12 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



A Universal Exhibition of Manufactures, as well as an Exhibition of Fine 

 Arts has been determined upon by the French Government, to take place at 

 Paris, in 1855. The construction of a Crystal Palace, of great magnitude 

 and splendor, has already been commenced in the Champs Elysees. Its 

 length will be 256 yds., breadth over 118 yds., height nearly 115 ft. The 

 exterior wall will be of a circular form, flanked with six towers, and hav- 

 ing 360 arched recesses. The access to the interior of the palace will be by 

 four large entrances, and there will be additional ones by some of the 

 towers. The principal front will be on the Champs Elysees, and the roof 

 will consist of only iron and zinc, glazed similarly to the London Crystal 

 Palace. The plans for ornamenting the biiilding both inside and out are 

 very costly. The area of the whole of the building will cover a surface of 

 about seven acres and a quarter. 



An interesting Exhibition is about to open at Amsterdam, Holland. The 

 citizens of this commercial depot have resolved to hold in their most pictur- 

 esque and interesting town a series of public exhibitions, illustrating the 

 past and present state of the great departments of industry. Each year 

 will be devoted to a particular subject : sculpture, painting, architecture, 

 shipbuilding, manufactures of various kinds, and so forth. The subject of 

 the first exhibition is Architecture. It is proposed to exhibit specimens of 

 building materials, instruments and utensils, machines for raising masses 

 to great elevations, plans of structures, ancient and modern, fancy designs, 

 models of all sorts of edifices, churches, temples, mosques, palaces, pagodas, 

 ornaments used in decorating, and the like. The enterprise is said to have 

 won the general approbation of the Hollanders. 



The Geographical Society of St. Petersburg is about to despatch expedi- 

 tions to make scientific researches in Eastern Siberia and Kamtschatka, in 

 the Caspian Sea and the neighborhood, and in different parts of the least- 

 known European and Asiatic provinces of Russia. The expedition to 

 Siberia excites the greatest interest, and it is expected that it will make some 

 important additions to the different branches of science. Twelve young 

 men are to accompany it for the express purpose of taking astronomical, 

 magnetic, and meteorologic observations. 



The United States Expedition sent to Japan, under the command of 

 Commodore Perry, reached these Islands in August last. The Commodore 

 succeeded in obtaining an interview with two princes of the Empire, and 

 delivered the letter from the President of the United States, as also his own 

 credentials. It was arranged that, as the subject matter required the con- 

 sideration of the Emperor and the great Ministers of State, an answer 

 should be called for next spring. The expedition was received in a friendly 

 manner by the Japanese, and there are strong grounds of expectation that 

 a treaty favorable to commerce and intercourse may be arranged with this 



