The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-13 00:00:00

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with the Royal Marine Band, which was stationed
opposite, in some very energet!c musical perform-
ances, and, a field battery was drawn tip close by,
ready to give the royal salute on her Majesty's ar-
rival. A second salute was to have signalised the
setting of the stone, but in this inst ince the guns
were fired too soon, and the stone bad to subside
into its place without the usual explosive honours.
Punctually at the time appointed the royal car-
riages were seen winding rapidly mild one of the
new roads leading to the ground, and immediately
afterwards, her Majesty alighted and entered a
tent, round the entrance of which the commission-
ers of the Patriotic Fund were ranged in uniform
or levee costume. Amongst the crowd were Sir
G. Grey, Mr. S. Herbert. the Duke of Newcastle,
Lord Rede,dale, Lord St. Leopards, the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, Earl of Hardwick, and seve-
ral other persons of distinction, and in her Ma-
jesty'simmediate suite were the Prince Consort,
the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, the Princes:
Charlotte of Belgium, the Prince of Prussia, Prince
Alfred, the Prussian Minister, with the Duke of
Wellin,,a'on, the Marquis of Abercorn, Earl Spen-
cer, and other members of her Majesty's household.
On leaving the pavilion, a process!on, formed in
in the following order, proceeded to the platform,
where the stone was to be laid :
The Architect. The Secretary.
The Executive and Finance Committee
(two and two),
The Royal Convoissionera
(two and two).
The Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop of
Winchester.

The Lord Steward of H. M. Household. The Lord
Chamberlain.
The Queen. The Prince Consort.
Members of the Royal Family.
The Great Officers of State.

One hundred orphan boys (fifty from the Duke
of York's School, and an equal number from the
Greenwich school) and one hundred girls (fifty
from the Sailors' Orphan Girls' School, and the
same number from the Soldiers' Infant Home) for-
med a line in front of the covered platforms before
which the procession passed, and the guard of hon-
our and the military bands paid their customary
salute, and, as usual, played the National Anthem.
On the arrival of her Majesty at the spot where the
stone was to be laid, the Chairman of the Execu-
tive and Finance Committee read the following ad
dress to her Majesty :
" We, your Majesty's most dutiful subjectg, the
Commissioners appointed by your Majesty for the
formation and application of a Patriotic Fund, ap-
proach your Majesty with the assurance of our de-
voted loyalty and affectionate attachment to your
Majesty's throne and person, and with the expres-
sion of our gratitude for your Majesty's condescen-
sion in honouring by your presence and patronage
the foundation of this building, intended for the
reception and education of the orphan daughters of
those soldiers, seamen, and marines, who have
fallen in the late war with Russia, and of those' who
may hereafter lose their lives in the service of their
country.

" Tile brilliant valour displayed by your Ma-
jesty's forces in battle against the enemy early
aroneed the sympathy and admiration of their coun-
trymen in every part of the British empire, which
was augmented by the unflinching fortitude with
which they encountered in turn the no less deadly,
foes, privation, toil, and sickness, which subse-
quently thinned their ranks even more than the
sword. Nor was this feeling confined to your Ma-
jesty's subjects, for in numerous instances natives
of other countries gener.illy united in augmenting
the contributions which were offered for relieving
the wants of those widows and orphans who had
been deprived of that support upon which they de-
pended for their maintenance, by the casualties of
war.

