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but its organization will, I trust, be such that benefits will be equally conferred upon our provincial communities as well as upon the colonial and Indian subjects of the Crown. It is my hope that the Institute will form a practical means of communications between our colonial settlers and those persons at home who may benefit by emigration. Much information and even instruction may beneficially be imparted to those who need guidance in respect to emigration. You are aware that the competition of industry all over the world has become keen, while commerce and manufactures have been profoundly affected by the recent rapid progress of science, and the increased facilities of inter-communication offered by steam and the electric telegraph. In consequence of these changes, all nations are using strenuous efforts to produce a trained intelligence among their people. The working-classes of this country have not been slow to show their desire for improvement in this direction. They wish to place themselves in a position of intellectual power by using all opportunities offered to them to secure an understanding of the principles as well as of the practice of the work in which they are engaged. No less than sixteen million persons from all parts of the kingdom have attended the four Exhibitions over which I presided, represanting fisheries, public health, inventions, and the colonies and India, and I assure you I would not have undertaken the labour attending their administration had I not felt a deep conviction that such Exhibitions added to the knowledge of the people and stimulated the industries of the country. I have on more than one occasion expressed my own views, founded upon those so often enunciated by my lamented father, that it is of the greatest importance to do everything within our power to advance the knowledge as well as the practical skill of the productive classes of the Empire. I therefore commend to you as the leading idea I entertain that the Institute should be regarded as a centre for extending knowledge in relation to the industrial resources and commerce of the Queen's dominions. With this view it should be in constant touch, not only with the chief manufacturing districts of this country, but also with all the colonies and India. Such objects are large in their scope, and must necessarily be so, if this Institute is worthy to represent the unity of the Empire. To some minds, the scheme may not be sufficiently comprehensive, because it does not provide for systematic courses of technical instruction in connection with the collections and libraries of the proposed Institute. I would bo the last person to under-value this suggestion. lam well aware that the advantages we have enjoyed in the competition of the world by the possession of fuel, combined with large mineral resources, and by the maritime habits of our people, are now becoming of less importance as trained intellect has in other countries been more and more applied to productive industry. But I know that this truth has already penetrated our centres of manufacturing activity, for many of the large towns have founded colleges and schools of science and art to increase the intellectual factor of production. London, also, has taken important steps in the same direction. The Imperial Institute should be a supplement to, and not a competitor with, other institutions for technical education in science and art both at home and in the colonies. At the same time, I trust that the Institute will be able to stimulate and aid local effort by directing scholarships for the working-classes into suitable channels, and by other similar means. Though the Institute does not engage in the direct object of systematic technical education, it may well be the means of promoting it, as its purpose is to extend an exact knowledge of the industrial resources of the Empire. It will be a place of study and resort for producers and consumers from the colonies and India when they visit this country for business or pleasure, and they, as well as the merchants and manufacturers of the United Kingdom, will find in its collections, libraries, conference and intelligence rooms, the means of extending the commerce and of improving the manufacturing industries of the Empire. I trust, too, that colonial and Indian subjects visiting this country will find some sort of social welcome within the proposed building. This Institute will thus be an emblem, as well as a practical exponent, of the community of interests and the unity of feeling throughout the extended dominions of the Queen. From the close relation in which I stand to the Queen, there can be no impropriety in my stating that if her subjects desire, on the occasion of the celebration of her fiftieth year as Sovereign of this great Empire, to offer her a memorial of their love and loyalty, she would specially value one which would promote the industrial and commercial resources of her dominions in various parts of the world, and which would be expressive of that unity and co-operation whichller Majesty desires should prevail among all classes and races of her extended Empire. My Lords and gentlemen, I have invited you to meet on this occasion in order that I may appeal to you to give me your assistance in establishing and maintaining the Imperial Institute. If you approve of the views I have expressed, lam certain I may rely upon your strenuous co-operation to carry them into effect. I admit that it has not been without anxiety that I resolved to make the propositions I have submitted to you, but confidence and support come to me in the knowledge that I can appeal to you, and through you to the whole country, to give your aid to a work which, I believe, will be of lasting benefit to this and future generations. The Right Hon. the Earl Spencer, K.G. : May it please your Royal Highness, my Lords and gentlemen —It is a great honour for me to have received your Royal Highness's request to move the first resolution at this very important meeting. I wish, your Royal Highness, that I had eloquence and power of speech adequate to express what I ought to say on this very important occasion. It has been customary in this nation and in others to mark in the history of individuals, of nations, and of institutions particular epochs constituting standpoints from which we may review the history of the past. They are always, even on ordinary occasions, interesting, but the one to which this particular occasion relates, is, I will say, of national importance. We have not now to consider the celebration of the jubilee of a private person. We have to celebrate the jubilee of an illustrious personage, beloved and revered over the whole Empire—the head of our nation, tho Sovereign of an Empire which contains millions of human beings in every quarter of the globe. I need not dwell, Sir, on the personal considerations "connected with this subject at any length, but I feel I should not be carrying out my duty if I did not refer in a very few words to Her Majesty herself. We all feel what a great debt this nation and the Empire owe to the Queen, not only for the bright example which she has set to all men and women who are her subjects—an example which 3—A. 9.