198 Centenary Commemoration, 1799-1899. [June 5, 



bestowed upon her, as well as recording our sense of the admirable 

 manner in which, through so lengthened a period, she had ruled over 

 us. That night they drank her health also as Patron of the Koyal 

 Institution. She, like many of her illustrious predecessors, had shown 

 that she realised the importance of the work which the Institution 

 was formed to carry out, and how largely, either directly or indirectly, 

 it tended to the welfare of her subjects. That welfare had ever been 

 the dearest thing to the heart of her Majesty to secure, and it had 

 been the guiding principle of her public conduct ; and in addition to 

 her private virtues, the knowledge and the appreciation of that fact 

 had endeared her to the hearts of her people. 



The toast having been duly honoured, 



The Duke of Northumberland (the President), again rising, 

 proposed " The Health of the Vice-Patron, the Prince of Wales, the 

 Princess of Wales, and the rest of the Eoyal Family." They were 

 much honoured, he said, by the presence of the Prince of Wales. 

 The associations which his Eoyal Highness had with the Royal 

 Institution went back a considerable time, for he believed that it was 

 in the year 1855 that the Prince first attended a lecture at the Eoyal 

 Institution. It was one of those juvenile lectures which Professor 

 Faraday so well knew how to deliver. They were unfortunate that 

 night in losing the presence of the Duke of York, who had been a 

 member of the Institution for so many years, but they were fortunate 

 in securing — in the capacity of a distinguished guest — the presence 

 of the Duke of Cambridge. 



The Prince of Wales said, I am most grateful to the Duke of 

 Northumberland for the kind terms in which he has proposed this 

 toast, and to you for the manner in which you have received it. I 

 consider it a great privilege, and a great honour, to take part, as Vice- 

 Patron of this Institution in the hundredth anniversary of its existence. 

 As the Duke has said, I had an early acquaintance with the Eoyal 

 Institution. Though it is nearly half a century ago, I have not for- 

 gotten that, as a boy, my brother, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and 

 myself were sent by our father to London, just after Christmas, to 

 attend those famous lectures, which were then given by the great 

 Professor Michael Faraday. I have not forgotten the interest which we 

 took in those lectures, and the clear way in which Professor Faraday 

 explained to boys difficult scientific problems, and the beautiful way 

 in which he showed us the chemical experiments which were then the 

 order of the day. On an occasion of this description it is very 

 difficult to say anything new with regard to the Institution, or any- 

 thing that is not known by so distinguished and able an audience as 

 is assembled here to-night. When one looks back, one recalls that 

 one hundred years ago the Society was first formed by Sir Benjamin 

 Thompson, who was better known, and who himself liked to be known, 

 under the name of Count Eumford. It is remarkable, that the build- 

 ing in Albemarle Street, though much changed in architecture, is the 

 identical one in which the lectures were given and the work was 



