"To their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. May it please your Royal Highness--It is with great gratification that we, the Chairman and Members of the Metropolitan Board of Works, receive your Royal Highnesses on the occasion of your opening free to the public the five bridges over the Thames, from Lambeth Bridge on the east to Battersea Bridge on the west, which serve to connect important districts on the two sides of the river. London, which in many respects stands at the head of the great cities of the world, has too long, we fear, in the matter of free passage across the river, been behind the capitals of other countries. Until to-day there has been no free bridge in the metropolis westward of Westminster by which the population north and south of the Thames could pass from one side of the river to the other. We are glad that this reproach will now be removed. The bridges which your Royal Highnesses are about to declare free have been acquired by the board under the powers of an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1877, which had for its object the extinction of the tolls on all the bridges in London. Waterloo Bridge and the Charing-cross Railway Footbridge have already been made free. The tolls will this day be extinguished on five other bridges, and before the end of the year it is hoped that there will be none but free bridges over the Thames throughout the metropolitan area. The metropolis and its inhabitants have received many proofs of the interest which your Royal Highnesses feel in their welfare, and of the encouragement which you are always ready to give to those who are engaged in promoting that welfare. Your presence upon this occasion is a further proof of the interest you feel, and we offer your Royal Highnesses our sincere thanks for the honour you have done us. Signed, on behalf of the Metropolitan Board of Works, J. M. M'GAREL HOGG, Chairman of the Board, May 24, 1879. The Prince of Wales spoke in reply as follows: