PROCEEDINGS f OR 1884. XIII 



dans les recueils consacrés à l'histoire de notre civilisation, à cette époque spéciale où l'influence 

 franco-canadienne eut une action si grande sur notre destinée. 



Il ne me reste plus qu'à vous remercier pour l'accueil bienveillant que vous m'avez fait, et aussi 

 poui- l'attention que vous avez bien voulu me témoigner. Elle vous a permis, j'en suis sûr, malgré les 

 défauts du mon discours, de saisir facilement dans toute leur étendue, dans toute leur sincérité, les 

 sentiments d'amitié et de sympathie dont l'Association américaine m'avait chargé d'être l'interprète 

 auprès de vous. 



J'achève, maintenant, de remplir le devoir que mes compatriotes m'ont imposé en vous rapj^elant 

 lem- cordiale invitation, et en vous donnant rendez-vous, messieurs les membres français, au 4 septem- 

 bre prochain, à Philadelphie. 



Attention having been called to the fact that Dr. Hart Merriam, Secretary of the Ornitliologists' 

 Union of New York, was present, he was formally invited to take a part in the proceedings of the 

 Society. He accepted the invitation with a few appropriate remarks. 



A draft of an Address to His Excellency the Governor-General was then submitted to the Society 

 by the President, and formally adopted. The meeting then adjourned until 3 o'clock in the afternoon 

 of that day. 



SESSION II. (Afternoon Sitting.) 



Address op Council to the Governor-General. 



At 3 o'clock, all the memhers of the Society having assembled, the President presented the 

 following Address : — 



To His Excellency the Most Honourable Henry Keith Petty Fitzmaurice, Marquis of Lansdowne, Governor- 

 General of Canada : 



May it please Your Excellencj' : — We the Pj-esident, Council and members of the Eoyal Society 

 of Canada, beg leave to avail ourselves of this opportunity aftbrded by our first meeting since Your 

 Excellency assumed the duties entrusted to you by Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, as Governor- 

 General of the Dominion, very respectfully to express to you the high gratification with which we 

 welcome the accession to the vice-regal office of one already trained by active participation in public 

 life, and by the experience derived from important administrative duties in the mother country for 

 the responsible functions which now devolve on you as the representative of our beloved Sovereign and 

 the chief Magistrate of the Dominion of Canada. 



We beg leave with profound respect to tender to you and to Lady Lansdowne our cordial greet- 

 ings, and the assm-ance of our earnest wishes that your abode in Canada may be no less agreeable to 

 Youi- Excellency and to Lady Lansdowne than conducive to the best interests of the Dominion and 

 of the Empire at large. 



The Roj'al Society of Canada owes its oiigin to the enlightened zeal of Your Excellency's prede- 

 cessor, the most noble the Marquis of Lome, who with a view of the more effectually jiromotino- the 

 progress of letters and science in the Dominion, elicited the cooperation of rejiresentativcs of the 

 various departments embraced in its plan of organization, from the différent provinces, to take the ini- 

 tiative in an associated body, on which the Parliament of Canada conferred corporate powers, and 

 Her Most Gracious Majestj' was pleased to bestow its distinctive title. 



During the first two sessions of the Royal Society of Canada, it enjoyed the special aid and 

 encouragement of His Excellency the Marquis of Lome, its founder, and owed not a little of its early 

 success to his courteous and enlightened cooperation ; and we beg now verj^ lespectfully to pray that 



