King of Great Britain Edward VII

“ For myself, I will only say that it affords me the greatest gratification to be present on an occasion when one meets with the most distinguished men—men of the highest position and talent, surrounded by all that is most beautiful in Art. I beg to return my best acknowledgments for the kind manner in which you have received the health of the Princess of Wales, of myself, and of the other members of the Royal Family, and I sincerely hope, that on many future occasions I may have the happiness to be present at the annual gatherings of the Royal Academy. ”

“ The establishment of an institution such as I open to-day is not the mere creation of a new musical society. The time has come when class can no longer stand aloof from class, and that man does his duty best who works most earnestly in bridging over the gulf between different classes which it is the tendency of increased wealth [Pg 415] and increased civilisation to widen. I claim for music the merit that it has a voice which speaks, in different tones, perhaps, but with equal force, to the cultivated and the ignorant, to the peer and the peasant. ”

“ As for myself, this is not my first visit to Liverpool, and I hope by no means it may be my last. I have always been received here with the greatest kindness, and I have always looked back to my different visits with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction. The fact that 100 years ago this town numbered only 40,000 people, and now, with its suburbs, numbers close upon 700,000, speaks for its prosperity. Most cordially do I propose this toast, Mr. Mayor, and most sincerely do I wish long life to you, and prosperity to your town. ”

“ Let us, one and all, drink to our illustrious Chairman, whom the people of England know not only as a gracious and popular Prince, but also as a high-minded, generous gentleman, who takes a deep and active interest in all that contributes to the greatness and the welfare of the country, and to the relief of the sufferers among the less fortunate of the community, in the fulfilment of which noble task he is well supported by his gracious Princess. ”

“ We have come here to-day to celebrate, in one of the most prosperous cities of the United Kingdom, the inauguration of a great national work of the highest and most varied interest, and one altogether worthy of your important city. I can assure you I thoroughly understand and appreciate the anxious desire which has prevailed among you that an Industrial Exhibition should be held this year in Glasgow, and I consider that with the commercial, manufacturing, and mercantile eminence which she enjoys, such a desire is not only right and proper in the highest degree, but natural and commendable. ”

“ Being a charity in aid of orphans it is, you will agree with me, worthy of peculiar sympathy. It recommends itself still more to our notice when we reflect that it proposes to help the children of those who have done so much to elevate and refine art among us, and whose beautiful pictures have so often delighted us. Many persons may imagine that it is not difficult to be a painter, but the distinguished artists whom I see around me will, I am sure, agree with me that that it is a great mistake. To be a good painter genius is by no means all that is required. ”

“ On their behalf I would also express the great satisfaction I feel at the honour and distinction to-day conferred upon me by your Grand Master and by you in constituting me a member of your honoured body. I feel much satisfaction in being present at such an enormous gathering as this, and one assembled for purposes of so noble a kind. Patriotic feelings are always noble and honourable, and nowhere have they taken deeper root than in this country, for whose people, ever since my young days, I have felt the most profound esteem. ”

“ I wish to establish an institution having a wider basis and a more extended influence than any existing school or college of music in this country. It will teach music of the highest class; it will have a foundation for the education, and in some cases for the free maintenance, of scholars who have obtained by merit the right to such privileges. But it will do more than this. It will be to England what the Berlin Conservatoire is to Germany, what the Paris Conservatoire is to France, or the Vienna Conservatoire to Austria—the recognised centre and head of the musical world. ”

“ The various Exhibitions which have been held since 1851 have undoubtedly done much, not only to enlist the sympathy of the nations of the world and to engage them in friendly rivalries of industrial competition, but largely to extend our knowledge of every branch of manufacture, and to afford pleasure to all ranks and classes of society in every country in which these Exhibitions have been held. Recognising the benefits which they have thus conferred, such Exhibitions can never fail to enlist the sympathy of the Queen and command the support of the Princess and myself. ”

