While the dark cloud of adversity has threatened to euroTte
division in Manchester, the light of festivity shines upon union'in Birmingham. Prince Albert went down on purpose to lay -the first stone of the new and enlarged 'Institute ; and the authorities of the country, royal and local, met the workmanship of Birming- ham in the spirit of reciprocal eulogy and encouragement. In the spoken concert after the feasting, the Prince led the strain in one of his lectures upon the study of the Divine laws in nature, in order to render them the "conscious regulators" of cesthetical and industrial arts ; and Lord Ashburton followed up with a warning sermon on the necessity of not neglecting that lesson. Birming- ham, flattered by this appreciation of its newly-builded purpose, applauded to the echo ; and there was a grand fraternizing. Inci- dentally, other subjects were touched upon ; and, from the Prince to the humblest guest at the table, it was evidently deemed necessary to give a tribute to the war : the Prince declared it calculated " to enlist our warmest sympathies "; General Sir Harry Smith was confirmed by vociferous cheers in deprecating "a precipitate peace"; and, with the same response, Sir Robert Peel avowed "the unanimous feeling which animates every class of her Majesty's subjects." The festival was the march of in- dustry, to the tune of a military band, with a royal benediction.
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