The Duke of Buckingham, on behalf of the Executive Council, expressed the great gratification they felt at the appearance of His Royal Highness among them, as to him was due the inception of the undertaking. Sir James Paget, the Vice-Chairman of the Council, delivered an elaborate and eloquent address on the purposes and the importance of the Exhibition. He was followed by Sir Lyon Playfair. After these addresses Lord Reay presented to His Royal Highness, the Foreign Commissioners, and the Chairmen and Jurors for the different sections. The Prince then said:—
"Your Excellencies, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—Owing to a very sad cause I was unable to open the Health Exhibition. But I am particularly glad to have had this opportunity of being present to preside here to-day on the occasion of the assembling of the international juries. It has given me great pleasure to have made the personal acquaintance of all those distinguished gentlemen who have come from the Continent, and who, no doubt at considerable inconvenience to themselves, have so kindly consented to come over here to decide on matters appertaining to the Health Exhibition. It is particularly gratifying to me to have been here to receive them, and I sincerely hope that their labours will be crowned with success. That the Exhibition has up to the present time been successful so far as numbers are concerned we have evidence to show, but I hope at the same time that for scientific and educational purposes the public at large may derive even greater benefit from it than they can get by merely coming here to enjoy the Exhibition as a place of recreation.
"After the address from the Duke of Buckingham, and the long, able, and most interesting one from Sir James Paget, which was commented upon by Sir Lyon Playfair, it would be perfectly superfluous for me to detain you but for a few moments on any subject relating to health. These addresses, which you have all listened to with such great interest, will, I trust, have proved to you what an important consideration the matter of health is. This Exhibition, under the able chairmanship of the Duke of Buckingham and those gentlemen of the Executive Council who have worked under him, has, I think, been brought to a remarkable degree of perfection. They have done everything they can do to make it pleasing to the eye; but still I hope that those who visit the Exhibition will remember that there are greater and more important objects at stake—that they will go home impressed by the study of those objects as well as by the pleasure they may have derived from the wonderful inventions and methods of showing them. I wish to tender my thanks to the Lord Mayor and the great City Companies for their kind co-operation in this Exhibition, and I am sure we are all much gratified at the success of what is called Old London. Before concluding I would beg to ask the Chairmen and Jurors at the close of the proceedings to constitute their juries and select their secretaries."
The French Ambassador, in moving a vote of thanks to the Prince of Wales for presiding, referred to His Royal Highness's readiness on all occasions to give his time and to devote his energies to any cause which might advance the welfare of the people of this country. He called on them to thank His Royal Highness, not only in the name of those present and of the foreigners who had contributed to the Exhibition, and more particularly those of France, but in the name of thousands upon thousands of the poor and disinherited of the earth, of children and the helpless, whose benefit would ultimately be promoted by this Exhibition.
The Lord Mayor seconded the motion, which was agreed to with acclamation. The Prince, in closing the proceedings, tendered his warmest thanks to the French Ambassador and his colleagues for their presence on that occasion and for their continued co-operation in the Exhibitions with which he had been connected. His Royal Highness, in concluding, thanked the Lord Mayor, as representative of the City of London, for all that the City and the Guilds of London had done to promote the success of the Exhibition.
OPENING OF GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE.
June 25th, 1884.
The building, of which the foundation was laid nearly three years before, was completed within the time originally contracted for, and the Prince of Wales came to open it on the 25th of June, 1884. Again the Lord Chancellor read the report, and on behalf of the Governors and Council of the City and Guilds of London Institute, thanked His Royal Highness for his continued interest, and his presence that day. Touching allusion was made to the death of the Duke of Albany, who had laid the foundation stone of the Finsbury Technical College in May 1881. "As years roll by, and when the connection between the technical education of the people and the commercial prosperity of the country becomes as well understood and appreciated here as it is abroad, the year 1880, in which the City and Guilds of London Institute was incorporated, and the year 1884, in which this central institution was opened, will stand out as epochs in what we hope may be an unbroken record of industrial progress; and we sincerely trust that the remembrance of this day's proceedings may ever furnish to your Royal Highness a pleasing and satisfactory thought, enabling you to associate the endeavours of your illustrious father, dating back more than thirty years, to improve the arts and manufactures of the country, with the work of this Technical Institute, over which your Royal Highness so graciously presides."
