The work of the Imperial Institute : address delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain before His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., F.R.S., vice-patron, April 22nd, 1887 / by Sir Frederick Abel.

  • Abel, Frederick Augustus, Sir, 1826-1902.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The work of the Imperial Institute : address delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain before His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., F.R.S., vice-patron, April 22nd, 1887 / by Sir Frederick Abel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ganization as the Institute should supply, 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 tbe Colonies. I bave already indicated that it is not only in connection with purely commercial matters that the Intelligence Department of tbe Institute will occupy itself. The prospects of its value to the Colonics 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 bas 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 tbe maintenance of intimate relationship and co-operation between educational, industrial, and commercial centres, between the labourer in science and the sources through wbich his work becomes instrumental in advancing national prosperity; between tbe Colonies and the Mother-Country, between ourselves and all Eaces included in the vast Empire of Her Majesty. In conclusion, I venture to express the belief that tbe organization which tbe Imperial Institute will bave 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 Royal Society, uttered most suggestive words, indicative of the value and the possibility of a scientific federation of all English speaking Peoples; and tbis subject is now receiving tbe careful consideration of tbat 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 tbat the Imperial Institute should be expected, through its organization, to afford important aid in the application of the principle of federation to the geological and topographical survey of the Colonies, in tbe 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 tbe 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 outlino