much as if I were the wrong man in the wrong place in returning thanks for such a toast; and when I looked around me and saw so many who are identified with general literature, with literature in the various walks of fiction, poetry, history, science, and divinity, I certainly felt that you had committed, what indeed is not a frequent circumstance with you, a great error in judgment, in calling on me to return thanks in the name of literature. Why, Sir Charles, I really feel, and I am sure those I am addressing must feel, that I have no claim to respond for the literature of the country, any more than any person might have a claim to be admitted to the distinguished honour of belonging to this Academy on the sole pretension of having produced one single copy, however faithful, of one of the great masters. It is true I have had before me in that great work to which you have done me the honour of alluding a masterpiece of art. And if it be true that "ut pictura poesis "—if it be true that poetry is word-painting and painting is visible poetry, then I think I may venture to claim for that great original I have endeavoured to copy, that he was among the greatest painters of any country in the world. For, let me ask you and this assembly, what are the great qualities which are required to form a distinguished painter? First, I apprehend, they are fidelity to nature, a genuine appreciation of the beauties of nature-a vivid imagination-a correct and anatomical knowledge of the formation of the human frame a correct and almost equally anatomical knowledge of all the expressions, feelings, and passions of the human mind,—a correctness of outline,-boldness of touch,-a vividness of colouring,a judicious distribution of light and shade; and, the great quality of all others, in grouping the subjects together, so to arrange your groups that each individual figure should possess its own characteristic merit and position, and yet all unite to concentrate the eye and attention on the great central and principal figure of the group. Now, if these are really the characteristics of painting, I claim for Homer that in no age and no country has any painter surpassed the infinite variety of his achievements. It is not in one branch alone, but it is in historical painting, in landscape, I may say even in portrait painting, he stands almost unrivalled in each and every one of them. If he desires to bring before you an extended group of gods, or warriors, or chieftains in debate, he presents a variety and individuality among them that would create the envy of a Maclise, a Herbert, or a Frith. If he desires to represent the ocean in its milder or stormier characters, by a few rapid touches he produces a sketch a Stanfield might look on with envy. If he paints the vineyard or harvest home, he bathes the landscape in a flood of light which a Linnell would hardly venture to emulate. And, passing to the wilder features of rural life, the representation of the passions and contests of the brute creation, if he attempts to describe a lion springing at and striking down a bull in the midst of the herd, or a wounded boar - turning on his pursuers, or a pack of wolves with blood-stained jaws lapping with their lean tongues the cool surface of some dark-watered fountain, or a wounded panther writhing itself up the spear that has transfixed her, in order to reach her assailant, the few touches which Homer gives brings before the mental eye the whole scene with a life and vigour which could hardly be equalled by an Ansdell or surpassed by a Landseer. He must be cold indeed, he must be insensible to all the beauties of poetic language, who could sit down and study and endeavour to imbue himself with the spirit of such an original, without catching some faint emanation of its spirit. I only wish it could have been in my power by language to represent to the mass of my fellowcountrymen the grace, simplicity, and power of the original, with as much power, as much clasical talent, and as much ability, as have immortalized the illustrations of Homer by Flaxman. But I feel how unequal I have been to the task I had undertaken. I doubt not there may be among those whom I have the honour to address many who in their earlier days sat down before some great masterpiece of art and determined, not servilely to copy each line which they saw before them, but to fill themselves with the full perception of its beauties, and when, after devoting days, and weeks, and months to a faithful copy of the great work they had set before them, it had been completed amid the applause of the public and the congratulations of friends, their own feeling of internal consciousness told them how far short they had come of the original, what an immense distance there was between their best efforts and the work they had before them. Most unaffectedly such are the views with which I look back on those efforts of mine, which you have been pleased to honour with approval this night. But while feeling how unworthy I am to receive the compliment you have paid me in this presence and on this occasion, I need hardly say how deeply and gratefully I feel the honour which has been conferred on me by this distinguished assembly. Several other speeches were delivered in acknowledgment of the various toasts, by which tributes were paid to science, architecture, and other objects. Among those who addressed the company were Dr. Livingstone, the African traveller, Earl Stanhope, General Sabine, Mr. Tite, M.P., Lord Naas, Lord Bury, and the Lord Mayor of London. MAY. 9. VISIT OF THE PRINCE OF WALES TO IRELAND, AND OPENING OF THE DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.-The International Exhibition at Dublin was opened by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with an imposing ceremony and various attendant festivities, and witnessed by a company of at least 30,000 visitors, who enjoyed a day of the finest possible weather, and a thoroughly successful performance of the whole programme. The Winter Garden, as it is to be called hereafter, which resembles the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, but is about one-fourth its size, will be used as a vast conservatory, with the adjacent pleasure-grounds, affording in all seasons a delightful promenade. But for the present this light and graceful structure, nearly 500 ft. in length, is occupied by the Exhibition of Arts and Industry, while the substantial building of brick and stone, which forms the centre of the Eastern front, contains-the picturegalleries; a large concert-hall, to accommodate 3000 persons; a smaller concert-hall, for half that number; a practising-room for the orchestra, a lecture-hall, and the saloons and dining-rooms; with a large annexe for machinery in motion, a second annexe for other machinery, a third annexe for carriages, and a fourth annexe for refreshment-rooms, kitchens, lavatories, and other convenient offices. The principal entrance is from Earlsfortterrace, there being six pairs of gateways, for entrance, exit, and foot-passengers; the grounds and drive in front being inclosed with a handsome chain