The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-22 00:00:00

THE PROPOSED STATUE TO PRINCE
ALBERT.

MINISTERIAL BANQUETS.
The Earl of Aberdeen, First Lord of the Treasury,
gave a state dinner to a party of peers, in honour of her
Majesty's birthday, at Argyll House. The noblemen
present were the Dukes of Buccleuch, Leeds, and Argyll;
the Marquis of Westminster ; the Earls of Burlington,
Carnarvon, Camperdown, Chichester, Clanwilliam,
Ellesmere, Fitzhardinge, Kintore, Shaftesbury, Zetland,
Airlie, Albemarle, Clare, Gosford, Haddington, Gran-
ville, and Ducie ; Viscount Canning; Lords Heytesbury,
Hatherton, Overstone, Ward, Monteagle, and Beau-
mont ; Mr. Clinton Dawkins and Mr. Cole (private
secretaries).
The Marquis of Breadalbane, K.T., Lord
dinner Chamber-
lain of the Queen's Household, gave a state in
celebration of the day, at his residence in Park-lane, to
the following distinguished circle :—The Vice-Chamber-
lain, Lord Ernest Bruce, the Captain of the Gentlemen-
at-Arms, Lord Foley, Earl Somers, the Earl of Listowel,
Lord De Tablet', Lord Byron, Lieut.-General Sir Fre-
derick Stovin, Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. Alex. Nelson
Hood, Major-General Berkeley Drummond, Lieut.-
General Sir Edward Bowater, Captain the Hon. Mor-
timer Sackville West, Hon. Frederick Byng, Colonel
Sir Frederic Smith, Sir William Martins, Mr. Thomas
Ramsden, Mr. Arthur Blackwood, Captain Green, Mr.
Alfred Montgomery, Mr. Wilbraham Taylor, Lieut.-
Colonel Henry S. Stephens, Sir Alexander Campbell,
Bart., Mr. Norman Macdonald, Hon. Col. -Upton,
Field Officer in Waiting, the Duke of Roxburghe, Sir
James Clark, Bart., Major General Sir George Bowles,
Sir David Brewster, the Hon. and Rev. Gerald Wel-
lesley, and Sir Roderick Murchison.
The Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for War
and the Colonies, gave a state dinner to celebrate the day
at his residence in Portman-square, to the followingy
gentlemen connected with his grace's departments :
The Commander-in-Chief, the Military Secretary, the
Secretary at War, the Deputy Secretary, the Adjutant-
General, the Quartermaster-General, the Private Secre-
tary, the Lieut.-General of the Ordnance, the Principal
Storekeeper of the Ordnance, the Clerk f the Ordnance,
the Inspector General of Fortifications, the Judge-Ad-
vocate General, the Secretary to the Lieut.-General of
the Ordnance, Mr. Under Secretary Peel, Mr. Under
Secretary Merivale, Mr. Assistant Under Secretary
Elliott, Lieutenant-Colonel Mundy, Assistant Under
Secretary for War, Mr. Commissioner Murdoch, Com-
missioner Sir F. Rogers, Governor Sir Geo. Grey (New
Zealand,) Lieutenant-Governor Mr. D. Daly, the Right
Rev. the Bishops of Adelaide, New Zealand, Graham's
Town, and Sierra Leone, the Very Rev. W. A. New-
man, Dean of Cape Town, the Honourable and Rev. H
Douglas, Cape Town, the Chief Justice of St. Helena.
the Chief Justice of Victoria, the Chief Justice of the
Gold Coast, the son. the Master of the Folk, Nova

The following correspondence has been sent us for
publication :

