According to Carroll Quigley in his book “Tragedy and Hope” (1966), “John Ruskin spoke to the Oxford undergraduates [1871] as members of the privileged, ruling class. He told them that they were the possessors of a magnificent tradition of education, beauty, rule of law, freedom, decency, and self-discipline but that tradition could not be saved, and did not deserve to be saved, unless it could be extended to the lower classes in England itself and to the non-English masses throughout the world. If this precious tradition were not extended to these two great majorities, the minority of upper-class Englishmen would ultimately be submerged by these majorities and the tradition lost. To prevent this, the tradition must be extended to the masses and to the empire.
“Among John Ruskin’s most devoted disciples at Oxford were a group of intimate friends including Arnold Toynbee, Alfred Milner… These were so moved by Ruskin that they devoted the rest of their lives to carrying out his ideas. A similar group of Cambridge men … were also aroused by Ruskin’s message and devoted their lives to extension of the British Empire.
…. This association was formally established on February 5, 1891, when Cecil Rhodes and William Thomas Stead organized a secret society of which Rhodes had been dreaming for sixteen years. In this secret society Rhodes was to be leader, Stead, Brett (Lord Esher), and Alfred Milner were to form an executive committee; Arthur (Lord) Balfour, (Sir) Harry Johnston, Lord Rothschild, Albert (Lord) Grey, and others were listed as potential members of a ‘Circle of Initiates’; while there was to be an outer circle known as the ‘Association of Helpers’ (later organized by Milner as the Round Table organization).
… The Rhodes Scholarships, established by the terms of Cecil Rhodes’s seventh will, are known to everyone. What is not so widely known is that Rhodes in five previous wills left his fortune to form a secret society which was to devote itself to the preservation and expansion of the British Empire.
And what does not seem to be known to anyone is that this secret society was created by Rhodes and his principal trustee, Lord Milner, and continues to exist to this day [as the Round Table Groups: in the United States – Council of Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group and in the British Commonwealth nations – Milner’s Kindergarden, Royal Institute of Internatonal Affairs (RIIA)/ Chatham House].”
