XVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
new Society in words which the Council may be allowed to repeat, for 
the advantage of those who had not an opportunity of hearing the voice 
of our eminent founder. He expressed the confidence “that the welfare 
and strength of growth of this Association shall be impeded by no small 
jealousies, no carping spirit of detraction, but shall be nourished by a 
noble motive common to the citizens of the republic of letters and to 
the students of the free world of nature; namely, the desire to prove 
that their land is not insensible to the glory which springs from num- 
bering among its sons those whose success will become the heritage of 
mankind.” The president, then simply Dr. Dawson—for he received 
the honour of knighthood four years later—followed with an address 
replete with sound advice and sympathetic encouragement for the 
members of the youthful society, whose objects were not then clearly 
appreciated throughout the Dominion. It was regarded with suspicion 
and jealousy in some quarters as an effort to establish an exclusive or 
aristocratic association—a belief long ago removed by the useful work 
which has been patiently and unostentatiously so far accomplished by 
the Society. While a number of the original fellows of the Society, 
who heard these encouraging, eloquent words, still remain in active 
membership, the voices of some of the most brilliant men who took 
part in the inaugural meeting have been long since hushed in death. 
The first vice-president, the Honourable Fierre J. O. Chauveau, who 
represented the highest culture and most polished eloquence of his race, 
was among the first to leave a vacancy in our ranks, but not before he 
had been called to fill the important position of president. The third 
president, Dr. Thomas Sterry Hunt, whose knowledge of chemistry was 
not surpassed by any scientist of his generation, whose conversational 
power was very delightful, also disappeared in the course of a few years 
after our opening. Sir Daniel Wilson, the able president of Toronto 
University, the fourth head of the Society, a scholar of varied gifts, 
left a void in our ranks which it would be difficult to fill. A later presi- 
dent, Professor Lawson, of Dalhousie University, as noted for his 
botanical knowledge as for his amiable disposition, also too soon passed 
to the “vast majority.” Among the others who have died since that 
memorable meeting of 1882, I may menion Dr. Alpheus Todd, the 
eminent constitutional writer ; John L’Esperance, the essayist and 
novelist ; Mr. Carpmael, the mathematician and astronomer ; Faucher 
de St. Maurice, bright and companionable ; Evan McColl, the Gaelic 
poet ; and Paxton Young, the scholarly thinker. And now the greatest 
Canadian of all that assemblage of 1882 has joined his old associates who 
applauded his eloquent words eighteen years ago. This is not the time 
to go into any extended review of Sir William Dawson’s useful career. 
