Report of the Forty-Fourth Annual General Meeting. 203 



Let me briefly put before you the history of the Institute. It was founded in 1868, 

 with Lord Bury as its first President, and was supported by the leading statesmen 

 of the day, of both political parties. Gradually it increased its membership, which, 

 however, did not reach 1,000 till twelve years after its foundation. Lord Bury was 

 succeeded as President, in 1871, by the Duke of Manchester, a position he held for 

 seven years, when he was succeeded by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as 

 President in 1878, when the Duke of Manchester was appointed Chairman of the 

 Council, which position he held till the day of his death in 1890. In 1882 a Royal 

 Charter was granted, and during the following year the site for the Institute's building 

 was acquired. In the year 1884 the building was completed and occupied. They 

 were bold men on the Council at that time, and they had so great a confidence in the 

 future of the Institute that they did not hesitate, with a membership of barely 2,000 

 and an income of £3,600, to raise a sum of £30,020 for the purchase of the site and 

 to expend nearly £25,000 on the erection of the building. It is interesting 

 to recall the fact that no one advocated this course more strongly than Sir 

 Frederick Young, who was at that time the Honorary Secretary and a member 

 of the Council. The success of the undertaking is in a great measure due to him. 

 The loan was repaid in June 1906, and the site and building are now the absolute 

 property of the Fellows. 



From the time that the Duke of Manchester resigned the position of President to 

 the present time, viz. thirty-four years, the Institute has never had a Working 

 President, because the Prince of Wales, who succeeded the Duke of Manchester, could 

 not, from the nature of his position, be expected to carry out the duties of that office. 

 After the death of the Duke of Manchester in 1890, the Institute was carried on for 

 nineteen years by the Council and its Secretary, without any assistance from either 

 a President or Chairman of Council, with the result that it only added 771 members 

 to its Fellowship in those nineteen years. In 1909 a Special General Meeting of the 

 Fellows of the Institute was called, in response to a requisition of twenty-five of its 

 Fellows, " to consider the revision of the constitution of the Institute, with special 

 reference to making the Council more representative." The result of this meeting 

 was to bring about what has been called the revival movement. If you look at the 

 Table in Paragraph 7 of the Annual Report you will be able to see the result of this 

 movement which, however, only began to be felt in the last quarter of 1909 ; there- 

 fore the increase of members and income, up to the end of 1911, actually took place 

 in a little over two years. The net increase in membership in this time has been 1,171. 

 To arrive at the increase of income you must deduct from the income of £7,203 in 

 1908 the rent received from the Admiralty, amounting to £1,425, which gives a net 

 income for that year of £5,778. The difference between this and the income of £8,597 

 for 1911 shows an increase of £2,819. This increase, in these twenty-seven months, of 

 1,171 members and £2,819 in income, is actually greater than the increase which took 

 place in the previous twenty-one years. 



I would ask you to consider for a moment the objects for which a Royal Charter 

 was granted to the Institute : 



First : it was to estabhsh a place of meeting for its Fellows, with a library, 

 museum, etc. 



Second : to promote the increase and diffusion of knowledge of the Empire. 



Third : the preservation of a permanent union between the Mother Country and 

 the various parts of the Empire. 



The first of these objects has long been fulfilled by the building in Northumberland 



