list of guarantees provided
for L128,000, including L20,000 from the Government of India, L10,000
from that of Canada, L19,000 from the various Australasian Governments
and L1000 each from individual subscribers such as Lord Cadogan, Sir
Thomas Brassey, Sir Daniel Cooper, the Earl of Derby, Mr. Henry
Doulton, Sir J. Whittaker Ellis, Mr. Samuel Morley and the Earl of
Rosebery. This latter list indicated in a most marked manner the
personal influence of the Prince of Wales. On May 3, 1886, the eve of
the formal opening of the Exhibition was marked by a meeting of the
Royal Commission at which the Prince presided, sketched the history and
progress of an undertaking to which he had given much time and intimated
that the guarantee fund now amounted to L218,000, of which the City of
London had recently voted L10,000. In proposing a vote of thanks to the
Royal chairman, seconded by Earl Granville, the Duke of Cambridge said:
"It is not the first time that His Royal Highness has acted as President
in undertakings of this nature, and it is very difficult for any person
to praise him in his presence without appearing fulsome; but it is not
fulsome to say that he has always devoted his whole energies to bringing
everything to a successful issue with which he is connected."

OPENING AND SUCCESS OF THE EXHIBITION

The Colonial and Indian Exhibition was opened on the following day at
South Kensington by Her Majesty the Queen in the presence of an immense
gathering, representative of all parts of the British realm. It was, in
fact, the first of those great fetes with which the people became so
familiar in the next two decades and which did so much to unify and
typify the power of the Empire. In the brilliant throng surrounding the
Queen and the Prince of Wales, as the latter read an elaborate address
of loyal welcome, were the members of the Government, the various
Foreign Ambassadors, distinguished men in every walk of life,
representatives of Colonies and British islands in all parts of the
world--Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, Lord Cranbrook, the Earl of
Northbrook, the Dukes of Manchester, Buckingham and Abercorn, the Earl
of Iddesleigh, Lord Granville, the Earl of Kimberley, Lord Napier of
Magdala, Sir M. E. Hicks-Beach, Sir F. Leighton, Sir Charles Tupper and
Mr. Hector Fabre from Canada, Sir Alexander Stuart, Sir Arthur Blyth,
Sir Samuel Davenport, the Hon. James F. Garrick and the Hon. Malcolm
Fraser, from Australia, Sir L