The Prince of Wales, in reply, said:—
"My Lord Chancellor, my Lords, and Gentlemen,—I have listened with attention to your address, and I assure you it gives me great pleasure to be able to preside at the opening of this important institution, the first pillar of which, in company with her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, I set nearly three years since. I thank you for your very feeling reference to the severe loss which the Queen, and each member of Her Majesty's family, has sustained by the untimely death of my late brother. His interest in every movement calculated to humanize and to elevate the people of this country will, I am quite sure, cause his loss to be felt far beyond the circle of his immediate friends.
"I have been gratified that the City and the Livery Companies of London have so generously responded to the letter which, as President of the Institute, I addressed some few months since to the Lord Mayor and to the Worshipful Masters of the Livery Companies of London. This Institute, which owes its origin to the liberality of the City and of the Guilds of London, is an illustration of the excellent work that may be done by united action, which could not possibly be accomplished by individual efforts. Conformably with the traditions of these ancient Guilds, there is, perhaps, no purpose to which they could more appropriately devote their surplus funds, and none which would be of more practical advantage to the country at large than the promotion of technical education. The altered conditions of apprenticeship, and the almost general substitution of machine for hand labour have made the teaching of science, in its application to productive industry, a necessary part of the training of all classes of persons engaged in manufacturing pursuits.
"There never was a time, perhaps, when the importance of technical education was more generally recognized than now, and I am gratified to learn from the report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the subject to which your lordship has referred, that, although we are still behind many of our foreign neighbours in the provision of technical schools of different grades, the encouragement afforded by the State to the teaching of science and of art, supplemented as it now is by the Institute's assistance to the teaching of technology, has placed within reach of our artizan population facilities for technical instruction which have already influenced, and which promise to influence still more in the future, the progress of our manufacturing industry.
"As president of this Institute, I have noted with much satisfaction the rapid development of the work which the Council have initiated, and which they so successfully control. I am anxious to take this opportunity of expressing in public what is already known to you, my Lord Chancellor, and to the members of the Council, the obligations which we are all under to Mr. Philip Magnus, our able director and secretary, for his unwearied exertions in having so successfully accomplished the organization of the practical work of the institution. I have no doubt that the opportunities for advanced instruction, which will be afforded in the well-arranged laboratories and workshops of this building, will enable the managers and superintendents of our manufacturing works to obtain more readily than hitherto that higher technical instruction which is so essential to the development of our trade and commerce.
"But it is especially as a training college for teachers that this institution will occupy an important place in the educational establishments of this country. The demand for technical instruction has increased so rapidly during the last few years that the supply of teachers has not kept pace with it, and I have noticed with satisfaction that in the scheme for the organization of this school due prominence is given to the provision of gratuitous courses of instruction for technical teachers from all parts of the kingdom. I shall be glad to see other corporations and individuals follow the example of the Clothworkers' Company, by establishing scholarships which shall serve to connect the elementary schools of this country with this institution. Hitherto, all schools have led up to the Universities, and literary training has been encouraged to the disadvantage of scientific instruction. Manufacturing industry has, consequently, not been able to attract to its pursuits its fair proportion of the best intellect of the country. The foundation of scholarships in connection with this institution will enable selected pupils from elementary schools to enter schools of a higher grade, and to complete their education within these walls.
"As president of the International Health Exhibition, I am glad that the Council of this Institute have been able to place at the disposal of the Council of the Health Exhibition a portion of this building for the exhibition of apparatus and appliances used in technical and other schools. I have no doubt that we shall find in that exhibition, which I hope to be able presently to visit, much that is generally instructive, and that the foreign sections will contain exhibits which will prove of great interest to the educational authorities of this country. To the Corporation and to the Livery Companies of London, the Council of the International Health Exhibition are indebted for much valuable assistance, and I thank them for it.
"It now only remains for me to declare the Central Institution of the City and Guilds of London Institute to be open, and to express the warmest hope that the important educational work to be carried on in this great national school of technical science and art will help to promote the development of our leading industries, and that the City and Guilds of London, which have so liberally subscribed funds for the erection and equipment of this institution, will maintain it with efficiency, and will at the same time continue their support to all other parts of the Institute's operations."