The Prince of Wales held a grand reception at the
Imperial Institute on Wednesday, which was attended by from fifteen The Prince of Wales held a grand reception at the Imperial Institute on Wednesday, which was attended by from fifteen to twenty thousand persons, all more or less of some distinc- tion. The great building was crowded, and as usual in such enormous crushes, many of the arrangements broke down. The carriages could not approach within a hundred yards, and the crowd of ladies in splendid dresses had to tramp through thick mud ; while as there were no cloak-rooms, the guests had to carry their hats, coats, &c., throughout the evening. Naturally they felt something of a mob ; and when Mr. Glad- stone appeared, a storm of hisses broke out, which rose now and then, according to three reporters of the scene, to regular hooting. The explosion was probably instinctive, Mr. Glad- stone being out of place in an "Imperial " Institute ; but it was none the less ungentlemanly and deplorable. Merely as the guest of the Prince of Wales, the Premier was entitled to courtesy from all other guests. As it is, he will be more convinced than ever that virtue has gone out of the classes. We see reason to hope from the accounts that all who attended were exceedingly bored, for these immense crushes are nuisances which society should yawn down. Mass- meetings for politics are bad enough, but mass-meetings for pleasure are unendurable.
