which began in 1906 cast a temporary cloud over that future, but by 1916 the Milner
Group had made its entrance into the citadel of political power and for the next twenty-
three years steadily extended its influence until, by 1938, it was the most potent political
force in Britain.
The original members of the Milner Group came from well-to-do, upper-class,
frequently titled families. At Oxford they demonstrated intellectual ability and laid the
basis for the Group. In later years they added to their titles and financial resources,
obtaining these partly by inheritance and partly by ability to tap new sources of titles and
money. At first their family fortunes may have been adequate to their ambitions, but in
time these were supplemented by access to the funds in the foundation of All Souls, the
Rhodes Trust and the Beit Trust, the fortune of Sir Abe Bailey, the Astor fortune, certain
powerful British banks (of which the chief was Lazard Brothers and Company), and, in
recent years, the Nuffield money.
Although the outlines of the Milner Group existed long before 1891, the Group did not
take full form until after that date. Earlier, Milner and Stead had become part of a group
of neo-imperialists who justified the British Empire's existence on moral rather than on
economic or political grounds and who sought to make this justification a reality by
advocating self-government and federation within the Empire. This group formed at
Oxford in the early 1870s and was extended in the early 1880s. At Balliol it included
Milner, Arnold Toynbee, Thomas Raleigh, Michael Glazebrook, Philip Lyttelton Gell,
and George R. Parkin. Toynbee was Milner's closest friend. After his early death in 1883,
Milner was active in establishing Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in London, in his
memory. Milner was chairman of the governing board of this establishment from 1911 to
his death in 1925. In 1931 plaques to both Toynbee and Milner were unveiled there by
members of the Milner Group. In 1894 Milner delivered a eulogy of his dead friend at
Toynbee Hall, and published it the next year as
wrote the sketch of Toynbee in the
important because it undoubtedly gave Toynbee's nephew, Arnold J. Toynbee, his entree
into government service in 1915 and into the Royal Institute of International Affairs after
the war.
George R. Parkin (later Sir George, 1846-1922) was a Canadian who spent only one
year in England before 1889. But during that year (1873-1874) he was a member of
Milner's circle at Balliol and became known as a fanatical supporter of imperial
federation. As a result of this, he became a charter member of the Canadian branch of the
Imperial Federation League in 1885 and was sent, four years later, to New Zealand and
Australia by the League to try to build up imperial sentiment. On his return, he toured
around England, giving speeches to the same purpose. This brought him into close
contact with the Cecil Bloc, especially George E. Buckle of
R. Seeley, Lord Rosebery, Sir Thomas (later Lord) Brassey, and Milner. For Buckle, and
in support of the Canadian Pacific Railway, he made a survey of the resources and
problems of Canada in 1892. This was published by Macmillan under the title The Great
Dominion the following year. On a subsidy from Brassey and Rosebery he wrote and
published his best-known book,
propagandist for the Cecil Bloc did not provide a very adequate living, so on 24 April
1893 Milner offered to form a group of imperialists who would finance this work of
Parkin's on a more stable basis. Accordingly, Parkin, Milner, and Brassey, on 1 June
1893, signed a contract by which Parkin was to be paid £450 a year for three years.
During this period he was to propagandize as he saw fit for imperial solidarity. As a
result of this agreement, Parkin began a steady correspondence with Milner, which
continued for the rest of his life.
When the Imperial Federation League dissolved in 1894, Parkin became one of a
group of propagandists known as the "Seeley lecturers" after Professor J. R. Seeley of
Cambridge University, a famous imperialist. Parkin still found his income insufficient,
however, although it was being supplemented from various sources, chiefly The Times.
In 1894 he went to the Colonial Conference at Ottawa as special correspondent of
Canada College, Toronto, he consulted with Buckle and Moberly Bell, the editors of
accepted the academic post in Toronto, combining with it the position of Canadian
correspondent of