THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 The Organization of Imperial 
 Studies in London 
 
 By 
 
 Sidney Low 
 
 [From the Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. V] 
 
 London 
 
 Published for the British Academy 
 
 By Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press 
 
 Amen Corner, E.G. 
 
 Price One Shilling net 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL 
 STUDIES IN LONDON 
 
 BY SIDNEY LOW 
 
 (Read, November 07, 1912.) 
 
 IN the observations which by the courtesy of the Council of the 
 British Academy I have the honour to address to you to-day I shall 
 endeavour to show that the present condition of Imperial studies in 
 this country deserves the attention of your distinguished body. 
 That attention, stimulated I believe in the first instance by a Paper 
 read to you by Mr. Rhys Davids, has already been most fruitfully 
 bestowed upon Oriental studies, with the result that the Oriental 
 Institute has been established and has now found a commodious and 
 dignified home in the City of London. 
 
 It is necessary at the outset to explain what I mean by Imperial 
 studies. The adjective is one which I should prefer not to use for 
 this particular purpose if any other were available ; for to that high- 
 sounding word ' Imperial ' with its great and splendid history there 
 are sometimes attributed unjustifiable meanings. But Imperial, at 
 any rate, signifies that which appertains or is essential to Empire ; 
 and I employ the term as expressing with practical convenience and 
 sufficient accuracy that kind of knowledge which is concerned 
 primarily with the Empire of Britain, and secondly with the 
 Empires of other nations and peoples so far as they are connected with 
 this or tend to throw light upon its origin, growth, and condition. 
 By Imperial study, then, I mean principally that of the discovery, 
 the acquisition, the development, and the institutions of the British 
 Dominions and Dependencies. I include those territories which are 
 inhabited by subject races under British control, as well as those 
 which are colonies or self-governing communities. But the expansion 
 of England is only one manifestation of a national or racial energy 
 that has been exhibited in greater or less degree by the other peoples 
 of Northern and Western Europe. Britain has founded an 'Empire 
 beyond the seas of Europe, but she is not the only country that has 
 done so. Our Imperial studies should include some examination of 
 the history and institutions of the dependencies and colonies of 
 France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and 
 Italy, partly because these throw light on our own complex story, 
 
 274124 
 
"./:**;? 5 
 . . . . * . : 
 
 2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 partly because they help us to elucidate the principles and the practices 
 by which Empires are gained or lost, and new nations created. The 
 history of the British realms will be our * special subject ', but it should 
 be treated in relation to modern European expansion and colonization 
 in general. Nor can we wholly leave out of account the lessons of 
 a past which ended before what we call modern history began. 
 Without trenching unduly on the domain of the teachers of the 
 classical languages and literature, we may be allowed to interest our- 
 selves in the colonies of Athens and Corinth, in the proceedings of 
 Roman lieutenant-governors in Asia, of Roman civil commissioners in 
 Egypt and Cyrene, of Roman frontier officers in Dacia and Illyria. 
 If ever there is a Professor of Imperial History in the University of 
 London, I hope he will find time to deliver an occasional course of 
 lectures on the ideas and the methods of Empire in the Graeco-Roman 
 world. 
 
 These however must be regarded as educational luxuries. In the 
 main we must be concerned with the evolution, the morphology, and 
 the anatomy of the Empire of Britain, past and present. We shall 
 study the history of the American colonies till the Revolution ; the 
 discovery, settlement, federation, and constitutional development of 
 the self-governing dominions ; the exploration, acquisition, and adminis- 
 tration of the tropical and sub-tropical dependencies, and those of the 
 Pacific Islands, the Central African territories and protectorates. 
 India can be left to the orientalists or the mediaevalists until such time 
 as the mercantile and political activity of the modern European 
 nations was directed upon it. After that it comes within the scope of 
 our interests. In the statute of the University of Oxford establishing 
 the Beit Professorship of Colonial History in 1905, it is laid down 
 that the professor is to deal with * the detailed history of all British 
 possessions, past and present, other than India and its dependencies'. 
 There were doubtless good reasons for the limitation in this particular 
 case. But I hope it will not be regarded as a precedent. If we are to 
 establish a school, a faculty, or a professorship of Imperial Studies in 
 London we ought not to exclude the history of the British in India. 
 We cannot omit from our consideration of the dynamics of Empire 
 the processes by which Englishmen have become responsible for the 
 government of a quarter or a fifth of the population of this planet. 
 Our Imperial studies will embrace India under the rule of the Company 
 and under the rule of the Crown, as they will embrace the Dominion 
 of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Union of South 
 Africa, the Protectorate of British East Africa, the Crown Colony of 
 Nigeria, the island-groups of the West Indies, and the relations of the 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 3 
 
 Crown, the legislature, the government, the statesmen, the electorate, 
 and the people, of Britain to them all. 
 
 It is, in all its branches, a vast and imposing subject. To have 
 established the overseas Empire, to have created and nurtured the 
 colonies which have become or are becoming nations this is the 
 greatest of the deeds of our race, its indisputable claim to the atten- 
 tion of mankind. Splendid as our achievements have been in arms, in 
 literature, in philosophy, in artistic production, and in scientific 
 discovery, we should hardly be permitted to assert an unchallenged 
 superiority in all, or perhaps in any, of these spheres. But our least 
 indulgent rivals do not deny us the credit of our political achieve- 
 ments, or fail to regard with interest and curiosity, if sometimes with 
 admiring jealousy, the British Constitution and the British Empire. 
 
 One might suppose that this interest would be even more em- 
 phatically exhibited at home, and that ample means would be provided 
 for its legitimate gratification. But the opportunities which the 
 United Kingdom offers for pursuing the serious study of Imperial 
 history are still extremely scanty, and very little has been done to 
 give it a recognized status in our educational system or to encourage 
 research and original work. The * history of England' as taught in 
 the majority of our elementary and secondary schools is strangely 
 limited in its scope. A sedulous student may emerge from these 
 seminaries knowing next to nothing even of the history of Scotland, 
 scarcely anything beyond the names if even he knows that of the 
 dominions and dependencies beyond the sea. At 'our older Univer- 
 sities historical studies are pursued with zeal, and they have been 
 accorded an importance in the academic scheme comparable with that 
 assigned to the classical languages and natural science. The Modern 
 History School at Oxford and the Historical Tripos at Camb^dge are, 
 I believe, in a very flourishing condition. They attract many under- 
 graduates and are under the supervision of a staff of eminent professors 
 and accomplished tutors. But the history of the British Empire and 
 of the other modern Colonial Empires receives little attention either 
 in the lecture-room or the examination hall. At Cambridge a candi- 
 date for honours in the Historical Tripos, Part II, may offer as one of 
 his special subjects 'The Struggle for the New World 1751-63 ', 
 studied in the original authorities. But this is only one of seven optional 
 topics, and any candidate may make his choice among the other six. 
 One or two questions on Indian and Colonial history may be set in 
 the general papers on Modern History ; but there are plenty of other 
 questions on which the candidate can fall back if he pleases, and it is 
 not required of him that he shall have read any book on the subject 
 
4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 more recondite than Seeley's popular essay on the Expansion of 
 England. 
 