" Your Majesty was graciously pleased to appoint
us commissioners, under the presidency of your
royal consort, to receive the sums so subscribed,
and justly and faithfully to distribute them in such
manner as should seem to them best suited to secure
the most impartial and b:neficent application of
them to the purposes specified in your royal com-
mission, and empowering us to appoint a committee
for the perfurmance of the executive duties of com-
missioners, under such regulations as we might
direct, and these we have much pleasure in report-
ing to your Majesty, the committee of noblemen
and gentlemen whom we appointed have most satis-
factorily carried into effect The subscriptions fos-
tered by your Majesty's example and zoyal care,
and liberally crntribu'ed to persons of every class
of your subjects, have produced no less a sum than
1,446,985/. 7s. ; a detailed statement of which is
herewith humbly submitted to your Majesty.
" The munificence of the country having thus
enabled your Majesty's commissioners to provide a
liberal scale of relief for the maintenance of the
widows and orphans, and to extend the benefits of
certain existing charitable institutions for the edu-
cation of the children of soldiers, seamen, and ma-
rines (as well as officers and men), by adding to
their permanent endowment, they resolved, out of
the surplus of the funds still remaining at their dis-
posal, to found an institution for the maintenance
and education of orphans, which should not only
provide for those the more immediate objects of
their charge, but also remain a permanent memorial
of the national generosity which provided the
means for its establishment.

" For this purpose we allocated a sum of 33,0001.
f,r the purchase of a suitable site, and the erection
of buildings for the reception of 300 girls under 15
years of age, and have endowed it with 140,000/.
" The orphans admitted into this institution will
be carefully in•structekl in their moral and religious
duti-s, and, in addition to a useful elementary e lu-
cation, will be taught those branches of industrial
knowledge which will fit them to perform the duties
of domestic servants, and when they become wives
and mothers, will enable them to manage their
households with economy, and, by habits of cleanli-
ness and order, to contribute to the comfort and
che iffulness of their homes. Such is the proposed.
object of the institution which your Majesty is gra-
ciously pleased to patronise, by permitting it to
bear your illustrious name, and by gracing it with
your presence this day. Thus sanctioned, we now
commit it to the care of that Almighty Being who
has proclaimed himself specially the Father of the
fatherless. Humbly trusting that it may, under
His guiding Providence, fulfil the objects for which
it is intended—cheering the heart of the widow and
the orphan, and teaching them to look up with in-
creased loyalty and attachment to the gracious
Queen who thus personally sympathises in the sor-
rows of tho-ie who fall in the service of their Sove-
reign and their country. " ALBERT."
The address having been read, the document was

banded to her Majesty, who ga're it to Sir George
Grey, who, in return, handed to the Queen the
reply of her Majesty, which was as follows :
" I thank you sincerely for your loyal and affec-
tionate address.

" I gladly avail myself of this occasion to express
the great satisfaction I have derived from the grati-
fying evidence presented to me of the manner in
which my faithful subjects throughout the whole
extent of my dominions, and in the most distant
pacts of the world, have evinced their genuine
sympathy with my own feelings of admiration for-the
gallant conduct and enduring fortitude of my naval
and military forces, by the munificent contribu-
tions to the funds for the relief of the widows and
orphans of the brave men who have fallen in the
discharge of their duly to their soverign and their
country. You have fully justified the confidence
placed in you by your judicious and impartial dis-
tribution of these funds, and I entirely approve of
the appropriation of a portion of them to the erec-
tion and permanent endowment of an institution in
the success of which I shall ever feel the warmest

interest.
"I am most happy to take a part in the founda-
tion of this institution, and I heartily concur with
you in committing it to the Divine care and protec-
tion, and in praying that the benevolent objects
with which it has been designed. may be to the
ful!est extent accomplished."
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY having offered
up a suitable prayer, a glass tube containing speci-
mens of the current coin of the realm was deposited
in an aperture ill the lowtr stone by her Majesty,
together with a splendidly engrossed vellum, on
which was an appropriate inscription.
The bed for the stone having been duly pre-
pared, her Majesty was handed the silver trowel,
with which she gave the finishing touch to the mor-
tar, and the upper stone was gradually lowered on
to its final resting place. Her Majesty having ap-
plied the plumb line and level to the masonry, had
the satisfaction of finding that it was perfectly true,
and . giving it several raps with the delicately
polished mallet, declared the foundation of the new
building to be laid. On a brass plate let into the
front of the stone is this inscription in Latin and
English
On the 11th July, MDCCCLVII., in the second
year of peace, Queen Victoria dedicated this asylum,
erected from a portion of the free gifts of the
United Kingdom, of the British Colonies and the
Indian Empire, and of many not aukieote of the

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