ON the 21st June last the Corporation of the Trinity House had arranged that the Foundation Stone of the new Eddystone Lighthouse should be laid—H.E.H. the PRINCE OF WALES having promised to perform the ceremony. Admiral H.R.H. the DUKE OF EDINBURGH, and the Princes ALBERT VICTOR and FREDERICK GEORGE of Wales were also to attend on the occa- sion ; but the weather on that day was so stormy as to render it impossible to land on the Eddystone Rocks. In fact, no vessel attempted to approach the reef, except the Looe Life-boat of the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION and one steamer; accordingly the ceremony had to be post- poned until a more propitious period.

At the Annual Banquet of the Trinity House, on the 28th June, the DUKE OF EDINBURGH, E.G., Master, made the following appropriate remarks on the new Eddystone Lighthouse, and on other important matters relating to lighthouses and to the functions of the Trinity Cor- poration, in proposing the toast, " Pros- perity to the Trinity House:" With regard to the new work—the Eddystone Lighthouse—the one which stands at the present moment, strong and wonderful as it is, it has been found necessary to replace by a still better one.

The new Lighthouse was decided upon in the course of last year, and is now in the course of construction. On the 17th July, 1878, the first landing was effected on the rock, and before the winter season set in as many as 38 landings were made, giving a total of 135 working hours. Since the return this year of the working season, which has been an unfavourable one, there have been 41 landings, which have given a total of 141 working hours. In these two periods the rock has been shaped so as to receive the stones, and there has been built of brick a coffer dam, in which the first stones are to be placed. This, considering the position of the rock and the very rare opportunities of getting upon it, is a very considerable amount of work, and it is most satisfactory that it should hare been accomplished in so short a space of ! time as is available for working operations. ; (Hear, hear). The most difficult part of the work j has now been completed, as there has been placed j in position the centre spindle, to which is fixed the crane that is to bring all the materials to the rock j by the steamer. I will not go through the different works that have been built and the improvements ( that have been effected ; I will only mention one— the case of a Lighthouse which is to be laid for the first time the day after to-morrow—that is, the Lighthouse built at a point in the Bristol Channel, an important part of the coast, the lighting of which hitherto has not been quite satisfactory.

As you all know, the subject of electric lighting has occupied a very considerable amount of the attention of this Corporation, as it has in many other branches of society; but I believe in no other form has the electric light been brought to such perfection as in its adaptation to lighthouses. It is now twenty-one years since the South Foreland was first illuminated by it; therefore we may say that the electric light has entered upon its majority.

It is not every one who at his majority has become quite perfect, and the electric light is not yet per- i feet, but we hope soon, with careful attention and j experiment, to obtain from it a light which will be j quite satisfactory. In the course of the past year j a great deal of pains has been taken by the Cor- : poration towards the classification of lights, j Hitherto many lights have had so great a simi- larity that it was desirable to make an improve- ment in that respect, so that one light may be more readily distinguished from another; and in that ! respect, instead of fixed lights, the system of j grouped flashing lights has been introduced. The i attention of the Corporation has also been con- tinued to fog-signals; great improvements have i been made in the fog-horn, as it is commonly 1 called; and numerous additional stations have ; been formed both on shore and afloat. I may ! mention one more and very important point, which j is quite new, and which is still under experiment— that of anchoring buoys in exposed positions at sea. By means of compressed gas, these buoys, by a new process, can be made to show a light for a very considerable time. In one experiment which has been made in an exposed position, the ! light burned for thirty days, and neither wind nor j waves extinguished it. I believe that invention | may prove hereafter a very important factor in the j protection of our shipping. The marking of wrecks is another point of great importance to seafaring j men. Hitherto it has not been distinctly laid down on which side they were to be passed ; but | in the course of the year, a circular has been issued which shows on which side of any wreck a vessel ; should go so as to avoid the danger. Important works have also been carried out under the super- intendence of this Corporation in the removing of ' wrecks which were a danger to navigation. Since ; the lamentable accident which occurred on the j Thames in the sinking of the steamer Princess Alice, attention has been very much called to the pilotage of the Thames ; a Committee has been ; appointed to inquire into its management; our respected and valued Deputy-Master (Admiral Sir E. COLLINSON) has been appointed on the Com- mittee ; and he exerts untiring energy in the matter of this inquiry, as well as upon other subjects which occupy the attention of the Trinity House.

On referring to the European Magazine for November 1792, we find the following succinct reference to the death of Mr. Smeaton, the ingenious designer of the present Eddystone Lighihonse: " The science of Mechanics on the 28th October (1792) lost one of its ablest and most amiable members—one whose fame will endure as long as, if not longer, than the stupendous works he executed- we mean the Eddystone Lighthouse and the Harbour at Ramsgate." "We venture to express a confident hope that the eminent engineer of the new lighthouse, J. N. DOUGLASS, Esq., C.E., will be remembered like SMEATON, in after ages, for the permanence and greatness of his work.