A Nation's Loss.

Fusiliers at Winchester ( July 12 , 1849 ) , are all models of their kind for point and propriety . If the Great Exhibition of 1851 did not owe its origin to the mind of Prince Albert , he adopted it as his ownthrew his utmost energy into its promoting , carried it through all its difficulties ( and they were not few ) , and brought it to a splendidly successful termination .

At the Lord Mayor ' s banquet ( March 21 , 1850 ) to the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851 , his Royal Highness made a long and very able speech , which created a great sensation . He said emphatically that he " considered it to be the duty of every educated person closely to watch and study the time in which he lived ; that there was one great end to be accomplished

, the realisation of the unity of mankind . The Exhibition of 1851 would cause them to realise the blessings bestowed on them , and also give them the conviction that those blessings would be realised only by living at peace with the rest of the world . " From the first to the last His Royal Highness never ceased to take the greatest

interest in the Exhibition , and his speech , in answer to Lord Canning ' s report of the awards , was a model for its thoughtful and suggestive exposition of the character of the decisions . His other speeches of consequence were made at the Lord Mayor of York's dinner , October 25 , 1850 , in which he paid a graceful tribute to the memory of the

late Sir Robert Peel ; at the meetings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts , St . Martin's-hall , June 16 , 1851 ; at the Mansion House , for the Sons of the Clergy , May 10 , 1851 ; and a specially notable defence of science at Birmingham , November 22 , 1855 .

In this necessarily brief notice of His Royal Highness ' s career , it would be impossible not to advert to the exhibition of the coming year . To him , though he has not lived to see its opening , will it have owed much of its prosperity ; he was one of the first to head the list of subscriptions for guaranteeing its success ; he has attended most assiduously to the various details for

carrying it out , and no Englishman will now visit it without feeling that the spirit of the Prince is embodied within its walls , and to him it must owe much of any prestige that may attend it . Of the Prince ' s domestic life we will say but little , for we feel that that belongs rather to his family than to the public . We do nothowevertrench on forbidden

, , ground ivhen we say that the twenty-one years of wedded life to our beloved Queen have been blessed with happiness rarely equalled in any circle of society , ancl Her Majesty and his Royal Highness have long been held up as examples to their subjects , as models of husband and wife , parents and friends . The royal marriage has been blessed with nine children , all of whom survive to

lament , with their widowed mother , the untimely loss of a beloved parent . But turn we now from the departed to speak of the living . Almost the first words that instinctively sprung from the lips of every man on hearing of the Prince ' s death was , " How will the Queen bear it ? " And what could be more natural than such a question , looking at

the suddenness of her affliction , and the fact that she had scarcely recovered from the shock and the grief occasioned by the death , only a few months since , of her mother , to whom she was most sincerely attached ? That her Majesty at the moment of bereavement deeply felt the blow , and that fears were at first entertained for her health , we need not say ; but it is most gratifying to find that her health has not materially suffered , and that her womanly and motherly feelings have been found equal to the emergency ; that she feels that as

Queen of these realms , and mother of a family whose future must depend in a great measure upon her example , now that their father has passed ' away , she has duties to perform which cannot be allowed to give way to private grief , and in the performance of those duties the Queen may rest assured she will not want for all the sympathy and support which her people canby the utmost

devo-, tion , afford her . Her Majesty will , of course , pass a season—brief it must be , for the cares of state will press upon her with greater force now that her counseller and guide is gone—in seclusion , during which there is not a family throughout the realm who will not daily offer up a prayer to the Most High to protect her in her time of

trouble , and to lead her thoughts rather to the future than to the past . It is gratifying to feel that His Royal Highness ' s dying moments were cheered by the presence of several of his children , the more especially of two — the Princess Alice and the Prince of Wales—because by their age

and education they were enabled to understand the gravity of their position , and the loss which awaited them . Indeed , the Princess Alice is stated to have been the first clearly to discern the critical state of her royal father , and it was owing to her presence of mind that the Prince of Wales was summoned by telegraph to

Windsor only a few hours before his parent ' s death . To her it was that the Prince entrusted most of his dying injunctions . By her was his pillow rendered easy in his last moments ; and on her devolved , in a great measure , the task of soothing the Queen in the first pangs of affliction . Neither was the Prince of Wales

less attentive to both his father and his mother ; and a career now appears to be opening before him , which , a few hours before , he could scarcely have anticipated as likely to await him for many years yet to

eome . He is now the oldest male member of his family ; his foot , so to speak , is upon the very step of the throne , though we trust the time is yet far distant when he will be called upon to ascend it ; and upon him will naturally devolve many public duties which , had his father lived , would have continued to be performed by him . To the Prince will his mother

naturally look in hours of difficulty for advice and assistance . That he may be found equal to the emergency is the fervent prayer of every Englishman ; and looking to the education he has received , ancl the example which has been set before him , they have a well-founded hope that he will not be found wanting . His Royal Hihness has received a manly and

g sound education , which has been improved by travel , and when he lately made his first appearance in public life he won the good opinions of all who came in contact with him ; opinions which we trust he will ever retain . Three of the Prince Consort ' s children were necessarily absent at the time of his death : the Princess Royal with her husbandin Prussia ; Prince Alfredwho

, , by the last accounts , was with his ship on the North American coast , and who cannot hear of the loss he has sustained until long after the tomb has closed over his father ; and Prince Leopold , who , having proceeded to Cannes for the benefit of his health , was , at the moment of his father ' s demise , in the house of death , General

Sir-Edward Bowater , who had charge of the youthful Prince , having died at six o ' clock on Saturday evening . In conclusion , we can only repeat that in their affliction the Queen and the members of the Royal Family will receivethedeepestsympathy from all elassesof her Majesty ' s subjects , and from none more so than the Freemasons throughout the length and breadth of the land . His late Royal Highness is to buried at Windsor on Monday next , as privately as circumstances will admit .