Perhaps the most interesting event of the tour was when, after laying the foundation-stone of the New Science and Art Museum and National Library of Ireland in Dublin on 10th April, their Majesties attended the Royal University of Ireland, and the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on the King, and that of Doctor of Music on Queen Alexandra. Her Majesty has always been passionately fond of music, and the distinction gave her special gratification. The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, called for short the “Colinderies,” may be said to have been the most successful of all those with which the King was intimately associated. It was opened by Queen Victoria on 4th May 1886, and Her Majesty was received by the King, and Queen Alexandra, His Majesty conducting his mother to the daïs. In the Royal Albert Hall, where the opening ceremony took place, everything was done to make the scene as impressive and interesting as possible; and at the special desire of the King, Lord Tennyson wrote an Ode for the occasion, which was set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and sung by Madame Albani in the choir. This exhibition resulted in a net surplus of £35,000. In September some correspondence between King Edward and the Lord Mayor, suggesting the establishment of a Colonial and Indian Institute to commemorate the Queen’s Jubilee, was published, and excited a great deal of interest both at home and in the Colonies. A public subscription was opened at the Mansion-House; and later in the same month His Majesty, having been informed that a movement was on foot to present him with a testimonial in recognition of his services in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, wrote to request that any fund subscribed might be devoted to the furtherance of the Imperial Institute, and a great deal of his time that autumn was dedicated to this scheme. [Illustration: QUEEN ALEXANDRA IN HER ROBES AS DOCTOR OF MUSIC _From a Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin_] The King in 1886 also gave his patronage to two great engineering achievements, by opening the Mersey Tunnel and by laying the first stone of the Tower Bridge. It is interesting to note in this connection that His Majesty has long been an honorary member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and when he attended their annual dinner in the same year, he made an amusing speech, in which he attempted to picture what sort of a world ours would be without engineers.