 At Oxford, thanks I believe mainly to the efforts of the Regius 
 Professor of Modern History and the Beit Professor of Colonial 
 History, a little more encouragement is given to these subjects. 
 Within the past eighteen months, owing to Professor Firth's recom- 
 mendations, it has been enacted that candidates for honours in the 
 Modern History School must show a knowledge of the documents in- 
 cluded in Professor Egerton's book on Federations and Unions within 
 the British Empire. At the same time it was decreed that the study 
 of English Political History should be carried down to the year 1885, 
 instead of stopping short at 1837, at which date it appears that the 
 topic was supposed to have lost its interest for the student. More- 
 over, candidates may if they like select a specified period of Colonial 
 history as one out of ten 'special subjects'. In 1909 and 1910 the 
 subject was the excellent one of the ' Evolution of Canadian Self- 
 Government'. In the former year it was taken by five out of the 
 150 candidates who obtained honours, in the latter by seven out of 
 142. In the general papers one or two questions out of forty-two, 
 and in the constitutional papers one out of twenty-four, will deal 
 with the Colonies. 
 
 It will be seen therefore that at these two great Universities 
 it is possible, it is easy, and I may even add that it is usual, for 
 a student to have devoted the major portion of his time for two or 
 three years to the exclusive " study of modern history, and to have 
 obtained the very highest honours in that study, without having paid 
 any serious attention to the history of the British Empire, without 
 acquiring any clear and systematic knowledge of the growth and 
 constitutional development of the self-governing colonies, or of their 
 economic relations with the Mother Country either under the mer- 
 cantile system, or during the period of the colonial preferences, or 
 after the establishment of free trade in England. Of the rich and 
 intricate story of the establishment, extension, and consolidation of 
 British rule over 300 millions of Asiatics he may know no more than 
 can be gleaned from the casual perusal of a few popular essays, bio- 
 graphies, and works of travel. On these and kindred matters on 
 what I have called Imperial studies our graduate who leaves his 
 University with the cachet of a first-class in history may be no more 
 accurately informed than the majority of Englishmen of average 
 education, and that is saying little indeed. I venture to suggest that 
 in all University examinations in history, the rise, growth, and con- 
 stitution of the British Empire should be not an optional but a 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 5 
 
 compulsory subject, and that no candidate should be able to obtain 
 distinction unless he has shown an adequate acquaintance with it not 
 only in its main outlines but in some at least of its details. For us 
 modern Englishmen the transactions which led to the Battle of Assaye 
 are not less important than those which led to the Battle of Agincourt ; 
 I will even go so far as to say that the administration of the American 
 colonies is as well worth our notice as the Petition of Right ; and 
 that Lord Durham's Report on Canada and Pitt's India Bill may 
 claim as much attention as we bestow upon the Firma Burgi and the 
 Ordinance of the Hundred. 
 
 On the value of the systematic study of British Imperial history it 
 should indeed be superfluous to dilate. We live in a time when 
 a good deal is said of the British Empire. In a sense it may be said 
 that we are all Imperialists now. No one in these days ventures to 
 refer to the oversea territories and populations with the grudging 
 coldness which was not unfashionable in certain circles of political 
 thought sixty years ago. Enthusiasm for the Empire is the mode, and 
 our Colonial fellow subjects certainly cannot complain that they are 
 treated with any lack of warmth in the legislature, by the press, or at 
 the public meetings of the Mother Country. But our zeal is not 
 always founded upon knowledge of the past. Facilities of intercom- 
 munication have no doubt diffused a certain amount of practical 
 information. An eminent politician appointed to the governorship 
 of a Crown Colony would not now require to consult an atlas in order 
 to ascertain where the colony was situated. The most untravelled 
 Briton is probably aware that the English language is spoken in New 
 Zealand, and that tomahawks are not habitually carried in the streets 
 of Toronto ; he may even have grasped the fact that the inhabitants 
 of Bengal cannot be appropriately described as ' niggers'. Many 
 Englishmen have found it necessary to make themselves acquainted 
 with the geography, the statistics, and the economic position of some 
 portions of the Empire. Very few are familiar with their political or 
 administrative system ; fewer still with the causes and events that 
 have influenced their development, and determined their existing 
 relations towards the people and government of this country, and 
 towards the other nations of the globe. 
 
 Yet, even if we abandon the standpoint of the educationalist and 
 the scholar, such knowledge is of the utmost importance. The maxim 
 that ' history is politics teaching by example ' may be pressed too far ; 
 but it cannot be ignored, least of all by those who live under a politi- 
 cal system so plastic as our own. We are told daily that the closer 
 union of the British Empire, the creation of an Imperial constitution 
 
6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 of some kind, is among the most urgent of the problems that await 
 solution in this generation or the next. But we are ill equipped to 
 solve it if we have not considered with some care the attempts which 
 have been made to deal with it in the past, if we do not appreciate 
 the extent to which an approximation has been made to it, if we do 
 not know that the present loose alliance of the English-speaking 
 countries of the Empire was preceded by a much closer formal 
 organization, if we do not rightly apprehend why this arrangement 
 broke down and was superseded by that which exists at present. 
 The affairs of the American colonies before the Revolution form a part 
 of English history which is full of valuable lessons for the Empire- 
 builders and the Empire-rulers of this age. Other lessons, not less 
 fruitful, are offered to us by our kinsmen in the self-governing 
 colonies. For in these states we have the principles which are 
 supposed to animate the English constitution applied to the changed 
 conditions of modern society. We find English-speaking peoples 
 across the seas who have already adopted, or perhaps discarded, some 
 of the methods and processes which are being discussed by ourselves. 
 I hope I shall not be venturing too near the fires of controversy if I 
 even allude to such topics as Federation, Provincial Home Rule, 
 Tariff Reform, Compulsory Arbitration in Labour Disputes, a legal 
 Minimum Wage, or Woman Suffrage ; but I do so only to "point out 
 that all these devices have been actually submitted to the test of 
 practice in one or other of our self-governing colonies. It has often 
 been claimed that the timfc spent in our schools and colleges in 
 studying the history of Ancient Greece is well spent, since the cities 
 of Hellas were a laboratory of political and social experiment, all 
 the more instructive to us because of the simplicity of the environ- 
 ment, and the political division into small urban states. I am far 
 from denying that the hours are wasted which we consume over 
 Thucydides and the Politics of Aristotle. But as Professor Egerton 
 has pointed out there is a good deal of the same simplicity and 
 directness in modern colonies. The Australian states are also engaged 
 in political and economical experiments, and they approach their 
 problems free from most of the complications caused by the pressure 
 of international politics, or by that inheritance from the past which 
 weighs so heavily upon the present in any ancient community. 
 
