"Gentlemen,--It is truly gratifying to my feelings to find myself this day called on to take a part in the final completion of a building the foundation of which was the work of my lamented father, as it was also an object which he had much at heart. My satisfaction is increased by finding his beneficent plan carried out in a manner worthy of the cause and of the profession for the benefit of which the Dramatic College has been instituted, and that, as the inevitable hour approaches, he who has so often administered to your amusement, blended with instruction, will here find a retreat open for age and its infirmities, in grateful recognition of a debt due by the world at large. I am happy to learn that the funds are progressively increasing towards conferring the inestimable boon of education on the children of men who, whether by their performances or by their writings, have themselves laboured so well in the cause of literature, and so justly earned this provision for their offspring. The inauguration of the building we are now in completes the three purposes which you have enumerated as forming the original design of this institution. After having provided for the material wants and comforts of those who are entitled to seek a shelter in this asylum, the last object is to cheer their evening of life, and to embellish its closing scenes with the books, memorials, and records of their art, that they may again live in the past, and make their final exit in a spirit of thankfulness to God and their fellow-creatures." FISHMONGERS' HALL DINNER. _June 11th, 1865._