Read it through once
During the next few years the public events of the Prince's career continued along very much the same lines, varied by some rapid trip to the continent, or visit to the country home of some noble friend, or a shooting excursion to some place where game was plentiful and companions congenial. The central events, aside from his promotion of the Fisheries and other Exhibitions, were the visit to Ireland in 1885, the support given to an Empire policy by his patronage of the Imperial Institute and similar concerns, his active connection with the Masonic Order and his conduct of the Jubilee of 1887. The International Fisheries Exhibition grew out of a comparatively small affair at Norwich in which the Prince of Wales had taken an active interest. In July 1881, as a result of his initiative, a meeting was held in London, a committee was formed and the preliminary work done. In February 1882 a second meeting occurred and further organization was effected with the Queen as Patron, His Royal Highness as President and the Duke of Richmond as Chairman of the General Committee. The Exhibition was finally opened on May 13, 1883, by the Prince of Wales, who had around him most of the members of the Royal family, the Foreign Ambassadors, Her Majesty's Ministers and other distinguished persons, His address defined the reasons for the enterprise in a sentence: "In view of the rapid increase of the population in all civilized countries, and especially in these sea girt kingdoms, a profound interest attaches to every industry which affects the supply of food; and in this respect the harvest of the sea is hardly less important than that of the land." In results he thought the Exhibition should enable practical fishermen to acquaint themselves with the latest improvements in both their working craft and life-saving systems. It was a great success. The total visitors numbered 2,703,051 and there was a financial surplus of £15,243. Of this, two-thirds was put aside to assist the families of fishermen who had lost their lives at sea, and £3000 was used to organize a Fisheries Society in order to keep up the interest in the subject and encourage the study of ways and means to help the fishermen.