Historical Sketch. 3 



not astonishing to learn that the Royal Colonial Institute has now nearly 6,000 

 Fellows, and that its growing importance, the widening of its scope and the increase 

 of its membership have necessitated a great extension of its premises. The house in 

 Northumberland Avenue has been almost entirely rebuilt on a larger area, and " as a 

 result," we are told, " instead of the seven inconveniently small and inappropriate 

 rooms formerly available, there are now twenty-five well-equipped rooms." 



These things do not indeed go to the heart of the matter. It is possible for great 

 things to proceed from mean and stuSy surroundings, and a sumptuous club-house 

 does not always produce an active spirit ; but when, as has been made manifest, the 

 spirit is in the right place, it is surely well that the accessories of comfort and con- 

 venience shall be added. 



There is one other subject, without mention of which any account of the Royal 

 Colonial Institute would be deficient. Useful as had been the annual volume with its 

 permanent record of the progress made during the year, it was generally recognised that 

 PC influential a corporation should possess its own monthly organ, reflecting the various 

 sides of its work. An editor was forthcoming who had both a practical knowledge 

 of the Empire and was a trained litterateur. United Empire is still in its first youth j 

 but already it has attained a wide circulation, and few will question the modest claim 

 put forward in the Council's first Annual Report that it " has from month to 

 month enabled those interested in the various Overseas Dominions to keep in touch 

 with the more important aspects of Imperial development." Such, then, being the 

 various grounds on which the Royal Colonial Institute has more than made good the 

 aims of its founders, there is no one who cares for the Empire and the Empire's 

 well-being who will not gratefully repeat " Esto •perpetua." 



H. E. Egerton. 



III.— HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



The Royal Colonial Institute is first and foremost a non-sectarian and non- 

 political organisation which exists for the purpose of stimulating the loyalty of all 

 Britons towards the Empire, using that term to mean the United Kingdom with the 

 Great Dominions and the Smallest Dependencies beyond the Seas. To foster the love 

 of Oversea Britons for the Motherland and to cultivate in the breasts of residents of 

 the Self-Governing Dominions, Colonies, and India the feeling that neither the accident 

 of birth overseas, nor the fact that a wider sphere has been chosen by a Briton born 

 in the United Kingdom can in any way affect his British citizenship so long as his 

 home is still under the British Flag, is the great mission of the Institute. 



The existence of the Royal Colonial Institute practically dates from June 26, 1868, 

 when a meeting was held at Willis's Rooms, under the presidency of Viscount Bury, 

 to promote the formation of a society which should assume, in relation to the Colonies, 

 a position similar to that filled by the Royal Society as regards science, and the Royal 

 Geographical Society as regards geography. The meeting, which comprised influential 

 representatives of colonial interests, and members of the Imperial Legislature who had 

 taken a prominent part in the discussion of colonial questions, unanimously agreed 

 that it was desirable to establish an institution, above all mere party considerations, 

 where persons from aU parts of the British Empire might exchange experiences, and 

 where trustworthy information might be imparted to all inquirers. A provisional 



B 2 



