Ottropolio.
Christmas festivities have been celebrated with more than ordinary vigour in the Metropolis. Not only were the usual places of public re- sort, the theatres, galleries, and institutions, opened on Monday, with attractions befitting the season, and thronged with visitors, but there have been two novelties—performances by Mr. Lumlers operatic crap at the Haymarket House, with Cringlini and Pi000lomim for stars ; and Christmas revels at the Crystal Palace. The latter was the novelty par excellence, and " drew " accordingly. The Palace, traditionally sup- posed to be devoted to art, was on Monday the scene of uproarious mirth. There was a monster Christmas tree ; the ancient drama of Punch and Judy; and a magician. There were dances after the old English type of the great Sir Roger's day, apparently improvised for the occasion. There was also a bunch of mistletoe, with some rough scrambles beneath it for the forfeits which its overhanging leaves and berries entail on the fair sex. With the exception of these not very de- corous scenes, all is reported to have gone off well. The holiday-makers at the Palace, including numbers of children, mustered 14,000.
Nearly one hundred and fifty orphan children fere now educated in the Commercial Travellers' Schools at Pinner. To commemorate the esta- blishment of the schools, and to aid the funds by means of which they are continued, a dinner was held at the London Tavern on Saturday; Mr. Thackeray presiding. After praising the management of the schools, Mr. Thackeray lamented that the literary profession have not anything as good. "I wish that we had an institution to which we could made our chil- then, instead of having to send them about to schools as we do, at an awful cost. 'When the respected Mr. Squeers, of Do-the-Boys Hall, announces that he proposes to take a limited number of pupils—I should rather say a number of very limited pupils—it is not because he is in love with the little darlings that he does it, but because the designs to extract a profit out of them. It always pains me to think of the profits to be screwed out of the bellies of the poor little innocents. Why have we not, as men of letters, some such association as that which you have got up ? I appeal to my literary brethren, if any of them are present, whether we, the men of the line, cannot emulate the men of the road ? A week ago, a friend engaged in my own profession, making his 1000/. a year, showed me the half- yearly account of his two little boys at school. These little heroes of six and seven, who are at a very excellent school, where they are well and comfortably provided for, came home with a little bill in their pocket which amounted to the sum of 751. for the half-year. Now, think of this r Paterfamilias earning his moderate 1000/. a year ; out of which he has life-assurance, hisincome-tax, and his house-rent to pay, with three" four poor relations to support—for, .doubtless, we are all blesased with these appendages—and with the heavy bills of his wife and daughters for millinery and mantuarnaking, to meet, especially at their present enor- mous rates and sizes. Think of this overburdened man hpring to pay 76l. for one half-year's schooling of his little boys."
In the course of his discursive speech, 1ft. Thackeray told an anecdote of a "traveller," from whom he had that day parted. "I parted today from a near neighbour, and as fatuous and intelligent a traveller as any that I could name—I mean Mr. William Howard Russell, the traveller for a celebrated publishing firm in Printing House Square. We all know how he travelled three years ago, when he went out for-his employers to inspect the shot and shell and bayonet market of the Crimea, and reported on the state of French grape at the Malakhoff, of British beef at Balaklara, and of Russian -hides at Inkerman. He is now on his way to Marseilles. In another month he will be in India ; and-he will see the shattered gates around which the brave young engineers died at their duty and through Which Wilson and his gallant comrades passed over heaps of enemies, until they reached the Imperial Palace of Delhi, in which, amid shouts of 'vic- tory, the health of Queen Vioteria was drunk. He will owe the battered was through whinh Havelock and Outram, and lastly Sir Colin Campbell and his relieving army, raarohed to rescue our women and children, crush- ing hosts of foes before them, and -finally planting the glorious old flag of Rngliara Luettrutree erene headmen, was a melancholy dinner of his yesterday—hie Christmas dinner, the last meal he was to take here at home. The little children Bat round the table on that sad evening, and the peer wife muttlievesssed at them with-a wistfuleye. But now the -part- mg is over, and 'this day he has taken his first step on his long journey.
Many and many a time in the solitude of travel, in the loneliness of the desert—on ship-board at the morning-watch, when sea and sky are flushed with the golden marble, or at midnight, amid the rushing waters, and under the stars of God—he will think with inexpressible tenderness of the dear beings he has left at home."
The Commercial Travellers' Schools appear to have stood in need of Some pecuniary aid, for while the income of the charity is 4327/., the expenditure is 6000/. It is not stated how much was collected at the dinner.
At a meeting of military officers at Woolwich on Tuesdays—General Sir F. W. in the chair,—it was resolved, though not with unanimity, that a military institute for the recreation of the private sol- dier should be established by private subscription. Similar institutions exist at Dover and other places, and have been attended with beneficial effects.
Mr. Edward Auchinuty_Glover, for a short time Member for Beverley, t his Christmas in Newgate. In consequence of the resolution of the one, he was arrested, apparently on Thursday last week, on the charge of making a false declaration in the House of Commons as to his property qualification : forty-eight hours' notice of bail was required ; so Mr. Glover could not be released till Saturday.
Thomas Emerson, a builder in Milton Street, who lately became bank- rupt, was charged at Giuildhall Petty-Sessions with stealing gas the pro- perty of the Great Central Gas Consumers' Company. The gas had been " cut off" ; but Emerson furtively reconnected his burners with the supply- pipe. He pleaded guilty—he had merely supplied himself with a little light " to settle his affairs." He was committed to prison for one month.
Two "gentlemen," who call themselves "brothers"—" John Jones" and "Thomas Jones "—have been committed by the Clerkenwell Magistrate for trial on charges of assaulting five constables. They were drunk and very disorderly, at midnight, in the Southgate Itoad ; when the police tried to convey them to the station they resisted with great violence. The gentle- men evidently hoped that the Magistrate would dismiss them with a fine ; but Mr. Come said the matter was too grave for that.
James Id‘Kinder, coachman to Mr. Gladstanes of annnersbury, was sent by his master to pay 130/. for a pair of horses. Instead of doing so, he "stepped it" with the bank-notes : when arrested he bad but 30/. left ; he said hehad been robbed of 60/. The Marlborough Street Magistrate has committed him for trial.
Two sailors in the Duke of Queensberry brig, lying off Poplar, have died from suffocation, by imprudently placing a pan of burning coals in the round-house before they retired to rest.
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