railing and rock-face wall. There is also an entrance through the pleasure-grounds from Harcourt-terrace. The architect was Mr. A. G. Jones, of Dublin; the engineers Messrs. Ordish and Le Feuve, of Westminster. The decoration of the buildings was entrusted to Mr. Doyle; the prevailing colours are green and grey on the columns and ribs. The pleasure-grounds, laid out by Mr. Niven, are approached from the circular transept in the centre of the Winter Garden, whence a colonnade leads out upon the terrace in the open air, with a flight of steps to descend. A very effective cascade, which forms one of the most picturesque features of these pleasuregrounds, is seen from the entrance of the Exhibition building, looking along the transept, in the centre of which is a bronze fountain, of ornamental design. The extent of the out-door pleasure-grounds is about thirteen acres, containing lawns, avenues, shrubberies, slopes, and terraces, with fountains, flower-beds, conservatories, and rock-work. Here the geologist finds massed together, in and around the basin of the cascade, specimens of some of the most beautiful Irish rocks. Here are quartz, with mica run ning through it like veins of silver; greenstone, with quartz veins; grey granite, glistening with mica; dark basalt, and limestone of coralline formation, with many valuable metallic ores, marbles, and other samples of the mineral wealth of the country. In the rock-work are ferns and primroses, great roots of ancient oak from the bogs, and a variety of mosses which fill up some of the interstices and enliven the whole. Feathery trees droop over the basin from which the water descends; and after a short lapse of time the rockery, which is very beautiful now, will be the most attractive portion of these grounds. Adjoining the grounds is a house fitted up for Mr. Guinness, who has built at the end of his private garden a very elegant little pavillion, overlooking the garden of the Exhibition on one side and a small lake or piece of artificial water on the other. The arrival of the Prince of Wales on the previous afternoon was not marked by any great public demonstration in the city of Dublin. His Royal Highness, having crossed from Holyhead to Kingstown, with the Duke of Cambridge, Earl Spencer, Lord Dufferin, and Sir Robert Peel, in the Queen's yacht, the "Victoria and Albert," was met on his landing by Lord Wodehouse, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with some of his suite. The Prince was heartily cheered by a crowd of people on the platform. He came to Dublin with the Lord Lieutenant by a special train, in which a state carriage had been prepared for his use. At the Westland-row station the Lord Lieutenant's carriages were in attendance with an escort of cavalry, and the whole party went at once to the Viceregal Lodge in the Phoenix Park. The streets of Dublin were illuminated at night, looking very gay and splendid, and were filled by a greater crowd than has been seen in them since the night following the Queen's public entry into Dublin a few years ago. Fireworks were let off from some of the houses, flags and banners hung from the windows, and nothing was left undone to show how rejoiced the inhabitants of Dublin were at receiving the unusual compliment of a Royal visit. The next morning the weather was beautiful, and the streets were alive from an early hour with holiday folks of every class. The neighbourhood of the Exhibition building was soon thronged with vehicles of every description; and when eleven o'clock, the hour for opening the doors, arrived, the rush of well-dressed company was greater than had probably ever before been seen in Dublin. The naves, galleries, and halls were all soon filled to overflowing, so that long before the Prince arrived there must have been 30,000 persons present. His Royal Highness arrived at about half-past two o'clock, and was received at the principal entrance by the following noblemen and gentlemen: The Lord Mayor, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Leinster, the Earl of Meath, Lord Powerscourt, Lord Southwell, Mr. Sanders (the chairman of the Executive Committee), and Mr. B. L. Guinness. His Royal Highness, who was accom panied by the Duke of Cambridge, and attended by the Lord Lieutenant and Lady Wodehouse, Earl Spencer, and Sir Robert Peel, was conducted by the gentlemen named above to the dais which had been prepared for the occasion; and then a pause of a few moments took place, during which His Royal Highness surveyed the splendid coup-d'œil before him, and bowed in acknowledgment of the cheers that greeted him on every side. The orchestra, conducted by Mr. Levy, of the Theatre Royal, performed the National Anthem. The Duke of Leinster, accompanied by Mr. Sanders, then advanced to the foot of the dais, and, on behalf of the Exhibition Committee, read an address thanking His Royal Highness for having come, in the name of Her Majesty, to inaugurate this Exhibition. They recognized in this Royal act a high appreciation of the interests of industry and art, a gracious wish to advance the welfare of the Irish people, and a continuance of the enlightened course of the late illustrious and lamented Prince Consort, who bestowed so much encouragement upon works like these. They concluded with an expression of their heartfelt wishes for the health and happiness of the Princess of Wales, whom the Irish people earnestly desired to see amongst them. "Whenever circumstances may permit Her Royal Highness to visit our shores, which we trust will be at no distant period, we venture to promise such an enthusiastic welcome as will convey to Her Majesty and your Royal Highness the fullest assurance of loyalty and devotion." To this address His Royal Highness was pleased to return the following reply: "My Lords and Gentlemen,-I thank you for your address. It is a source of sincere pleasure to me to discharge the duty which has been confided to me by Her Majesty the Queen in thus inaugurating your Exhibition. It is not less in accordance with my own feelings than with those of Her Majesty to assist in every measure which is calculated for the happiness and welfare of the Irish people. The example of my lamented and beloved parent will, I trust, be ever present to my mind as a stimulus to the encouragement of every work which is calculated to advance international prosperity and to develope the resources of my country. The cultivation of the fine arts, in itself so powerful an auxiliary in civilizing and refining the human race, has been an important object in this Exhibition, and, indeed, is known already to have produced most satisfactory results. Believe me to be very sensible of your kind wishes on behalf of the Princess of Wales. Her regret at not being able to accompany me only equals my own, and you may rely on her anxiety to come among you and herself to ask the welcome which she is as sure to receive.' An address was then presented by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, after which a procession was formed, at the head of which His Royal Highness made the tour of the building, receiving fresh |