 Whether the colonists have solved these problems successfully, or 
 whether the solution could always be applied in conditions so different 
 as those which prevail in this country, need riot now be considered. 
 But we should at least be able to appreciate the lessons that can be 
 derived from the experiences and the endeavours of these small and 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 7 
 
 unfettered democracies of Englishmen beyond the seas, particularly 
 when they throw light on controversies arising among ourselves. We 
 are, for instance, engaged in the task of revising the British constitu- 
 tion and changing it, in some respects at least, from what has been 
 called the ' unwritten ' to the written form. Many of the men who 
 will be most actively concerned in tliat operation are, I doubt not, 
 closely acquainted with the legal and historical side of our insular 
 institutions. Few I fear have made any careful study of those written 
 and statutory constitutions which are scattered over the English- 
 speaking world, or are aware that many of the questions which have 
 to be discussed theoretically in a British Parliament have been 
 disposed of in practice by the legislatures and executives of the 
 Dominions. English constitutional history should be treated, though 
 it seldom is treated, as only a part of a greater whole. It is not 
 rightly understood unless we study the development of the system and 
 the principles which the British people carried down with them from 
 the Middle Ages, not only in that part of the United Kingdom which 
 is called England, but also in the American Colonies and the American 
 Union, in Canada, in Australia, and even, I would add, in the Crown 
 Colonies and Dependencies. In fine, I contend that alike for the his- 
 torian, for the jurist, for the publicist, the politician, and the adminis- 
 trator, the studies which we agree to call Imperial are essential. 
 
 Let us ask then what are the opportunities open to the student in 
 this branch of knowledge. They cannot be deemed adequate in any 
 degree to their importance or their interest. I have pointed out how 
 small a place they occupy in the academic scheme of our most famous 
 Universities. When so little value attaches to them in the examina- 
 tion-hall it is not to be supposed that much attention will be paid 
 to them in the lecture-room. A few years ago it might have been 
 said that even if thejre had been any learners they would have found 
 no teachers. Something has been done to remove this reproach. 
 There has been since 1905 a fully endowed Chair of Colonial History 
 at Oxford. One cannot speak too gratefully of the munificent public 
 spirit which induced the late Mr. Alfred Beit to enable the University 
 to give worthy and dignified recognition to this study, or too highly of 
 the distinguished scholar who has held the Beit professorship since 
 its foundation. Professor Egerton has done admirable work during 
 the past six years. His own writings, and those of the lecturers who 
 assist him, have contributed to the elucidation of our Colonial history ; 
 and the professor has trained some able young historians who are 
 diffusing the light over other fields. Mr. W. L. Grant, who was for 
 four years Beit Lecturer at Oxford, has now become Professor of 
 
8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 Colonial History at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, and is one 
 of the leaders of that promising body of Canadian scholars who are 
 investigating the annals and records of the Dominion with industry 
 and enthusiasm. The Beit foundation further includes provision for 
 a prize of the value of 50 which is awarded annually for an essay on 
 some subject connected with Colonial History or Imperial Citizenship. 
 India, as I have said, does not come into Mr. Beit's scheme ; but at 
 Oxford there is a Reader in Indian Law, and a Reader and Deputy- 
 Reader in Indian History, who among their other duties furnish 
 special instruction to the probationers for the India Civil Service 
 keeping terms at the University. Oxford, as befits the University 
 which has become the seminary for so many Colonial students under 
 the terms of Cecil Rhodes's noble bequest, does then provide a fair 
 amount of instruction in Imperial subjects, and what it chiefly needs 
 is some modification of the examination system which would cause 
 these subjects to 'pay in the Schools' better than they do at 
 present. Cambridge is considerably behind her sister, and has no 
 University chair in either Colonial or Indian History, though there 
 are lecturers who give instruction in Indian Law and in Indian History 
 to the India Civil Service men. The same provision is made at the 
 University of Dublin, and at the Indian School of the University 
 of London, located at University College. The University of Edin- 
 burgh has lately established a Lectureship in Colonial History, and 
 has very judiciously appointed to this post Mr. J. Munro, who succeeded 
 Professor Grant as Lecturer at Oxford on the Beit Foundation. 
 
 It will be seen that except at Oxford there is little provision for 
 the group of subjects in which we are interested ; and even at Oxford, 
 though a certain amount of sound instruction is to be obtained, 
 apparently little advantage is taken of it. There is nothing that can 
 be called a School of Imperial Learning, by which I mean an 
 organization that will not only impart such knowledge as is available 
 but will also add to its sum : an institution for Imperial research as 
 well as for Imperial teaching, a means for collating and co-ordinating 
 the results of investigation into all branches of the science, history, 
 economics, and jurisprudence of Empire. It is not in Oxford, nor 
 Cambridge, not in Edinburgh, Manchester, Toronto, or Melbourne, 
 that this central storehouse and distributing reservoir of Imperial 
 studies can properly find its home. Its place, and the only place 
 where its functions can be quite satisfactorily performed, is in the 
 capital city of the Empire. If we are to have an Imperial School or 
 a faculty of Imperial learning, it must be located in London. For 
 London has advantages and opportunities which are unique. It is 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 9 
 
