SAMUEL LAING, Esq., M.P., Chairman. ARTHUR ANDERSON, Esq. E. S. P. CALVERT, Esq. T. N. FARQUHAR, Esq. CHARLES GEACH, Esq., M.P. CHARLES LUSHINGTON, Esq. J. SCOTT RUSSELL, Esq., F.R.S. FRANCIS FULLER, Esq., Managing Director. The present Board is constituted as follows:-- T. N. FARQUHAR, Esq., Chairman. ARTHUR ANDERSON, Esq. SAMUEL BEALE, Esq., M.P. HENRY SANFORD BICKNELL, Esq. GEORGE ENGLAND, Esq. CHARLES HORSLEY, Esq. A. C. IONIDES, Esq. JAMES LOW, Esq. DAVID OGILVY, Esq. DAVID PRICE, Esq. HENRY DANBY SEYMOUR, Esq., M.P. CAPTAIN EDWARD WALTER. Mr. P. K. BOWLEY is the present General Manager. It will ever be mentioned to the credit of the English people, that within a fortnight after the issue of the Company’s prospectus the shares were taken up to an extent that gave the Directors ample encouragement to proceed vigorously with their novel and gigantic undertaking. In the prospectus it was proposed to transfer the building to Sydenham, in Kent, and the site chosen was an irregular parallelogram of three hundred acres,[2] extending from the Brighton Railway to the road which forms the boundary of the Dulwich Wood at the top of the hill, the fall from which to the railway is two hundred feet. It was at once felt that the summit of this hill was the only position, in all the ground, for the great glass building: a position which, on the one side, commands a beautiful view of the fine counties of Surrey and Kent, and on the other a prospect of the great metropolis. This site was chosen, and we doubt whether a finer is to be found so close to London, and so easy of access by means of railway. To facilitate the conveyance of passengers, the Brighton Railway Company--under special and mutually advantageous arrangements--undertook to lay down a new line of rails between London and Sydenham, to construct a branch from the Sydenham station to the Crystal Palace garden, and to build a number of engines sufficiently powerful to draw heavy trains up the steep incline to the Palace. [2] A portion of this land, not required for the purposes of the Palace, has been disposed of.