The corner-stone of the new Hospital was laid in the afternoon of May 25, 1870. After music by Eben's band, the Rev. J. J. Lyons offered an earnest and thoughtful prayer. Mr. Benjamin Nathan (since wickedly murdered), president of the society, after depositing the metal box containing the history of the movement and other documents in the stone, with an appropriate address, presented to Mayor A. Oakey Hall a silver trowel, which had upon one side of it a Hebrew inscription signifying House of the Sick, and on the other an inscription of gift, with the names of the officers and directors. The Mayor, after congratulating the society and the city upon this new movement of charity, said:

"Other cities boast of peculiar and familiar titles descriptive of their inhabitants. There is the 'City of Brotherly Love,' as Philadelphia is called, and there is Brooklyn, 'The City of Churches;' but the city of New York proudly and gloriously boasts of being the great 'City of Charities.' It is therefore doubly appropriate that the Mayor of that city should be here, as it were, the high-priest of these ceremonies."

He then descended from the platform, and having placed himself near the stone, continued as follows:

"I now proceed to lay this corner-stone in the name of our common humanity; in the name of the common mortal life to which we all cling; in the name of those ills of the body and the mind to which we are all subject; in the name of universal mercy, which we prayerfully demand; and in the name of that universal death which we all reverently expect. And Jehovah grant that, as long as time endures, angels of compassion, with healing on their wings, may hover round the site of this Mount Sinai Hospital."

After, the stone had been lowered to its place the Mayor struck it several times with the gavel, and concluded the ceremony by adding:

"Lie thou there, 0 corner-stone, and, according to the sentence of the noble prayer which has been offered here to-day, mayest thou ever rest beneath the site of an hospital that shall be the shelter of suffering humanity, without distinction of faith."

An eloquent and appropriate address was then delivered by the Hon. Albert Cardozo, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, from which we extract the following paragraph:

"And now, from its foundation, I dedicate the beautiful edifice about to be erected on this spot to the charitable purposes for which it is designed. I dedicate it in the name of the union of these States—may both alike be perpetual!—whose theory of religious liberty and equality, faithfully maintained from the birth of the nation—may it never be violated! —has attracted so many to these shores, who have shed lustre upon our race, and who have repaid their adopted country for its protection by devoting treasure and talent, and life itself, to her interests.

"I dedicate it in the name of the State of New York—may the career of both be upward and onward in prosperity forever! —under whose parental and protecting care and benign influence and policy the Institution has thriven and grown, from insignificant and dependent infancy, until it has attained its present extended usefulness and proportions.

"I dedicate it in the name of the City of New York—catholic and profuse in its generosity towards all laudable objects—our pride, our home; with which our dearest interests and hopes are identified, and for whose welfare our heartstrings vibrate with tenderest emotion and sensibility; whose progress in all that makes a city really great, while only keeping pace with our affection, has excited the admiration and amazement of the world, and provoked at times the envy of her less-favored sisters of both this and the old country; whose munificence towards this and all deserving charities marks her pre-eminent, as in everything else, for entire freedom from bigotry, and for devotion to the cause of humanity and the sacred principle of religious liberty. And in the name of all these; speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves—for the helpless, the hapless, and the forlorn—I invoke the aid of all to sustain this admirable charity and make the Institution a perfect and permanent success."

The work thus happily begun is being rapidly pushed forward, and the present autumn will probably witness the completion of one of the finest hospitals in our city. The building will front on Lexington avenue, extending across the entire block; it will consist of a fine central edifice, with two wings, constructed of brick and marble, in the most approved style of architecture. It is three stories high, besides basement and attic, with Mansard roof, heated with steam, will accommodate two hundred beds, and cost, in its construction and furniture, $325,000. The subscription building fund amounts to nearly one hundred thousand dollars at this writing, the old hospital and grounds are expected to bring toward a hundred thousand when vacated, and the Institution has now a permanent endowment fund of another hundred thousand. The Charity Fair inaugurated on the 30th of November, 1870, netted the Hospital the large sum of $101,645, besides the $35,000 appropriated to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Surely the Hebrews of New York are making an excellent record. May a kind Providence direct and save them.