"Sir Francis Grant, your Royal Highness, my Lords, and Gentlemen,—I beg to tender you my warmest thanks for the very kind manner in which you have proposed and received the health of the Princess of Wales and myself. I feel sure she will be deeply gratified for the kind words you have this evening uttered, and I am glad to say that, although she has now for very nearly two months been kept to her room by a long and tedious illness, she is now progressing towards recovery. I know I can have no more pleasing announcement to make to her Royal Highness than to tell her of the very kind feeling which has always been exhibited to her since her first coming to this country. I beg also, Sir Francis, to thank you for the very kind manner in which you have alluded to the interest I take with regard to science and art. I need not tell you that I do take such an interest. If I may say so, I take the same interest which my parents have always taken, although I may not have the same experience or knowledge; still, I hope I shall always tread in their footsteps in that respect.
"I am flattered, Sir Francis, by your statement that I have shown an appreciation of art in becoming the possessor of a work by so celebrated an artist as Sir Edwin Landseer. I think it would be impossible to find at this table any one who would not feel the same appreciation of so admirable a work of art. I obtained the picture under somewhat peculiar circumstances. It had been painted for a private person who was kind enough to give it up to me. Sir Edwin Landseer, although he has been before the public for many years as a painter, has within the last two months achieved great distinction as a sculptor, and has produced one of the finest monuments of art that exist in this country. He kept us perhaps some time in waiting for his lions, but the result has certainly been a most magnificent one.
"With reference to the Exhibition now before us, I think I may say that for many years we have not seen a finer exhibition. The names of Grant, Watts, Millais, and others I need not particularise. Last year we had to mourn the loss of Sir C. Eastlake, and now we have to lament the departure from among us of another Royal Academician, Mr. Philip, to the vivid truthfulness of whose pictures from Spanish life I myself, from having been in Spain, can amply testify. I beg, my lords and gentlemen, again to thank you for the kind manner in which you have proposed and received my health, and the still kinder manner in which you have received the health of the Princess of Wales."
1870.
The Royal Academy banquet for 1870 fell on the 30th of April.
Sir Francis Grant, the President, in proposing "The Health of the Queen," stated that Her Majesty had, in May of the previous year, conferred on the Academy the honour of visiting the new galleries in state, and was pleased to express her high approval. At that visit she gave commissions for pictures to several young artists of rising fame; and she presented to the Academy the beautiful marble bust of herself, executed by her accomplished daughter the Princess Louise.
In next proposing "The Health of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the rest of the Royal Family," the President said that they were all glad to welcome the Prince, for the first time, in the new galleries. "Last year His Royal Highness was well employed elsewhere visiting the historic wonders of ancient Egypt, accompanied by the Princess of Wales, whom we must all rejoice to see returned to this country in perfect health. It must be a gratifying circumstance to all Her Majesty's loyal subjects that the Royal Princes, her sons, are not too delicately reared, as Princes were of old, but are all manly English gentlemen and great travellers, who seek to elevate and enlarge their minds by studying the customs and policy of foreign nations, and to strengthen the cords of sympathy and loyalty which bind our colonies to the mother country. I read with pleasure of His Royal Highness recently presiding at a meeting of the Society of Arts, and the able sentiments he then expressed on the subject of education. I am glad also to learn that the Prince has succeeded the late lamented Lord Derby as President of the Royal Commission of 1851—an institution, if I may so call it, which has done such great things for the progress of art, especially in connection with manufactures, and which owes so much, I might say entirely its great success, to the enlightened genius and active support of the Prince's illustrious father."
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who was received with much cheering, said:—
"Mr. President, your Royal Highness, my Lords, and Gentlemen,—I beg to tender you my warmest thanks for the kind way in which this toast has been proposed and received. It has afforded me great gratification once more to attend the hospitable board of the Royal Academy, and especially as I have this evening for the first time had the pleasure of dining in these new rooms. As the President has remarked, he was kind enough last year to invite me to inaugurate these rooms, but, being abroad, I was unfortunately unable to do so. I regret it, especially as that was the one hundredth anniversary of the Royal Academy. I think I may be allowed to congratulate the President and all the Royal Academicians on the Exhibition of this year. Of course, every artist strives each succeeding year to produce still better pictures and statues, and I think the Academicians have no reason to complain on the present occasion. We must regret, as I am sure all Academicians will, the death of Mr. Maclise, and it is with feelings of sorrow that we shall now for the last time see a picture of his adorn these walls. The President has kindly alluded to me as having recently presided at a meeting of the Society of Arts, and I cannot but thank him for the compliment he has paid me in connection with the observations I made upon that occasion. It afforded me great pleasure to preside at that meeting, and, although my position as President of the Society is to a certain extent an honorary one, I promise that I shall be ready on every occasion to come forward and give as much time as I can in promoting any of its very important objects. I beg also to thank the President for having alluded to me as President of the Commission of 1851. It is with deep regret that I have had to succeed one whose presence we must all miss on occasions like these—one whose name can never be forgotten in the country's history, and who always took the highest interest in the welfare of all our great institutions, and more especially those connected with art—I allude to the late lamented Lord Derby. My lords and gentlemen, I assure you the Princess of Wales will be highly gratified to hear how kindly on this, as on every other public occasion, you have received her name and health, and I beg to thank you for the kind manner in which you have listened to the few remarks I have made."
The usual toasts were afterwards given, and responded to by eminent men, including Mr. Motley, the American Minister, and Charles Dickens.