The encouragement of Musical education and the promotion of a public taste for music was one of the subjects in which the Prince of Wales took a deep and practical interest. He believed in the humanizing and civilizing effects of music and felt that amongst a people who had made a home for Händel and who had in older days loved glees and madrigals and choral compositions there was room, in a more hum-drum age, for the encouragement of popular taste in this direction. The Royal Academy of Music, founded in 1822, had done some good but limited service and, in 1875, he placed himself at the head of a movement to further the love and practice of music amongst the people. A meeting was held at Marlborough House on June 15th for the immediate purpose of establishing free scholarships in connection with the proposed National Training Schools for Music, near the Royal Albert Hall, and there were present the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Christian, the Duke of Teck, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Lord Mayor of London and many Provincial Mayors, and a numerous company distinguished by public reputation or position. The result of this action was most successful, and in 1878, the Prince endeavoured to complete it by bringing the Academy and the Training Schools into union. ENCOURAGES MUSICAL EDUCATION Failing in this, however, he presided on February 28th 1882 at a meeting in St. James's Palace held for the purpose of founding a "Royal College of Music" and attended by one of the most representative gatherings which His Royal Highness had ever brought together. His speech was an able and elaborate statement of the importance of a national cultivation of music and the necessity for its promotion in the United Kingdom. "Why is it," he asked, "that England has no music recognized as national? It has able composers but nothing indicative of the national life or national feeling. The reason is not far to seek. There is no centre of music to which English musicians may resort with confidence and thence derive instruction, counsel and inspiration." The plan was then clearly outlined and enthusiastically accepted--Lord Rosebery, Mr. Gladstone and Sir Stafford Northcote being amongst those who spoke and supported the project presented by the Royal chairman. A little later, on March 23rd, the Prince invited a number of gentlemen connected with the Colonial part of the Empire to meet him at Marlborough House in order to discuss how best the benefits of the College might be extended and applied to the more distant British countries.