of the Stuarts or the Georges, when holding that position,
trying to help the poor or uplift the labourer! Speaking at a meeting in
London on January 12th, 1887, Lord Mayor, Sir Reginald Hanson, said:
"All those who have been engaged in this scheme (the Imperial Institute)
know that the Prince of Wales is one of the first in this country who
looks to the interests of the working classes." For many years, indeed,
he had been an annual subscriber to the Workingmen's Club and Institute
Union and to the Workingmen's College in Great Ormond Street. In the
Alexandra Trust, founded by Sir Thomas Lipton, at the instance of the
Princess, much interest was taken by the Heir Apparent as well as his
wife, and, on March 15th, 1900, they privately and unexpectedly visited
the Restaurant in City Road and inspected this praiseworthy effort to
supply wholesome food at low prices to the poor. After walking about and
speaking to many of the people, they enjoyed a "three-course dinner"
costing four pence half-penny, and left amid a scene of great
enthusiasm.

More than once the Prince aided workingmen's institutions by visiting
them. On one occasion he heard that an Exhibition in South London,
promoted by workingmen, was languishing for want of patronage and at
once arranged to visit it unofficially. He went through it carefully,
buying a number of articles and expressing much interest in the project.
There was no further neglect of the institution by the general public.
There was, perhaps, no single work in which he more appreciated the
opportunity of doing good than that connected with the Housing of the
Poor Commission to which he was appointed in 1884. He more than once
presided at its meetings and took an active part in the investigations
which were necessary. He attended every sitting and studied quietly and
privately the whole condition of the poor in the poorest quarters of
London and other cities. The Prince never hesitated to criticize those
who neglected their charitable duties, or to praise those who lived up
to the level of their opportunities, and in connection with an
institution which he opened at Deptford, in 1898, his condemnation of
the wealthy people in that neighbourhood was severe.

On March 4th, 1900, the working-class dwellings built in Shoreditch by
the City Council were opened by the Prince of Wales. They were largely
the product of the Royal Commission in which he had taken such interest
and whose proposals wer