At Vienna agreements had been entered into for procuring a most important series of monuments from the Church of St Stephen, in that city; including the celebrated stone pulpit, and the monument of Frederic III. A contract had also been made for obtaining a cast of the grand bronze statue of Victory, at Brescia; but although the influence of Lord Malmesbury and Lord Westmoreland (our ambassador at Vienna) was most actively exerted, permission was absolutely refused by the Austrian authorities in Lombardy, as well as in Vienna itself. Thus much it is necessary to state in order to justify the Directors of the Crystal Palace in the eyes of the world for omissions in their collection which hitherto they have not had power to make good. They are not without hope, however, that the mere announcement of these deficiencies will be sufficient to induce the several Governments to take a kindly view of the requests that have been made to them, and to participate in the satisfaction that follows every endeavour to advance human enjoyment. In England, wherever application has been made, permission--with one exception--has been immediately granted by the authorities, whether ecclesiastical or civil, to take casts of any monuments required. The one interesting exception deserves a special record. The churchwardens of Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, enjoy the privilege of being able to refuse a cast of the celebrated Percy Shrine, the most complete example of purely English art in our country; and in spite of the protestations of the Archbishop of York, the Duke of Northumberland, Archdeacon Wilberforce, Sir Charles Barry and others, half the churchwardens in question insist, to this hour, upon their right to have their enjoyment without molestation. The visitors to the Crystal Palace cannot therefore, as yet, see the Percy Shrine. Whilst Messrs. Jones and Wyatt were busy abroad, the authorities were no less occupied at home. Sir Joseph Paxton commenced operations by securing for the Company the extensive and celebrated collection of palms and other plants, brought together with the labour of a century, by Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney. The valuable assistance of Mr. Fergusson and Mr. Layard, M.P., was obtained for the erection of a Court to illustrate the architecture of the long-buried buildings of Assyria; and a large space in the Gardens was devoted to illustrating the Geology of the antediluvian period, and exhibiting specimens of the gigantic animals living before the flood.