raseology, affixing his usual signature, ALBERT EDWARD, P.

The Clerk then presented His Royal Highness with the formal document
which enrolled him as a Freeman, enclosed in a massive gold casket of
exquisite design and workmanship. The numerous visitors who had
witnessed the ceremony afterwards had a _dejeuner_ in the Banqueting
Hall, the Prince with a small number of select guests being at the same
time entertained in the Council Room.

THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND.

_May 18th, 1864._

In the last annual Report of the Royal Literary Fund, for 1888, it is
said: "The anniversary of 1864 was memorable as the first public dinner
presided over by the Prince of Wales, to whose presence in the chair the
Institution is indebted for a success altogether unprecedented in the
history of its anniversaries."

The annual Report for 1864 contains a detailed account of the
proceedings at that meeting, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
Institution. It was natural that a large number of eminent men should
assemble to support the youthful Chairman, whose illustrious father had
presided at the fifty-third anniversary, in 1842. In the long list of
Stewards, in 1864, appear the names of almost all those most
distinguished at that time, not only in Literature, but in Art and
Science, and in every department of the public service. Upwards of four
hundred attended, and the special donations to the fund at the dinner
amounted to L2328 17_s._, a sum then far in advance of any profit of
former anniversaries. This amount has only once since been exceeded,
when the King of the Belgians presided, in 1872.

In commemoration of Prince Albert's presidency, Her Majesty was
graciously pleased to grant to this Institution the privilege of bearing
the Crown as an addition to its Armorial bearings, and the style of the
Institution was thenceforth that of "The Royal Literary Fund." Her
Majesty confers upon it the sanction of her name as its Patron, and has
shown her interest by an annual benefaction of One Hundred Guineas, ever
since the year of her Accession.

By the donations and subscriptions of members of the Corporation, with
the addition of legacies, and the profits obtained at the anniversary
festivals, the Royal Literary Fund has been enabled, since its
foundation in the latter part of the eighteenth century, to dispense
upwards of L105,000 to needy persons of the literary class.

The importance and the benefits of the Institution wil