“Permit me, sir, to say a word respecting the building itself. We intend--and I believe it is not too much to claim--that the Palace itself shall make an epoch in the architecture of our city. We believe that it will give an impulse to construction in the material of iron that will be of the greatest service to that interest. Iron constructions have already been carried far forward by a most intelligent and accomplished mechanic--Mr. James Bogardus--and I believe that the experience of this building will give it a great additional impulse. Its superior lightness, durability, cheapness, and facility of construction give it immense advantages over any other material. We are erecting an edifice that will cover, on the ground floor, two and a half acres, and it will be done in the winter, in about six months, for a sum not much varying from $200,000. If any one compares this time and the time with what would be required for a building of any other material, except wood, the immense superiority of iron is most perceptible. But there are, sir, ulterior considerations which I wish clearly to state. The large cities of the elder world, especially on the Continent, possess great galleries for popular instruction and entertainment. It is, at first sight, remarkable, though, in fact, easily intelligible, that in a country reposing entirely on popular power, comparatively nothing is done on a great public scale for the pleasure and instruction of our adult people. We have no galleries, no parks. This is not the place to say anything in favor of a park, though an object which should be dear to the heart of every New Yorker. But I desire in regard to the other objects, to point out how easy it will be hereafter to convert this building into a great People’s Gallery of Art. Its structure is eminently adapted for the purpose. We stand here on the city’s ground, and it will be completely in the power of the city hereafter to accomplish this result. Long after our Association shall have disappeared, I hope this building may stand--as long as yonder massive and majestic creation; and like that, in the hands of the public authorities, be one of those monuments which makes the Government dear to the people. [Cheers.] Allow me to say a few words of our purposes. The undertaking is a private one--fostered by no governmental aid; but the interests are so numerous and divided that not the slightest color is afforded for the charge of speculation. There are, I venture to say, very few undertakings of equal magnitude which are represented by so large a number of parties, and it thus becomes practicable to impress upon the direction and management of the enterprise that broad, liberal, impartial, and, as it were, national character which is essential