belief that it will largely conduce to the revival among all classes of the nation of a taste for the cultivation of music. Your Majesty will hear with satisfaction that results have justified the original estimate of the cost of the building, and that, aided by the liberal assistance of your Exhibition Commissioners, the corporation will commence its management unfettered by pecuniary liabilities, and under conditions eminently calculated to insure success. It is my grateful duty to return to your Majesty our humble thanks for the additional mark of your Royal favour which is conferred upon us by your auspicious presence on the present occasion when our labours as a Provisional Committee are drawing to a close. We venture to hope that when we shall have resigned our functions into the hands of the governing body, which will be elected under the provisions of the Royal Charter granted to us, your Majesty will continue to the Corporation that measure of support which has been always graciously given to us." The Queen, who had listened to the address with the utmost interest and attention, said, in a voice clearly heard in every part of the vast building: "In handing you this answer, I wish to express my great admiration of this beautiful Hall, and my earnest wishes for its complete success." The written answer to the address was not read, but it is here given to complete the record of the day's ceremony:-- "I thank you for the loyal address which, as President of the Provisional Committee of the Hall of Arts and Sciences, you have presented to me. In opening this spacious and noble Hall, it gives me pleasure to acknowledge the generous spirit which has been manifested in the completion, by voluntary effort, of a work promising so much public usefulness. I cordially concur in the hope you have expressed, that this Hall, forming as it does part of a plan in which I must ever take a deep and personal interest, may largely and permanently contribute to the promotion among my people of the love of art, as well as to the success of the annual exhibitions, which will bring successively into instructive competition the choicest products of the industries of all nations. These objects could not fail to commend themselves at all times and all places to my sympathy and interest, fraught as they are with recollections of him to whose memory this Hall is dedicated, and whose dearest aim was to inspire my people with a love of all that is good and noble, and, by closer knowledge and juster appreciation of each other, to cultivate a spirit of goodwill and concord among the inhabitants of all regions. I gladly give the assurance of my support to the corporation to which the Hall is about to be entrusted, and I earnestly hope that their efforts to promote