 the centre of Imperial government, Imperial administration, Imperial 
 finance, and Imperial commerce, of all the great practical activities 
 of which an Imperial Academy would represent the theoretical and 
 scientific side. The graduates of that Academy in the future will be 
 the men who will hold the high places in the India Office and the 
 Colonial Office, and in the great banks and business corporations of 
 the City of London which are in the closest touch with the oversea 
 communities. In London the school will find its Imperial students 
 in situ ; it will not need to draw them far from their homes, for it 
 will have within easy distance of its own doors hundreds of young 
 men preparing for some career in which Imperial knowledge will 
 be useful. The government official, the aspirant to honours in public 
 life, the politician, the banker, the journalist, the India or Colonial 
 merchant, with many other London residents, should have the oppor- 
 tunity of attending some course of lectures in the particular branches 
 of Imperial study in which they are interested. London, moreover, 
 has a large floating student population, Indians and Colonists reading 
 for the Bar, candidates for the Civil Service examinations, young 
 men who have already obtained their appointments in India and the 
 Crown Colonies and are receiving special instruction in order to 
 equip them for their duties. Many of these would avail themselves 
 of the facilities offered by the School. London, again, is the home, 
 or at least the residence during some portion of the year, of many 
 experts in some branch of Empire knowledge, men who have held 
 responsible office in the administration of India and the Colonies, who 
 have been employed in the diplomatic service, the consular service, 
 or the educational services of our Asiatic or African dependencies, or 
 have been engaged in important scientific, industrial, and commercial 
 occupations in some part of the British dominions. And some of 
 these authorities would no doubt be willing to deliver occasional 
 courses of lectures on topics with which they are specially conversant. 
 In London, it must be added, a good deal of Imperial education, 
 though chiefly on the practical side, is already pursued. The School 
 of Tropical Medicine is doing excellent work towards the scientific- 
 elucidation of those hygienic and sanitary problems on which the 
 whole future of Western culture in the tropics so largely depends. 
 The Imperial Institute at South Kensington, now directed by a Joint 
 Committee of the Colonial Office, the Indian Office, and the Board of 
 Trade, has valuable collections illustrating the resources and industries 
 of the Empire, and in addition to the special work of its scientific 
 staff in connexion with Imperial industries and Colonial products it 
 gives instruction on these subjects to the candidates selected for 
 
10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 appointments in the Crown Colonies and African Protectorates. Then 
 there is the School of Modern Oriental Languages which is divided be- 
 tween University College and King's College, and has classes in Arabic, 
 Persian, Modern Greek, Chinese, the Indian vernacular languages, 
 Hausa, and Zulu. Further provision is made for the India Civil 
 Service probationers at the Indian School of University College under 
 the direction of Professor J. W. Neill, formerly Judicial Commissioner 
 of the Central Provinces, who lectures on Indian Law and Modern 
 Indian History. Moreover, the Colonial Office, conscious of the 
 limitations of the English public-school system, takes some steps to 
 furnish its future pro-consuls and magistrates with a certain amount 
 of necessary information. It engages tutors to give them elementary 
 instruction in criminal law and procedure, and in mensuration, land- 
 surveying, and official book-keeping. I do not know whether these 
 young officials find time to attend the London School of Economics, 
 where there is just now a course of lectures on the British Con- 
 stitution by Mr. Lees Smith, in which a section is devoted to the 
 Dominions, the Crown Colonies, the Protectorates, and the Govern- 
 ment of India. At the same admirable seminary of political and 
 economic thought there is a course on Arbitration Courts and Wages 
 Boards for the regulation of the conditions of Labour in the Oversea 
 Dominions and the Mother Country, delivered by the distinguished 
 New Zealand statesman who is now Director of the School. We 
 have also the Royal Colonial Institute in Northumberland Avenue, 
 which is a club-house where persons from all parts of the Empire can 
 meet and exchange experiences as well as an information bureau for the 
 collection and diffusion of Imperial knowledge. Papers on the indus- 
 tries, economics, and politics of the Colonies are read at its meetings 
 by men of the highest authority, and subsequently distributed to the 
 members and the press. The Institute has established standing 
 Committees on Empire Trade and Industries and on Emigration, both 
 of which are accumulating a body of useful facts and evidence, and 
 are likely to exercise a considerable influence upon the development 
 of public opinion and public policy. It publishes a monthly journal 
 of news and articles relating to the Empire, and it is raising an 
 4 Empire Lectures Fund ' for the purpose of ' spreading throughout the 
 United Kingdom detailed knowledge as to the present resources and 
 future development and consolidation of the Empire by means of 
 illustrated lectures'. At the other side of the metropolis the East 
 London College is assisting the dissemination of Imperial knowledge 
 by a course of lectures on Indian Sociology. 
 
 We have in all this the nucleus, and many of the elements, of 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 11 
 
 a school or faculty of Imperial learning. But it needs co-ordination, 
 systematization, and direction. At present such facilities as exist are 
 scattered, irregular, unrelated ; and if some parts of the ground are 
 covered there are other large areas still left waste. The diligent 
 student, even if he could take advantage of all the opportunities 
 mentioned, would still find serious lacunae in his scheme of Imperial 
 culture. He might, though not without difficulty and expense, obtain 
 instruction and advice on some points, but on others he would be left 
 to his own unaided resources. What one would desire is that the 
 student of political science, the official, the visitor from overseas, or 
 the man of business with Colonial and Indian interests, should be 
 able to obtain systematic and accessible instruction suited to his 
 special needs as easily as if he were preparing for any of the learned 
 professions. 
 
 To be of the largest utility that instruction, instead of being 
 split up among different authorities, some of which, like the Colonial 
 Office, have no special educational experience and interests, must be 
 under the general control of some academic body which is closely in 
 touch with higher education and understands its character and func- 
 tions. And it should be directed by those who could indicate to the 
 learner not only the best available means of information but also the 
 best method of pursuing his studies further and making, if he is fit 
 for it, original investigations. For I hold that education and research 
 are intimately connected and that the latter task is hardly ever likely 
 to be pursued with success unless it is closely associated with the 
 former. We shall not get a school of Imperial research a group of 
 trained investigators engaged in reconstructing the history of the 
 British Empire from the authentic sources unless we have also 
 a seminary of Imperial teaching. 
 
 For work of this kind London offers facilities which are absolutely 
 unrivalled. It is not too much to say that the history of the Empire, 
 and of the other colonial Empires and nations whose annals are 
 interlaced with our own, cannot be written elsewhere; for London 
 possesses the great storehouses in which the printed and manuscript 
 materials for this enterprise are deposited. The public and private 
 libraries of our capital are a mine into which but few shafts and 
 galleries have as yet been driven by Imperial explorers. I need 
 only refer to the magnificent collections at the Public Record Office, 
 still largely unclassified and unexamined, though we may hope that 
 easier access will be given to them before long if the recommenda- 
 tions of the recent Royal Commission are adopted. The Admiralty 
 Library, which has just been methodically rearranged and catalogued, 
 
12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 is another repository deserving the attention of the student of 
 Imperial affairs as much as that of the specialist in Naval History. 
 The India Office and the Colonial Office have also loaded shelves 
 and presses, the contents of which have as yet only been partially 
 scrutinized by trained eyes. In other metropolitan collections, in 
 the libraries of the British Museum, the Guildhall, the Royal 
 Asiatic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Oriental 
 Institute, there is a mass of early printed material, books, official 
 publications, and maps, relating to our subject; and at the Royal 
 Colonial Institute there are 90,000 volumes in English and other 
 languages, dealing with the British Empire, and forming one of the 
 most comprehensive and complete bibliographical collections of a 
 special kind which is to be found anywhere. 
 
