Read it through once

The Corporation of Trinity House, which in the time of Henry VIII. had been a guild for the encouragement of the art and science of navigation and had latterly come into the work of building lighthouses and protecting ships along the coasts of England, was always an object of interest and support to the Prince of Wales. In 1865 he declined the post of Master--which had been held by men like Lord Liverpool, the Duke of Wellington, the Prince Consort and Lord Palmerston--in favour of his brother the Sailor Prince. He attended the next annual banquet, however, together with the King of the Belgians, and two years later was installed as one of the "Younger Brethren" of Trinity House. The Duke of Richmond and Lord Napier of Magdala were amongst the other speakers. The banquet of July 4th, 1869 was especially interesting from the eminent men of all parties whom it brought together. The Prince of Wales presided, in the absence of the Duke of Edinburgh, and the speakers included Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, Mr. Disraeli, Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir John Burgoyne. He again attended and addressed the banquet of Trinity House on June 24, 1871, and presided at that of June 27, 1874. His speech upon the latter occasion contained various important facts and opinions upon the improvement of navigation facilities. At the dinner in 1877 the Prince again presided and in the proposing his health the late Earl of Derby said: "His Royal Highness has not only now, but for many years past done all that is in the power of man to do, by genial courtesies towards men of every class and by his indefatigable assiduity in the performance of every social duty, to secure at once that public respect which is due to his exalted position and that social sympathy and personal popularity which no position, however exalted, can of itself be sufficient to secure." The most interesting event of this occasion was the presence and very brief soldierly speech of General U. S. Grant.