1887.] on the Work of tlie Imperial Institute. 125 



ganisation as the Institute slioiild su^Dply, cannot fail to accelerate 

 the establishment of emigration upon a sound and systematic footing, 

 and to co-operate very beneficially in directing private enterprise 

 into the channels best calculated to advance the mutual interests of 

 the capitalists and the Colonies. 



I have already indicated that it is not only in connection with 

 purely commercial matters that the Intelligence Department of the 

 Institute will occupy itself. The prospects of its value to the 

 Colonies and to India in promoting the development of their natural 

 resources and the cultivation of new fields for commercial and in- 

 dustrial activity are well illustrated by the valuable work which has 

 been accomplished upon similar lines by the admirably directed 

 organization at Kew. 



By the systematic collection and distribution of information 

 relating to industries and to education from all countries which 

 compete with ourselves in the struggle for supremacy in intellectual 

 and industrial development, the Institute will most importantly con- 

 tribute to the maintenance of intimate relationship and co-operation 

 between educational, industrial, and commercial centres, between the 

 labourer in science and the sources through which his work becomes 

 instrumental in advancing national prosperity ; between the Colonies 

 and the Mother-Country, between ourselves and all Races included 

 in the vast Empire of Her Majesty. 



In conclusion, I venture to express the belief that the 

 organisation which the Imperial ' Institute will have the power 

 of developing, with a wisely constituted governing body at its 

 head, may accomplish, and at no distant date, most useful work, 

 which has been already publicly indicated as destined to have an 

 immediate bearing upon the federation of England and her Colonies. 

 Professor Huxley, in his last Presidential Address to the Eoyal 

 Society, uttered most suggestive words, indicative of the value 

 and the possibility of a scientific federation of all English speaking 

 Peoples ; and this subject is now receiving the careful consideration of 

 that Society. It is firmly believed by leading men of science, that such 

 a federation of at any rate the Colonies and Dependencies with us will 

 be brought about, and it is in harmony with that belief that the 

 Imperial Institute should be expected, through its organisation, to 

 afford important aid in the application of the principle of federation 

 to the geological and topographical survey of the Colonies, in the 

 establishment of a system of interchange of meteorological and 

 scientific observations, and in the -promotion, in various ways, of 

 thorough co-operation between particular Colonies or groups of 

 Colonies, for applying the results of scientific research to the mutual 

 development of their natural resources. 



It may be that the programme of which I have given a very im- 

 perfect exposition, as indicative of the work which the Imperial 

 Institute may be called upon to accomplish, will be regarded as 

 almost too ambitious in its scope for practical fulfilment. The outline 