 London, then, one may say, is plethoric with the materials for 
 Empire study, and it is humiliating to reflect how restricted is the 
 use that has been made of them. Little has been done to render the 
 vast store of original documents in the Record Office, in the public 
 offices, and in private collections, available for our purpose. For 
 what has been accomplished already one cannot be too grateful. We 
 may be justly proud of the Colonial Series in the Calendar of State 
 Papers, edited by Mr. Sainsbury and Mr. John Fortescue, which gives 
 invaluable summaries of the manuscript materials, and has thrown 
 much light on our earlier Colonial history, accompanied as they are 
 by editorial introductions which are the most creditable examples we 
 have of English scholarship applied in this field. An enterprise of 
 almost equal importance is the publication of the Acts of the Privy 
 Council, Colonial Series, five volumes of which have been issued under 
 the editorship of Professor Grant and Mr. Munro. Then we have 
 the series of volumes of the Letters received by the East India 
 Company from its officers and agents, admirably edited by Mr. Danvers 
 and Mr. Foster, and abounding in information on the history of the 
 Eastern settlements and factories in the seventeenth century. These 
 official publications show that some of our Government departments 
 are not unconscious of the responsibility which attaches to them with 
 regard to our Imperial Archives, and of their obligation to draw 
 their treasures from the repositories in which they have been too 
 long hidden. 
 
 But much more remains to be done. The reservoirs have been 
 tapped, but we cannot suppose that their contents will be drawn off 
 in sufficient volume by the slow and fitful efforts of public offices, 
 burdened by more pressing duties than those of assisting historical 
 scholarship or research. If statesmen and party leaders give some 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 13 
 
 encouragement to these efforts it is a work of supererogation on 
 their part in no way essential to political salvation ; for assuredly 
 there are no votes to be gained by it, and I am afraid too little credit 
 in the House of Commons or elsewhere to stimulate the liberality of 
 a reluctant Treasury. There is no public opinion, even among the 
 educated classes, as to our Imperial records like that which has 
 induced the United States Government to expend nearly three 
 million dollars during the past twenty years in printing documentary 
 texts, calendars of manuscripts, presidential messages, old congres- 
 sional journals, and historical compilations. One of the most valu- 
 able continuous records of colonial activity in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth century is the Journal of the Board of Trade and Foreign 
 Plantations. We learn with satisfaction, not wholly untempered by 
 another feeling, that the publication of this series up to the year 1782 
 is being undertaken, not by the British Government or by a British 
 University, but by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Another 
 American society is preparing to collect and print all the royal 
 proclamations dealing with America before the Revolution; while 
 the United States Government will probably itself publish the com- 
 missions, warrants, and letters of instructions issued by the Crown to 
 the governors of American Colonies. I hope that an Imperial 
 school or faculty in London would have as one of its departments an 
 Imperial Records Society, which would do for Empire History what 
 the Navy Records Society, the Hakluyt Society, the Early English 
 Text Society, have achieved in other departments of knowledge, both 
 by stimulating and directing official effort, and by itself publishing, 
 with competent editorial introductions and commentaries, manuscripts 
 and early printed works of interest. Indeed I would suggest that, 
 whether it be possible to establish a school of Imperial Studies or 
 not at an early date, this comparatively modest enterprise of an 
 Imperial Records Society should be undertaken without delay. 
 
 If a body of trained teachers and trained students be required for 
 sifting and collating the materials of Imperial history, it is also 
 needed in order to place the results before the educated public at 
 large. In this respect our deficiencies are patent and deplorable. 
 The greatest of Imperial nations has no Imperial literature worthy 
 of the name. We compare by no means favourably with nations 
 which have far less inducement to engage in such labours. Not long 
 ago, when I was lecturing at one of the London colleges, a very 
 promising young student asked me how he could obtain sound 
 instruction in the detailed history of European colonization, with 
 special reference to that of the Continental nations. I had to inform 
 
14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 him with regret that I knew of no facilities such as he desiderated in 
 London, and I could only recommend him to obtain permission to 
 attend the courses at the cole Coloniale in Paris, or the Kolonial- 
 institut in Hamburg. I undertook, however, to supply him with 
 a list of books which would assist him in his reading; and when 
 I had compiled this catalogue I was a little mortified to observe how 
 many of my titles were those of works which were written and 
 published outside the United Kingdom. England could supply him 
 with little except some meritorious text-books and popular summaries. 
 I am not unaware of the praiseworthy efforts which have been made 
 during the past few years to supply the deficiency. To Sir Charles 
 Lucas's admirable Historical Geography of the British Colonies with 
 Mr. J. D. Rogers's brilliant volume on Australasia, the late J. A. Doyle's 
 The English in America, and Alpheus C. Todd's classic Parliamentary 
 Government in the British Colonies, we can now add Professor Egerton's 
 History of British Colonial Policy, his Federations and Unions within 
 the British Empire, two elaborate editions with commentaries of the 
 Durham Report, Mr. Hertz's Old Colonial System, published by the 
 University of Manchester, and Mr. A. B. Keith's Responsible Gov- 
 ernment in the Dominions, a monument of erudition and industry. 
 
 Other creditable books might be mentioned. We are doing some- 
 thing ; but we are still behindhand. If you turn to the publications 
 of a single foreign society, the Institut Colonial International of 
 Brussels, you will find they form a library in themselves. There are 
 three volumes on Les Lois organigues des Colonies, of which one 
 volume is devoted to the British Crown Colonies and Protectorates. 
 Another three substantial volumes, sold at twenty francs each, deal 
 with Labour Questions in the Colonies, with one volume occupied 
 with India and other British possessions. There are no less than six 
 large volumes (at twenty francs) on Le Regime foncier aux Colonies, 
 one volume mainly on British India and another on our African 
 Colonies ; there are three volumes on the Colonial Railway systems, 
 and a volume on Irrigation. The professors and lecturers of the 
 Paris Ecole Coloniale have issued a number of scholarly monographs 
 on such subjects as the Organization of the French Colonies, 1 and the 
 history of Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, and German colonization. 
 In Germany we have a remarkable work on Kolonialpolitik by 
 Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, in six volumes, two of which deal with 
 Great Britain, one with France, one with Portugal and Spain, and 
 one with the Netherlands. It is to these German, and French, 
 
 1 Organisation des colonies franqaises. Par Edouard Petit, Professeur a 1'Ecole 
 Coloniale. 2 vols. 680 pp. 12 francs. 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 15 
 
 and Belgian publications that we must go if we wish to study in detail 
 various portions of the subject on which there are no adequate 
 modern authorities in English. 
 