“ You have alluded in terms of loyalty, which have much gratified me, to your attachment to the Constitution, and have expressed in a manner which I will not fail to communicate to the Queen your devotion to Her Majesty.
"In varied capacities, and by widely different paths, you pursue those great objects which, dear to you, are, believe me, dear also to me—the prosperity and progress of Ireland, the welfare and happiness of her people. That many difficulties from time to time impede you I can well understand. Such is the natural course of events. ”

“ I feel some diffidence in proposing this toast in the presence of so many who know far better than I do the excellence of this institution, and understand its working. At the same time it gives me the greatest pleasure to propose the toast, and to be here this evening advocating so excellent a cause. It is always a pleasure to advocate the cause of charity, and there is no other appeal that comes so home to the hearts of all classes of the community. ”

“ A second battalion, at this moment serving in the Soudan, has recently been added to you, which, with the Royal Cornwall Rangers Militia, of which I am the honorary Colonel, and the two Volunteer battalions, make up the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. From the title I bear I am simply proud to be thus connected with this fine regiment. In confiding these colours to your care I feel that the honour of your Sovereign and your country will ever be before you as on former occasions, and that in the future, as in the past, the roll of honourable distinction of your colours will ever increase. ”

“ I can give him no higher praise, than by saying that he is a worthy successor of a nobleman who was for more than twenty years your president; who throughout a long political career never made an enemy, and who always found time to assist in the advancement of literature and art. I allude to the late Marquess of Lansdowne. Gentlemen, allow me to propose one more toast. In the presence of a Society, accustomed to cultivate with such signal success the flowers of literature, it would be unpardonable to forget the flowers of society. ”

“ On behalf of the Princess of Wales, as well as on my own behalf, I offer my sincere thanks to you for your address and for your cordial welcome to us on our visit to this ancient and beautiful town. The salubrity of the climate of Dartmouth and the excellence of your sanitary arrangements have long been known to me, and I can appeal to no better proof of my entire confidence in them than that afforded by the step I have taken in sending our two sons to be educated on board the Britannia. ”

“ The best chance of a complete abolition of Slavery will lie in civilisation, in opening up those great countries, Asia and Africa, many parts of which are now known to but few Europeans, and in disseminating education. In time people will see that they have derived no benefit from having Slaves, that the freeman will do his work far better than the one who is forced to labour. ”

“ Among the many benevolent and charitable institutions of this country there are, I think, few which demand our sympathy and support more, and in which we can feel more interest, than the National Life-boat Institution. An institution of this kind is an absolute necessity in a great maritime country like ours. It is wholly different in one respect from other institutions, because although lives are to be saved, they can in those cases in which this society operates only be saved at the risk of the loss of other lives. ”

“ I am delighted, Brethren, to have this opportunity of proclaiming what I am satisfied you will agree with me in—that we have as Masons no politics; that the great object of our Order is to strengthen the bonds of fraternal affection, and to make us live in pure and Christian love with all men; that though a secret we are not a political body; and that our Masonic principles and hopes are essential parts of our attachment to the Constitution and loyalty to the Crown. ”

“ It is a great pleasure to me to begin my travels in India at a place so long associated with the Royal Family of England, and to find that during so many generations of British rule this great port has steadily prospered. Your natural advantages would have insured a large amount of commerce under any strong Government, but in your various and industrious population I gladly recognize the traces of a rule which gives shelter to all who obey the laws; which recognizes no invidious distinctions of race ”

“ No apprehension ever touches those who are present at a scene of which the Prince of Wales is the centre, that he may chance to chill by lack of interest, to choose his words of admiration inopportunely, or to praise without sympathy. The work he came, as it were, to sanction by national approbation is a grand engineering undertaking, and is grander yet in its probable moral consequences. ”

“ It is a source of sincere pleasure to me to discharge the duties confided to me by Her Majesty the Queen in thus inaugurating your Exhibition. It is not less in accordance with my own feelings than with those of Her Majesty to assist in every measure calculated for the happiness and welfare of the Irish people. The example of my lamented and beloved parent will, I trust, ever be present to my mind as a stimulus in the encouragement of every work tending to advance international prosperity, and to develope the powers and resources of our own country. ”

