re Empire and to promote a feeling of
unity among the whole of Her Majesty's subjects. The desire to
find fitting means of drawing our colonies and India into closer
bonds with the mother country, a desire which of late has been
clearly expressed, meets, I am sure, with the Queen's warmest
sympathy. It occurred to me that the recent Colonial and Indian
Exhibition, which presented a most successful display of the
material resources of the colonies and India, might suggest the
basis for an institute which should afford a permanent
representation of the products and manufactures of the whole of
the Queen's dominions. I therefore appointed a committee of
eminent men to consider and report to me upon the best means of
carrying out this idea.

"Upon the report of the committee being submitted to me, and
after giving every clause my full consideration, it so entirely
met with my approval that I accepted all its suggestions, and I
therefore directed that a copy of that report should be sent to
each of you. As I trust you have mastered the suggestions of
that report, I do not purpose re-stating them to you in detail,
but I would remind you that I propose that the memorial should
bear the name of the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom,
the Colonies, and India, and that it must find its home within
buildings of a character worthy to commemorate the Jubilee year
of the Queen's reign.

"My proposals also are that the Imperial Institute should be an
emblem of the unity of the Empire, and should illustrate the
resources and capabilities of every section of her Majesty's
dominions. By these means every one may become acquainted with
the marvellous growth of the Queen's colonial and Indian
possessions during her reign, and will be enabled to mark by the
opportunities afforded for contrast how steadily these
possessions have advanced in manufacturing skill and enterprise
step by step with the mother country. A representative institute
of this kind must necessarily be situated in London, 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
communication between our colonial settlers and those p