 Nor is our deficiency alone in works intended mainly for the use 
 of scholars and publicists. That highly important person the general 
 reader is equally ill served. It is strange that no one of the greater 
 masters of modern historical writing in England should have turned 
 his attention to the story of the British Realm in its extension 
 beyond the seas of Europe. What might the subject have become in 
 the hands of a Froude, a Freeman, a Stubbs, a Samuel Rawson 
 Gardiner, a John Richard Green ! Seeley, who seemed marked out 
 for the task, contented himself with a single suggestive, if somewhat 
 superficial, essay. Macaulay has given us a vivid indication of what 
 he could have done with the theme if he had not limited his share 
 in it to two dazzling biographical sketches. We have had no modern 
 History of the English in India written on a large scale and with 
 the dignity and literary power the subject demands. We have not 
 even an adequate life of the great man who was the founder of our 
 Empire in the East ; for the English language is still without a really 
 sufficient historical biography of Robert Clive. If he had been a 
 Frenchman or a German how many notable books would have illus- 
 trated every phase of his activity by this time! Or to turn to 
 another portion of the field, we are still waiting for a comprehensive 
 and precise account of the struggle between the British and the 
 Dutch for commercial supremacy in the East and West. We have 
 no study in minute detail of the Mercantile System and the effects 
 and application of the Navigation Acts. If there are some good 
 histories of particular colonies we owe them not to English, but 
 to colonial writers, such as Kingsford for Canada, and Theale for 
 South Africa. And for the story of the struggle for the New World 
 between France and Britain we go to no British historian, but 
 to the prose epic of Francis Parkman, an American citizen and the 
 graduate of an American University. 
 
 It would be hammering at an open door to adduce further evidences 
 of the backward conditions of our Imperial studies. Other countries 
 pursue them with more system and method. I have referred to the 
 Paris Ecole Coloniale. This school is under the control of an 
 Administrative Committee of which the Under-Secretary for the 
 Colonies is ex qfficio president, and it receives a subvention from the 
 State of 138,000 francs per annum. It is divided into (1) the 
 Section Indigene, which is intended to give instruction to natives of 
 Indo-China and other French Asiatic and African territories; and 
 
16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 (%) the Section Fran$aise, which prepares young Frenchmen for the 
 Colonial diplomatic and consular services, for administrative or 
 judicial offices, or for employment by railways, banks, and commercial 
 and industrial firms. The School has a large staff of professors and 
 lecturers, which has included such distinguished men as the late 
 M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, who was Director, MM. Louis Renault, 
 Alfred de Foville, Elie Halevy, Andre Tardieu, Louis Leger, and 
 other well-known historians, scholars, and publicists. There are 
 professors or teachers of such subjects as Colonial Administration, 
 Colonial Constitutions, the Colonial Policy of Foreign States, Indo- 
 Chinese Geography and History, African Geography and History, 
 Mohammedan Law, Hygiene, Industrial Economics and Public works. 
 The normal course lasts two years, with a third year allowed to 
 students of ability. A diploma is granted to those who pass the 
 prescribed examination at the end of the second year. Asiatic 
 languages are not taught at the Ecole Coloniale, I presume because 
 of the facilities which exist for studying them at another Paris 
 seminary, the fecole des Langues Orientates (Rue de Lille 2), which has 
 professors of about 25 oriental languages, and of oriental geography, 
 history, and law. The 'regular' courses at the Ecole Coloniale 
 comprise such subjects as the constitutional history of France, 
 England, and the United States, the history of colonization up to 
 and since 1 815, the commercial policy of the principal civilized nations, 
 the ethnology and ethnography of the French colonies, the military 
 and naval organization of -the great Powers, international law, 
 public finance, and the English and German languages. Whether the 
 diplomeof the Ecole Coloniale makes a better inspector or magistrate 
 than the English public-schoolboy sent out from his cricket-field to 
 Nigeria or East Africa, I am not competent to determine. Character 
 and tradition may counterbalance educational deficiencies. But 
 I cannot think that the young British official would forfeit his special 
 advantages if he received the same systematic and liberal instruction 
 as is bestowed upon his French rival, instead of starting upon his 
 practical duties with no preliminary training worthy of the name. 
 At any rate the Ecole Coloniale is a centre of political and economic 
 learning, and its professors and advanced graduates have inducements 
 to study the subjects which are its special interest and to produce 
 those valuable works upon them to which reference has already been 
 made. 
 
 It is however to Germany that we must go for a fuller realization of 
 the idea of an Imperial Seminary. The Hamburg Kolonialinstitut 
 deserves more attention than it has yet received in England. It is one 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 17 
 
 of the most remarkable educational establishments in the world, and 
 a striking example of German thoroughness, liberality, and method. 
 The Institute was established in Hamburg rather than at Berlin 
 because it was felt that its theoretical studies could be prosecuted 
 with most advantage in contact with the practical life of a great 
 mercantile and shipping community. It has two main objects : first, 
 to train officials, functionaries, settlers, traders, and other persons 
 proposing to adopt a Colonial career ; secondly, to serve as a centre 
 for the collection and dissemination of knowledge relating to the 
 history and condition of the Colonies. Hamburg already possessed 
 ample facilities for technical and scientific study, in its natural history 
 and ethnological museums, its botanical, mineralogical, and zoological 
 collections, its agricultural laboratories, and its school of tropical 
 medicine, besides an elaborate organization of lectures and courses in 
 most branches of learning and culture. These resources were placed 
 at the disposal of the Kolonialinstitut. It was able to call upon the 
 services of a large staff of teachers, many of them already resident in 
 Hamburg ; and since last year it has been housed in a noble building, 
 which has been presented by a patriotic burgess of Hamburg to his 
 native town. 
 
