yal
Highness spoke as follows:--

"Mr. Mayor, my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen,--I beg to return
you, Mr. Mayor, my most cordial thanks for the manner in which
you have been kind enough to propose my health, and to you,
ladies and gentlemen, for the kind way in which you have been
pleased to receive it. This is by no means my first visit to
your ancient town. I have on frequent occasions spent some very
agreeable days here; but among all the different visits that I
have paid none will have been more interesting to me than the
present one, nor more vividly impressed on my memory. I assure
the Mayor and citizens of this town that great pleasure and
gratification was afforded me in opening this magnificent hall,
all the more so as my name is connected with your town as your
High Steward. I esteem it a great honour to have that title,
though the duties are certainly very slight; and if those duties
consist only in coming here and being so kindly and cordially
received by you all, I think I have every reason to congratulate
myself. I congratulate those gentlemen who have built this hall,
and who, I think, have every reason to feel satisfaction with
its appearance and its prospects of future success. To you, Mr.
Mayor, who have taken such pains during the last five years, as
Chairman of the Guildhall Committee, it must be very
gratifying; and allow me also to have the pleasure of offering
my sincere congratulations to the Mayor of Devonport, as one of
the architects of this Guildhall. I again beg to thank you for
the kind reception which you have given me to-day, and, in
conclusion, I beg also to thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the kind way
in which you have proposed the Princess of Wales's health, and
to assure you how deeply she regrets that she was unable to
accompany me on the present occasion. She is now on her way to
Scotland to meet her father, the King of Denmark, who is
returning that way from his visit to Iceland."

Afterwards the Prince proposed the health of the Mayor, thanking him for
his reception, congratulating him upon the good order maintained in the
streets, and requesting him to convey to the citizens his sense of the
pleasure and gratification afforded him by the artistic decorations of
the town.

VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM IN 1874.

_November 3rd, 1874._

The Prince and Princess o