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THE RIGHT MAN IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

SEBASTOPOL IN LEICESTER SQUARE. To see Sebastopol it is not necessary to go abroad; it is enough to travel to the foreign quarter of London only. This journey has been performed by ourselves. We have been to see MR. BURFORD'S Panorama of Sebastopol, in Leicester Square, and recommend all our readers who are within reach of it to do themselves the same pleasure. The London season being now over, there are few places either of instruction or entertainment remaining open, and this is a place of both. Moreover, as Rank and Fashion have for the most part left Town, the possibility of seeing all that is to be seen in the Panorama-to wit, very much-is likely to be increased by some diminution of the hitherto attendant crowd of the nobility, gentry, and clergy. There will be less danger than there has been heretofore of having one's corns crushed by a duke, of being hustled by an earl, or elbowed about and squeezed by peeresses and maids-of-honour, the bulk of a bishop being, in the meanwhile, interposed between one's eye and the canvas. However, to secure a good view of the exhibition, it may be advisable to go early in the morning, while Rank and Fashion are at breakfast, or late in the afterwhen Rank and Fashion are at dinner.

noon,

Sebastopol is depicted as firing and under fire, and the first impression derived from the view of the beleaguered city," presented by MR. BURFORD, is that of astonishment at the preternatural stillness, comparatively speaking, of the scene. Comparatively speaking, because a considerable noise is being made by MRS. MAJOR M'GAB, or some other military lady, who is sure to be present, and to be explaining the positions of the Allies with commanding gestures, in a loud voice. Astonishment, because the picture has such an air of reality, and the smoke of the bombardment looks so particularly natural, as to make you wonder at not hearing the artillery's roar and the crack of the rifles. The visitor finds himself situated, with reference to the Crimea, precisely as, with allowance for change of circumstances, he would be with regard to London if he were on the top of St. Paul's: except that the objects below him do not seem so distant, and that the smoke of the ordnance does not obscure the prospect like the smoke of the chimneys. He sees the bays and harbours that surround the Crimean coast, the Allied Fleets, the enemy's vessels, as many as have not been sunk, and the mast-heads of those; and all the forts and batteries-the Mamelon, Malakhoff, Redan, Flagstaff, Quarantine, Constantine, Nicholas,

A SOCIETY OF HATTERS.

THERE seems to be nothing for which men will not associate, for there is no object, however apparently absurd, in which numbers are not ready to co-operate. Some are drawn together by the sympathies of the heart, others are attracted solely by the head, and of the latter class we may consider the Hatters, who have, it seems, formed a society. A hat reform has long been wanted, and frequently asked for by the thinking portion of the public, and we would gladly take off our present hats with a respectful obeisance to any individual, or to any society, who would give us something more tasteful as a substitute for the existing order of chapeau. The Hatters' Society took an excursion the other day to Erith, and mustered 1800 strong, so that the body is evidently powerful enough to mould the hat into a new form, and to crown itself with glory, by crowning the British public with something more sightly than the head-gear which at present disfigures the community.

"THE HALF-GUINEA VELVET CHURCH SERVICE, with best Gilt Rims, and Clasps.

"THE HALF-GUINEA FAMILY MOROCCO BIBLE, with References, Maps, Gilt Rims, and Clasps."

We suppose that these fancy Bibles and Prayer-books are designed for instruments of "Woman's Devotion." The advertisement is, doubtless, particularly addressed to the more serious sex, to whose innocent insensitiveness of incongruity a Bible might be expected to seem as suitable for trimming as a Bonnet: and the designation of the Scriptures and the Liturgy by coins of the realm would not, probably, appear absurd."

Alexander, Star, and so forth: also the encampments of the Allies and the head-quarters of the Generals, together with a number of other objects, which, recalled to his mind's eye, will enable him to read the Times every morning with the advantage of illustrations.

There is somebody present (besides MRS. M'GAB) who will oblige the company with any information they may desire in reference to the particulars of the Panorama.

It is not too much to say, that those who visit MR. BURFORD'S Sebastopol will see more of that City than they would if they were stationed before the CZAR's: for the Panorama was painted some little time ago, since when a great many of the buildings represented in it have been demolished: and we hope the time will very soon come when the only correct picture of Sebastopol will be the accurate likeness of certain heaps of rubbish.

There is one very important difference between the prospect of Sebastopol held out by MR. BURFORD, and that afforded by the Government-and paid for by the tax-payers. The Downing Street one is rather expensive: that in Leicester Square will cost nobody more than a shilling.