“ I may truly say that never in the whole history of Freemasonry has such a Grand Lodge been convened as that on which my eye rests at this moment, and there is further an inner view to be taken, that so far as my eyes can carry me over these serried ranks of white and blue, the gold and purple, I recognise in them men who have solemnly taken obligations of worth and morality—men who have undertaken the duties of citizens and the loyalty of subjects. ”

“ Beyond and above all this I trust, as I stated on a previous occasion, that the College will become the recognised centre and head of the musical world in this country. It has been a reproach to England that, with her vast resources, her large benevolence, her eagerness to instruct all classes of society in other branches of knowledge, one thing has hitherto been wanting—a national institution for music. Yet music is in the best sense the most popular of all arts. ”

“ Your Majesty and Brethren,—I have now the honour to give you the last toast, though it may be safely called the most important, as the object with which we have met at this enormous and unprecedented gathering is to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Masonic Institute for Girls. That an institution should have existed a hundred years is one proof that it is a good one, and we have every reason to be grateful to those who, from the commencement up to the present time, have given their energy and their labours to keep going so thoroughly Masonic an Institution. ”

“ The city of Dublin has seldom presented a scene of more general joy than when the Prince of Wales opened the International Exhibition, on the 9th of May, 1865. The weather was superb, the loyal demonstrations in the streets were enthusiastic, and the great Hall where the opening ceremony took place, decorated with the flag of all nations, was densely crowded with the most distinguished assembly that Ireland could bring to welcome the heir of the throne, and the representative of the Queen. ”

“ In proposing the toast of 'Prosperity to the Corporation of the Trinity House,' it is my pleasing duty to connect it with the health of one who not only does everything to make our annual gatherings here most agreeable, but who performs the arduous and responsible duties which he has to discharge in a most praiseworthy and effective manner. ”

“ But when one thinks of the soldier, who has not only to expose his life in battle, but to run the risk of sickness and disease in a variety of different climates, away from home, often leaving his wife for many years behind him, it is impossible not to see that it must be a comfort to him, especially if ill or dying, to think there is an institution where his wife, if he succumbs, has a chance of being provided for. Among soldiers there can be but one feeling on this subject, and I am sure that on this occasion I shall not appeal to those who are present in vain. ”

“ In conclusion, let me express the hope that this great undertaking, and the many occasions for friendly intercourse with our fellow-subjects from India and the Colonies which it will afford, may convey to them the assurance that, while we are deeply moved by the spirit of patriotism they have lately shown in desiring to bear their share in the graver trials of the country, we on our part wish to participate in every effort to further and develop their material interests—interests which we feel to be inseparably bound up with the prosperity of the Empire. ”

“ I do not mean to say that we intend to exclude paying pupils. To adopt such a course would be to deprive musical ability in the upper classes of any means of access to the college, and would stamp it with a narrow and contracted character, which is above all to be avoided in a national institution intended to include in its corporate character all classes throughout the United Kingdom. What I seek to create is an institution bearing the same relation to the art of music as that which our great public schools—Eton and Winchester, for example—bear to general education. ”

“ We can scarcely take up a newspaper without reading of their Royal Highnesses performing some public duty or lending their presence for the support of some charitable institution, combining as they do this honourable desire to do good with the most gracious manner—a graciousness which, I venture to say, does not proceed from mere courtly education, but from the genuine impulses of good and noble natures. ”

“ Brethren, it would be useless for me to recapitulate everything which has been told you by the Pro-Grand Master relative to Freemasonry. Every Englishman knows that the two great watchwords of the craft are Loyalty and Charity. These are their watchwords, and as long as Freemasons do not, as Freemasons, mix themselves up in politics so long I am sure this high and noble order will flourish, and will maintain the integrity of our great Empire. ”