 By its constitution the Institute is directed to carry on its work 
 in association with the Imperial Colonial Office, the German Colonial 
 Society, and the governments of the German colonies. It has the 
 use of the City Library with its six hundred thousand volumes, 
 the Commercial Library, and the libraries of the Historisches Seminar, 
 the Seminar fur Nationalokonomie und Kolvnialpolitik, the Seminar fur 
 Offentliches Recht und Kolonialrecht, the Seminar fur Geographic, and 
 the Seminar fur Geschichte und Kultur des Orients, all with collections 
 of special books, documents, maps, and objects of technical, scientific, 
 and industrial interest. These seminars, which are assisted by grants 
 from the State and liberal contributions by private individuals, form 
 a valuable part of the work of the Institute, and they have published 
 useful papers on colonial ethnology, technology, natural history, 
 and African and Asiatic languages. Owing to a liberal subvention 
 from the State the fees of the Institute are moderate. A payment 
 of twenty marks gives admission to all the lectures of one of the 
 faculties into which the Institute is divided, and attendance at a single 
 course can be obtained for five marks. Indigent students who can 
 produce evidence that they are likely to profit by the instruction are 
 admitted free. The full educational course for those in the Wissen- 
 schaftliche Section occupies two semesters of six months each ; in the 
 Section of Colonial Economics, Technology, and Industries, four 
 
18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 semesters. The curriculum is so comprehensive that it would occupy 
 a considerable portion of the space at my disposal merely to give the 
 titles of the subjects on which lectures are delivered and classes held. 
 There are some sixty professors and Dozenten on the regular staff, 
 and their interests range from Colonial History, Colonial Law, and 
 Anthropology to Book-keeping, Destructive Insects, and Tropical 
 Cookery. There are European teachers of Swahili, Hausa, Fula, 
 Duala, and Cape Dutch, and in addition natives of Africa have been 
 imported to furnish opportunities for acquiring colloquial familiarity 
 with those languages. Among the persons who attend the lectures 
 of the Institute are students of law, philosophy, economics, and 
 medicine, engineers, chemists, candidates for the public services, 
 teachers of both sexes, and young men preparing for a commercial 
 career. A diploma can be obtained by examination or by submitting 
 a thesis approved by one of the seminars at the close of the prescribed 
 period of study. 
 
 I turn now to the practical question of what should be done towards 
 amending the deficiencies I have dwelt upon and placing Imperial 
 studies among ourselves upon a more stable basis. I venture to hope 
 that the British Academy, following its own precedent in the case of 
 Oriental studies, will use its influence to establish an organization for 
 the study of Imperial history and institutions in London. Such an 
 organization might be a subsection or department of your Academy 
 itself; but no doubt it would find its eventual place in the academic 
 scheme as a school or faculty of the University of London. I believe 
 the University would need little persuasion to establish such a faculty 
 and a Board of Imperial Studies if the means were at its disposal for 
 adequately remunerating the staff. Even in the absence of such 
 resources the University might do a good deal towards this end. I 
 would suggest that it should make the detailed study of Imperial 
 history, and of the development and institutions of the British Empire, 
 compulsory for all students who offer Modern History in the exam- 
 ination for Arts degrees, or in the faculty of Economics and Political 
 Science. I would also suggest that the University, following the 
 example of the French Ecole Coloniale and the German Kolonial- 
 institut, and its own example in the case of Pedagogy, should institute 
 a special diploma for Imperial studies. There should be a University 
 professor of Imperial History or of Indian and Colonial History, who 
 should be ex officio Director of the School of Imperial studies. He 
 should be assisted by a staff which need not, in the first instance at 
 any rate, be a large one. For, as I have already pointed out, 
 it will not be necessary in London to provide for instruction in 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 19 
 
 those special technical, industrial, and linguistic subjects which are 
 all included within the comprehensive curriculum of the Hamburg 
 Institute, or even within the more restricted scope of the Paris 
 School. Oriental languages, tropical medicine anft hygiene, and 
 Colonial industries and products being dealt with already can be 
 left out of our present scheme, though I hope there will be a close 
 relation and intercommunication between their teachers and those of 
 the proposed University faculty. We can confine ourselves more 
 particularly to academic, historical, political, and philosophical de- 
 velopments. The Professor should have the support of a minimum of 
 five Lecturers or Readers, who should deal with (1) Indian history, (2) 
 Colonial history, (3) the Laws and Institutions of the British Empire, 
 (4) Imperial economics, and (5) Imperial ethnology and geography. 
 A larger number could no doubt easily be suggested, and indeed 
 we might hope, if the resources were sufficient, that all these lecturers 
 would be elevated to the full professorial dignity and provided 
 with assistants or readers of their own. In the meantime we can 
 be content with the professor-director and these five lieutenants. 
 It would no doubt be necessary to engage a number of teachers 
 of special subjects and to arrange for occasional courses or isolated 
 lectures by professors from Colonial Universities or from eminent 
 authorities resident in the metropolis, who would be willing to offer 
 their services, from time to time, without being permanent members 
 of the academic staff. 
 
 The functions of this staff should be in the first instance to provide 
 such instruction as may be prescribed by the Senate of the University 
 of London to meet the wants of the students reading for its examina- 
 tions. Secondly, it will attend particularly to the requirements of 
 those who aspire to obtain the proposed diploma in Imperial studies. 
 Thirdly, it should arrange lectures and classes for those interested in 
 such studies, whether they are members of the University or not. It 
 should particularly consult the needs of Colonial and Indian students 
 resident in London, of the India Civil Service probationers, and of the 
 young men nominated by the Colonial Office for service in the Crown 
 Colonies and Protectorates. Some provision, as I ha/e pointed out, is 
 already made for the instruction of these two latter classes ; but they 
 could derive nothing but benefit from that wider academic culture 
 which they might obtain under the Imperial faculty. It might indeed 
 be expected that the Colonial Office would eventually decide to hand 
 over the entire training of its probationers to the School, and would 
 even insist that these young men should obtain the proposed 
 Imperial diploma before taking up their appointments, or within 
 
20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 some specified period after joining the service. The School might 
 continue in touch with some of these young officers even after they 
 have entered upon their active duties. The officials of our tropical 
 and sub-tropical dependencies enjoy considerable intervals of com- 
 pulsory leisure, and spend no inappreciable portion of their whole 
 period of active service on leave in Europe. In some of the African 
 colonies an officer is able, and is indeed required by the terms of 
 his engagement, to be on vacation in England or some other temperate 
 country for six or eight months out of every two years. These long 
 holidays are prescribed in order to maintain the health and vigour of 
 those employed in arduous duties in exhausting climates ; but it does 
 not seem essential that they should be spent in complete idleness, at 
 any rate during the formative years of life. The young Indian or 
 African official would return to his district better equipped for his 
 duties, and in equally good health, if a certain amount of intellectual 
 labour were permitted to distract him from golf and shooting and 
 Alpine sports and the amenities of Continental pleasure-resorts. Some, 
 I am sure, of these young and zealous administrators would welcome 
 the opportunity of systematizing and developing the results of their 
 practical experiences by the study under suitable direction of the 
 history, geography, economics, or ethnology of their own provinces 
 or other portions of the British Empire. 
 