" May 3, 1854.
"Sir,—ln pursuance of the accompanying resolution, I
have the honour to transmit, for the information of his
Royal Highness Prince Albert, a list of the subscribers,
with the amount of subscriptions. No appeal has yet
been made to the general public, who have so materially
benefitted by the Great Exhibition, and who will, it is
believed contribute, according to their means, when a
definite , plan be adopted for the attainment of the
object.
" I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your obedient servant,
" THOMAS CHALLIS.
"To Colonel the Hon. Charles Grey.
" ' Resolved,—That previous to making an organised
appeal to the country, it is the duty of this committee to
submit to his Royal Highness Prince Albert a report of
its proceedings up to the present time. They would,
therefore, respectfully solicit the honour and advantage
of his Royal Highness's counsel as to the best mode of
transmitting to posterity a memorial of that great na-
tional event, the Exhibition of 1851, with which the
name of his Royal Highness must ever be associated.'"
" Buckingham Palace, May 6.
" Sir,— I have had the honour of receiving, and of
submitting to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, the re-
solution adopted by the committee of subscribers to a
' Memorial of the Great Exhibition,' which was enclosed
in your letter of the 3d inst., and in which his Royal
Highness's counsel is solicited 'as to the best mode of
transmitting to posterity a memorial of that great event.'
" In the very natural desire to record the success of
that great national undertaking, which has reflected so
much credit on the enterprise and perseverance of the
people of this country, his Royal Highness most cor-
dially concurs. The same desire necessarily forced itself
upon the Royal Commissioners, when they had to con-
sider the best mode of applying the surplus which, on
finally closing the accounts of the Exhibition, remained
in their hands.
" They agreed that its most appropriate memorial
would be found in the attempt to perpetuate some of the
advantages which that undertaking had been intended
to produce, viz., the fostering and promoting of general
education in the arts and sciences as applied to produo-
tive industry—and his Royal Highness would refer you
to the published report of the Royal Commissioners on
the disposal of that surplus for a detailed explanation of
his own personal opinion and that of the Royal Com•
missioners as to the best mode of effecting this object.
" It seems to his Royal Highness that the wishes of
those who have subscribed to the proposedmemorial
would be most satisfactorily met by the adoption of some
plan which, while it harmonised with the objects recom-
mended by the Royal Commissioners in their report,
should still preserve a distinctive character, and should
he calculated to mark the specific nature of the purpose
which the subscribers to this memorial have had in view.
" In the uncertainty his Royal Highness must neces-
sarily be under with respect to the wishes and feelings of
the subscribers, he would not wish to give more than
.a
very vague idea of the manner in which he thinks this
purpose may be best effected. It might probably be
done by the endowment of one or more professorships ;
by the institution of periodical exhibitions ; by the pur-
chase of fine works of art for the national museums ; or
by the endowment of prizes for specific objects. But
that which strikes his Royal Highness at this moment
as the simplest and most effectual method would be to
found scholarships as prizes for proficiency in certain
branches of study connected with art and science. These
might be travelling scholarships, and if the sum sub-
scribed should amount to 10,0001., the interest would be
sufficient to found four, or one for each of the four great
classes into which the Exhibition was divided, while by
this means also the connection between our efforts in art
and science and those of other nations would be main,
tamed.
" The competition for such prizes, as being immedi-
ately connected with the objects of the Great Exhibition,
might, if so wished, be conducted under the auspices of
the Royal Commissioners, who might meet publicly each
year, on the anniversary of the opening of the Exhibi-
tion, to announce the successful competitors, when the
reports of the preceding year, which the scholars should
be instructed to furnish, might also be read, and their
publication for general use afterwards undertaken by
the commissioners.
" His Royal Highness merely throws out this sug-
gestion as illustrative of his idea of the manner in which
the memory of the Exhibition would be most worthily
perpetuated, and does not give it as a
which he proposes for the adoption of the committee 11
matured plan
but should this, or any similar plan, meet . their. views,
he would have much pleasure in further discussing the
subject with them. The only wish be canmahavceariry h
on%
such a plan may be adopted by them as y
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the honour to be, sir, your very obedient s,e,rnt,
Cva. GREY.

"To Thomas Challis, Esq., M.P."

distinguishedOFLlEUTENANT W. H. Hoorn, R.N.—
young officer, who commanded the
This
secondhpis EA Tcutter l
in the remarkable voyage of the boats of
her Majesty's ship Plover, from Icy-cape to the Mae•
kenzie, in search of Sir John Franklin, died at Brompton
on Friday morning last. His premature death was oc-
casioned by disease of the lungs, brought on by constant
exposure and severe hardships and sufferings, Lieutenant
Hooper, having, on one occasion, been lost for three
days in a snowstorm, and passed two lonely winters
away from his ship in log huts, with a few of his boat's
crew, near the northern shores of America, lain chiefly
upon offal fiiih.