ersons 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
16,000,000 persons from all parts of the kingdom have attended
the four exhibitions over which I presided, representing
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 worthily 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 libr