o myself."

A further reference was made to the sending of his sons to visit
Australia and memories of his own tour of British America were revived,
with an expression of special gratification at seeing his "old friend,"
Sir John Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada, present on this occasion.
In August, 1887, the Prince of Wales showed further and practical
interest in Australia by accepting the post of President of the Royal
Commission appointed by the Queen, in England, to promote and help the
Melbourne Exhibition of 1888. The Earl of Rosebery acted as
Vice-President and much was done in making the British exhibit a good
one. Years before this, speaking at the laying of the foundation stone
of the first Melbourne Exhibition--February 19th, 1879--the Governor of
Victoria, Sir George F. Bowen, declared it to be well-known that the
Heir Apparent was animated by "a desire to visit the Australian Colonies
in person should high reasons of state permit." As illustrating the
opinions formed of him by colonial statesmen, the following may be
quoted from the autobiography of that uncouth, clever, patriotic
personality, Sir Henry Parkes: "I met His Royal Highness on several
occasions in London, and he struck me as possessing in a remarkable
degree the princely faculty of doing the right thing and saying the
right word."

Another matter to which the Prince of Wales gave an Imperial character
was the Royal College of Music which he initiated, organized and finally
inaugurated on May 7th, 1883. Upon the latter occasion he explained in
his speech that the institution was open to the whole Empire, that
scholarships had already been provided by Victoria and South Australia,
and that he hoped it might become an Imperial centre of musical
education as well as a British centre. "The object I have in view is
essentially Imperial as well as national, and I trust that ere long
there will be no Colony of any importance which is not represented by a
scholar at the Royal College." During the years which followed, up to
the time of his accession to the Throne, the interest of the Prince of
Wales in everything that helped Imperial unity was continuous and most
earnest. At the Jubilee periods of 1887 and 1897, he entertained many
Colonial statesmen, as he had done at other times when opportunity
served, and he was always delighted to meet them and to discuss the
affairs of their countries with men who naturally knew them best. It was
a process o