XII 



POLITICAL LIFE 30? 



was a great financial success, and a Royal Commission 

 was appointed to manage the funds thus acquired. 

 The late Prince Consort conceived the happy idea of 

 purchasing the whole of the land of the Kensington 

 Gore Estate, the value of which has enormously in- 

 creased since the date of the purchase. This is not 

 the place to enumerate the various undertakings of 

 the Commission, but I may refer to one of these which 

 has had a very important educational influence and 

 with which I have been intimately connected. In 

 1889 the Commission having decided that it was 

 desirable to apportion a grant for the establishment of 

 research scholarships, a committee of scientific men, 

 including myself, was appointed to act with the Com- 

 missioners for the purpose of drawing up a scheme for 

 the foundation of such scholarships. It was de- 

 cided that these should be of a higher order than most 

 of those then existing ; in fact that their functions 

 should begin where the ordinary educational curriculum 

 ends, this system having been adopted with excellent 

 effect in the French Ecole Pratique des Hautes 

 Etudes. In other words these scholarships were to 

 be entirely confined to research, and strict conditions 

 were laid down as to the capability of the candidate to 

 carry out original investigation. The scholarships 

 were to be ^150 a year in value, tenable for two 

 years, and to be limited to those branches of science 

 the knowledge of which is specially important for our 

 national industries. The Commissioners from time to 

 time were to select a number of institutions throughout 

 the Empire in which high scientific instruction is given. 

 Each university or college was to have the power of 

 nominating a student to a scholarship on the condition 

 that he exhibited capacity for advancing science or its 

 applications ; these scholarships when awarded were to 



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