efit of which the Dramatic College has
been instituted, and that, as the inevitable hour approaches, he
who has so often administered to your amusement, blended with
instruction, will here find a retreat open for age and its
infirmities, in grateful recognition of a debt due by the world
at large. I am happy to learn that the funds are progressively
increasing towards conferring the inestimable boon of education
on the children of men who, whether by their performances or by
their writings, have themselves laboured so well in the cause of
literature, and so justly earned this provision for their
offspring. The inauguration of the building we are now in
completes the three purposes which you have enumerated as
forming the original design of this institution. After having
provided for the material wants and comforts of those who are
entitled to seek a shelter in this asylum, the last object is to
cheer their evening of life, and to embellish its closing scenes
with the books, memorials, and records of their art, that they
may again live in the past, and make their final exit in a
spirit of thankfulness to God and their fellow-creatures."

FISHMONGERS' HALL DINNER.

_June 11th, 1865._

On the 11th of June, 1865, a banquet was given to the Prince of Wales by
the Fishmongers' Company in their hall at London Bridge. Two years
before, in 1863, the name of the Prince was added to the roll of the
Company, so that on this occasion he appeared as a member as well as a
guest. Allusion was made to this by the Prime Warden, James Spicer,
who, as Chairman, proposed the health of the Prince and Princess of
Wales, and the rest of the Royal Family. Reference was also made to the
recent birth of another infant Prince, so that there was prospect of two
Royal members, who would in due time have the right of inscribing their
names on their freemen's roll. Some of the Prime Warden's words are
worth reproducing, as showing at how early an age the Prince had
exhibited the traits of character, and the line of action, by which he
has now so long been distinguished. The Prime Warden said that "he was
not using the language of flattery, but simply recording a fact with
which the people of these realms, from one end of the kingdom to the
other, were conversant, when he said that the esteem and the affection
with which His Royal Highness was regarded by Her Majesty's s