e thus concluded:--

"I wish to express my own personal hope that the Royal College will not
be a mere teaching institution, but will become a centre for groups of
affiliated colleges, the members of which will, with the Council of the
Royal College, form a musical senate, to which all questions of
importance relating to music and musicians may be referred for
determination. This may perhaps be deemed somewhat Utopian, but I do not
despair of a time when the musical colleges throughout the country will
ally themselves with the Royal College, and form a body united by a
common tie and a general system. I will go one step further, though I do
not conceal from myself that I am treading on somewhat delicate ground,
and possibly trenching on the honoured privileges of the Universities;
yet I will express my personal hope that, as London is the chief City of
the United Kingdom, so the Royal College should be the chief musical
college, invested with the power of conferring musical degrees, and the
source from which all musical honours should legitimately flow.

"In proposing the first resolution, it only remains, my lords and
gentlemen, for me to express my hope that the Prince of Wales will be
supported on the present occasion earnestly and faithfully. A large sum
of money is required for our enterprise. England is rich, and ready at
all times to forward a worthy national undertaking. Why should I say
England only, when we are assured of the generous support of our
Colonial brethren, and when we trust that our American cousins will not
be behind in furthering the foundation of an establishment which may act
as a home to their musical students on this side of the Atlantic? The
representatives of many foreign countries are here also. We look to them
in many cases as examples in our new enterprise, and I feel sure that
their kind advice and co-operation will not be wanting when we have
occasion to seek them. I will now read the resolution intrusted to me:--

"'That this meeting approves of the proposal to establish a Royal
College of Music as a national institution, and undertakes that meetings
shall be called throughout the country, and the utmost exertions used,
individually and collectively, to forward the movement by obtaining the
necessary funds for founding and endowing a College of Music for the
British Empire.'"

The speeches of the Archbishop of Canterbury, of the Earl of Rosebery,
the Lord Mayor, and of Mr. Gladston