xiv UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 347 



Imperial Institute, which as a whole had become 

 Government property, should be handed over to the 

 University, Objections to this proposal were raised 

 on many sides, firstly, on the grounds of inconvenience 

 and distance, and secondly, of holding a building in 

 common with the Imperial Institute. On the other 

 hand, the advantages appeared to me to predominate. 

 In the first place the University had no funds where- 

 with to build. If the Government offer were refused 

 the only course would be to continue in Burlington 

 Gardens, an entirely impossible contingency. Again, 

 if the University was to succeed in becoming a great 

 teaching institution for London, the facts of the 

 existence in South Kensington of the Royal College of 

 Science and Art, of the Central College of the Guilds 

 of London Institute, and of the Victoria and Albert 

 and British Museums, and moreover the fact that a 

 considerable amount of spare land existed as property 

 of the Royal Commission of 1851, which under their 

 statutes must be employed for encouraging the progress 

 of science and art, might be devoted to University 

 purposes, were very important arguments in favour of 

 the proposition. 



After long discussions in the Senate, and after many 

 consultations and conferences with the Treasury and 

 the Board of Works, an agreement was at last arrived 

 at by which the east wing and central portion of the 

 building was handed over to the University. His 

 present Majesty, then Prince of Wales, took a lively 

 interest in the proceedings and in all the negotiations 

 which passed, showing his appreciation of our aims 

 and difficulties ; of this I had personal experience. 



Another and not the least of the difficulties which 

 arose was the question of the appointment of a chief 

 officer who, under the Senate, should direct the affairs 



