f the Drapers' Company, and delegates from various
Committees. From the old and well-known "Beaumont Trust," and the
munificent donations of the Drapers' Company, supplemented by public
contributions, the large funds necessary for the People's Palace had
been derived.

The ceremony began by the Archbishop of Canterbury offering a special
prayer, followed by the Lord's Prayer, and the singing of the Old
Hundredth Psalm. Sir E. H. Currie, Chairman of the Committee, then read
and presented an address, to which the Prince replied as follows:--

"Sir Edmund Hay Currie and Gentlemen,--I thank you, on behalf of
the Princess of Wales and myself, for your address, and I can
assure you that we heartily rejoice that an opportunity has been
afforded us of again visiting this important district of the
Metropolis. We thoroughly appreciate the endeavour of the
trustees to promote a scheme which, from the comprehensiveness
and liberality of its scope, should not fail to prove
advantageous to the population of the near neighbourhood in
which the Palace is to be erected, and to the inhabitants of the
Metropolis at large. We do not doubt that the opportunities for
healthy recreation so essential in a population that is
comprised mainly of artisans and mechanics and their families
will be promptly and properly appreciated by those for whom the
People's Palace had been provided. The facilities which will be
afforded for continuous education of all kinds will, we are
convinced, materially tend to still further develop and perfect
the various handicrafts of this neighbourhood, and should
therefore prove of the greatest importance, not only to the
inhabitants of East London, but to the nation at large, and
should enable Englishmen to continue to maintain in the future,
as they have in the past, that supremacy in the arts of peace at
home which, among civilized nations, must be the invariable and
necessary accompaniment of power and prosperity abroad. We
congratulate the trustees upon the success which has already
attended their efforts in having secured L75,000 of the L100,000
required, and we sincerely trust that the munificent donations
of the Drapers' Company, Mr. Dyer Edwardes, Lord Rosebery, and
the Duke of Westminster will influence others to follow so
excellent an example. The 'Queen's Hall,' of which I am about to