 Another body of students with whom the director and his staff 
 would be engaged would be those persons of both sexes preparing for 
 commercial, industrial, scientific, or philanthropic careers in the over- 
 sea colonies and dependencies, or in connexion with them. The 
 London School of Economics has already shown that there are plenty 
 of young bankers, merchants, financiers, and manufacturers, who are 
 eager to combine the practical work of their professions with a know- 
 ledge of its higher principles and wider relations. A school of Imperial 
 studies would no doubt have the same experience. 
 
 Finally, the Imperial School would endeavour to meet the needs of 
 a limited number of advanced students who desire to carry their studies 
 beyond the mere educational level. It should have a seminar, which 
 would promote research and encourage the consultation and publica- 
 tion of original authorities. It would, I hope, be closely associated 
 with the society for examining, summarizing, and printing the Imperial 
 records of which we stand in need. 
 
 It remains to say a few words upon the important question of cost. 
 Everything, of course, turns upon this, and if the expense of equip- 
 ping such a seminary or sub-academy as I propose were excessively 
 heavy we should have small hope for the project. For while as 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 21 
 
 a nation we are lavish in so many other things we are prudent to the 
 point of penuriousness in our contributions to the higher education. 
 Fortunately no prohibitive sum is required for the scheme which I 
 have briefly outlined. In most educational reforms of an ambitious 
 kind the larger part of the initial outlay must be devoted to brick and 
 stone. In the present case we shall be under no obligation to expend 
 vast sums of money in providing our school with its local habitation. 
 Such an abiding-place is designated by circumstances and will presently 
 become available. The seat of the School should obviously be in the 
 Imperial Institute at South Kensington. A portion of that mag- 
 nificent building is at present occupied by the University of London ; 
 but the Royal Commission has strongly recommended that the Univer- 
 sity shall have its own building and offices in some central portion of 
 London, and there is, I take it, no doubt that this recommendation 
 will be carried into effect. With the removal of the University from 
 South Kensington the apartments it occupies in the Imperial Institute 
 will become vacant, and one might hope that it would be found possible 
 to allocate them to the use of the Imperial School. If that is done Empire 
 learning, upon the theoretical and historical side, will be conducted in 
 the closest proximity to that practical study of Colonial industries and 
 productions which is pursued in the adjacent laboratories and 
 collections; and the Imperial Institute will have at length fulfilled 
 the large and beneficent intentions of its original founders. The interval 
 which must exist before the new University buildings are completed 
 could probably be bridged over by allowing the Imperial lectures 
 and classes to be held in the rooms of one or more of the colleges 
 or schools of the University. We might, without presumption, 
 expect that University College, King's College, the London School of 
 Economics, the Goldsmiths' Institute, and others would be willing 
 to extend their hospitality to a body of students and teachers whose 
 general objects would be so largely in accordance with their own. 
 
 If we need not spend money on buildings, we need not also contem- 
 plate any large outlay on libraries or educational collections. The 
 great storehouses to which I have already referred will enable us to 
 dispense with costly appurtenances of the kind. For the seminar and 
 the research scholars the Record Office will be available. For all the 
 students there will be the great public libraries, and no doubt per- 
 mission will be obtained for the use under suitable conditions of the 
 shelves of the Royal Colonial Institute, of the London School of 
 Economics, and others. A comparatively small collection of text- books, 
 with maps and official publications, would be sufficient for all our needs 
 in this respect. 
 
22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY 
 
 It follows, therefore, that the main expenditure of the School will 
 come under the heading of salaries to the teaching staff. Fortunately 
 at least from this point of view the emoluments of the higher educa- 
 tion in England are never excessive, and professorial salaries are 
 as a rule extremely moderate in amount. I believe that a competent 
 professor and director of studies, a man of high standing and 
 recognized authority, could be obtained for a salary of about 800 a 
 year. Even with that income he would be as well off as most of our 
 University professors, and better remunerated than a large number. 
 The readers and lecturers would be content with a much smaller 
 emolument. I am advised that capable young scholars of high 
 academic distinction would be willing to accept these dignified 
 and interesting posts at a salary of no more than 300 per annum, 
 with, of course, a share of the fees paid by their pupils. The amount 
 assigned for the provision of occasional lecturers and special 
 classes must be more or less dependent upon the resources of the 
 School and the number of its students ; but a sum of 800 a year 
 would cover a reasonable amount of activity in this department. 
 For the library, the expense of the seminar, the cost of printing papers 
 and transactions, and assisting the publication of original documents, 
 we might be content, at the outset at any rate, to allow a further sum 
 of 700 annually. The account then will stand as follows : 
 
 Professor-director 800 
 
 Five Readers at 300 each . . . . .1,500 
 
 Occasional courses and special lectures . . .800 
 
 Seminar and library 700 
 
 Total .3,800 
 
 This, it must be admitted, is not an amount which should be beyond 
 the resources of the metropolitan community and the Empire at 
 large. We must not, of course, expect that the Government of the 
 United Kingdom will subsidize Imperial and Colonial studies to the 
 same extent as the Free City of Hamburg or the French Republic. 
 If we were to ask for a subvention of 8,000 or even 4,000 a year for 
 our purpose from the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the Education 
 Department I find no difficulty in imagining what our reception 
 would be. But something we might reasonably expect even from 
 Anglo-Saxon government departments habitually suspicious of wanton 
 extravagance on such wasteful luxuries as the higher education. 
 We might perhaps hope that of our 3,800 a year one half, under 
 due pressure from the British Academy, the London University, and 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF IMPERIAL STUDIES 23 
 
 public opinion, would be supplied by the India Office, the Colonial 
 Office, and the governments of the self-governing Dominions, all 
 which powers and authorities might reasonably be asked to make 
 some minute contribution to a work which would be of direct benefit 
 to each of them. This then, not to place our expectation of public 
 or national liberality too high, might account for ^1,900 of our 
 desired 3,800. For the remainder I suppose we must look to 
 private generosity ; and I really cannot entertain the idea that we 
 should look in vain. There must surely be some British or Colonial 
 or Indian subjects of the Crown of sufficient wealth and patriotism 
 to provide the capital necessary to produce ^2,000 a year. It seems 
 incredible that a project so important alike in its educational, its 
 political, and its literary and scientific aspects will be defeated for 
 the want of so small a sum of money. I cannot think that means 
 will be lacking to bring the School into existence, or to maintain it 
 in being if its utility and its value are demonstrated beyond the possi- 
 bility of question. 
 

14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 REC'D _D 
 
 64- 
 
 5PM 
 
 21A-40m-4,'63 
 (D6471slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY