`{ and in an ecstasy of self-importance, a burst of gratitude aeknaW= ledges the fountain of all honour : the wind' of fAttleTeddlingL ton reflect' the passing sun, and the please d hiliabitkits'think, ifi the local pride Of their hearts, that theirivinde*Sashesfean almost, on occasion, equal in responsive aplenclotitlfie,IAM itself. : But of all local localities Manchester is the one that takes lliiii local illustriousness most ecstatically to heart, - With practised ex- perience in commercial credit, the whole pf the-enjoyment is dis- counted, by anticipation. Prophetic descriptions ;vie With the minute accounts of "our own reporter" elsewhere:in minuteness and elaboration. As usual, Manchester'excels ; so does Liverpool-; So does Pendleton, and all that belongs 'to-Manchester; so does Toxteth, and all that belongs to Liverpool. Elsewhere they de- scribe triumphal arches that have been; but Pendleton describes its triumphal arch that is going to be—minutely, down to the wood that makes it and the, paint that clothes it Elsewhere they wor- ship the ground that royalty has trodden upon; in Salford they worship the ground that fi to be trodden upon. The genius of the district—and is not Manchester the political, commercial, intellectual, and practiCal :metropolis of the empire, miapproached save by Liverpool? And by Salford -tee-es, we must not forget Salford. The genius of the district, wets"-, was piqued to be great in its invention, and quite original. • 'Liverpool is to enrol a guard of honour, cemprisinett thousand of its "noble youth ; and some aspiring suggester hints that preference should be given "to those gentlemen who responded te the call iNfa gistrates on a less interesting occasion in 1848." Manchester collects and displays an immense host, twenty thousand strong -of charity children ; and we read how, in one part, "the large children" are to be advantageously dispesed. The Al; dermen and Councillors are to come forth in crimson rind furred splendour, rivalling that of ancient London. The " gold chains or rather collars" of the Aldermen are antely described, down to the lining thereof; but the con= smentiouS reporter promises; at the earliest Opportunity, a fidlei4 account! Manchester displays its transcendent tact in a most delicate attention: the furniture of the Queen's retiring-rooin, the decorations of the hall, nay, the very Cards Of admission; are to be " chaste." The genius of Manchester is the first to appreciate the graces of royal private life, and to typify its approbation thus publicly, thus ingeniously, thus delicately. No voluptuous car- pets, no table-service of immoral tendency, no meretricious card of admission! But the delicacy of Manchester is equalled by its mastery over eircumstance—circumatance the- raw -Material of events—a Napoleonic and Ellistonic mastery : by the help of jets d'ean a la Versailles, a " hitherto stagninit pool," " fronting the Royal Infirmary," " will be made to assume a lively appearance: The poetic delicacy of Manchester invention will not need the'hint
that the jets of embellishment might as well be perfumed.' -
Manchester will be beautiful. How bleat is royalty ! As Venus walked, flowers sprang tip at her feet, winter became spring, and the parched plain of summer smiled with vernal loveliness. AS Queen Victoria travels by special train, Liverpool be:crones chiveV rous, Manchester beauffal; Salford is gravelled like a park, the factory blooms ornate, and the stagnant pool before the Infirmary grows lively! How blest is royalty! To the factory workers, who are there always, the factories are not ornate ; to the- infirini 'that 'stagnant pool is not lively : but the poor you have alviays With you, royal only once in a way.
How Manchester loves royalty!—it is so successful!
How Manchester love§ itself ! and how charrningly it Will ,t1C desmibed, when Prince 'Albert publishes the boak, that he mid write about the visit which he and his Queen hact. the good tune--the " privilege," as the saying is—of paying to 'thalkledigiti- ful retreat ! • I. llotw Manchester, indeed, loves aomerpther th,ing,4 lees the old English instatutien. the -ilionarchy4 IR may loivelQiieein Victoria, who fulfils the requirements of the Monarchy with such real ability and probity, even in its demestic deportment. Manchester understands how ,usefully England is crowned—how much prac- tical business-beneficence resides under that brilliant diadem. For Manchester is great; though its greatness does not exhibit 'itself in the meat imposing form when it, conies out in an explosion of fuss.
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