THE MINISTERS A CUP TOO LOW.

AMONG the after-dinner doings last week at the Ministerial Whitebait. Meeting, was the "presentation of a china cup to MR. HAYTER." The reports do not inform us whether the china cup was a tea-cup, a coffee-cup or an egg-cup; but whichever of the three it may have been, the material-which is in every respect the material point-was of a brittleness which does not say much for the confidence of the donors in the stability of the Ministry. Of course the gift was considered to be appropriate, and we hope therefore that the china was without a flaw, for if otherwise it might be said that the Ministry is slightly cracked, or that there is a split in the Cabinet. We have seen no account of the speeches delivered on the occasion, nor indeed would it have been quite fair to report exactly what the Ministers over their cups may have uttered. We cannot help feeling that MR. HAYTER deserved something more than a mere china cup for the services he has performed; and we think everybody will admit, that if his colleagues could not have gone the length of giving him a tea-pot, they might at least have made it a milk-jug.

THE DANGERS OF PLAYING AT WAR. WAR is not a thing to be trifled with, and its horrors are much too real to be the legitimate subjects of burlesque, or any other kind of mockery. The nearer the imitation approaches to the real thing, where an imitation of war is concerned, the more distasteful it must be to all persons of common sense, and common humanity. The mania for converting the horrors of war into a subject of amusement for the million, has received a somewhat sad lesson in the accident that has lately happened at Cremorne Gardens; where, for the benefit of some charity, there was to be a mock representation of the Battle of Inkermann. There was all the usual pride, pomp, and circumstance of in-glorious (theatrical) war; and, to give "reality" to the business, a dreadful reality it turned out, some of the Guards were "allowed by the authorities" to take part in the spectacle. Of course, the only real element in the business was incompatible with all the shams of which it was made up; and, amidst the sham fortifications, the sham defences, the sham barricades, and all the other gim-crack appurtenances of a sham-fight, the real soldiers tumbled to the ground from a height of some twenty feet with terrible reality.

Of course, when it is too late, everybody is exclaiming against the impropriety of allowing the Guards to take a part in these caricature copies of the horrors of war; in which everything is purposely made to yield, from the pasteboard ramparts, to the shilling-a-night supernumerary Russians. The sort of enthusiasm that is excited among the soldiers, by an imitation attack on an imitation enemy, in the teeth of imitation fire from imitation batteries, is not likely to be of much service in the hour of real battle, when there is no stage-director ordering the enemy where to fall back, and leading on the British troops to the point where, by previous arrangement, they are destined to be victorious. A panorama of Sebastopol is all well enough, and a pictorial representation of the siege may be made a matter of interest; but an attempt to show the actual storming of a place with real troops, must always be a melancholy, and, indeed, a feeble spectacle. Nothing can be better than the picture now being exhibited at the Surrey Zoological Gardens; but the moment the action begins, and the firing of the guns

sets the ducks quacking in the lake, while the playing of the band drowns, on the whole, the occasionally heard cries of "Now Dick, set fire to that tow," "Ready there with them red lights?" "Off with them fireworks," and other stage-directions of a kindred character, the whole affair becomes ridiculous.

Considering the trouble and anxiety in the public mind on the subject of the Siege of Sebastopol, it is a ghastly mockery to be told that it is being taken triumphantly every night, and sometimes twice a-day (for there have been occasionally morning performances), at the Surrey Zoological Gardens. Let the directors of places of public amusement confine themselves to legitimate subjects of entertainment, of which there are quite enough, without resorting to dismal travesties of the War in the Crimea.

A Commissioner of Good Works.

WE have much pleasure in observing, that whereas the Marylebone Electors have given SIR BENJAMIN HALL a seat in Parliament, that exemplary minister has added 200 seats to those in the Regent's Park. SIR BENJAMIN acts as if he thought that one good turn deserves 200. It also gratifies us to remark, that the Chief Commissioner of Parks and Public Buildings intends to throw Kew Gardens open from morning to night; thereby rendering those who may visit them as happy as the day is long.

Thames' Prizes.

THE LORD MAYOR last week attended at the Twankey Tea Gardens, to distribute the prizes to the victors of the Thames' Regatta. It was quite right that a contest of strength and skill, tried upon the river, should be rewarded by prizes supplied by old Father Thames himself, duly represented by LORD MAYOR MOON: the prizes were threenamely, a puppy-dog, a kitten, and a mouse in excellent preservation, having been fished up below Battersea, and duly stuffed by an experienced hand. A microscope and a bucket of Thames' water will be contended for next week.