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The Prince of Wales was again present in May, 1875 and then, owing to other pressing engagements, missed four years. At the annual banquet on May 3rd, 1879, which he attended, Sir Frederick Leighton was President of the Academy and the Prince made kindly allusion to the memory of his late predecessor. Amongst the other speakers were Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. W. H. Smith and Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. At the banquet in 1880, Sir F. Leighton paid his Royal guest an unusual compliment: "Sir, of the graces by which Your Royal Highness has won and firmly retains the affectionate attachment of Englishmen none has operated more strongly than the width of your sympathies; for there is no honourable sphere in which Englishmen move, no path of life in which they tread, wherein Your Royal Highness has not, at some time, by graceful word or deed, evinced an enlightened interest." In 1881, the central subject of toast and speech was Sir Frederick Roberts, who had come fresh from the fields of Cabul and Candahar; but the Prince of Wales did not forget an illusion to the death of "that great statesman" the Earl of Beaconsfield. In 1885 His Royal Highness was accompanied for the first time by Prince Albert Victor and in 1888 he was able to refer to the fact of this occasion being not only the year of his silver wedding but the year which marked a quarter of a century since his first appearance amongst them.