PEOCEEDINGS FOR 1884. XV 



dings. I can, alas! lay no claim to a position amongst the distinguished confraternity whom I am 

 addressing. My contributions to Litei-ature have consisted for the most part in the preparation of 

 sunthy parliamentary volumes, the colour of whose binding has, I have no doubt, been I'eflected upon 

 the faces of the unfortunate persons who have had occasion to read them. In regard to Science, I have 

 never even performed the operation which Pope decribes as "holding the eel of science by the tail." 

 It is therefore clear that I cannot a.spire even to the lowliest of footstools in this learned conclave. And 

 perhaps it is as well that this should be so, foi-, to speak quite frankly, I should say that the less you had 

 to do with official interference, however well intentioned, in j-our affairs, the better for you. The form 

 of government in the world of letters, we all know, is republican, and that literary community will 

 prosper most which depends least upon external guidance and official recognition. I say this with a full 

 knowledge of the obligations under which this Society lies to my predecessor, Lord Lome, to whose 

 efforts it is probably due that the Society came into existence when it did, and who took so distinguished 

 a part in its first organization. He did so, I think, because it was inevitable that some one should incur 

 responsibility for the first step in the movemont, which led to the formation of the Society, and because 

 he was not the man to shirk that resjionsibility when it involved a good deal of invidious work and 

 exposure to criticism. I think, however, I am right in saying that this step once taken. Lord Lome 

 felt as fully as I do how necessary it is that your independence should be absolute and complete. 



Well, sir, if this is true, perhaps I shall be told that we should push our theories a little farther. 

 If it is the case that a Literary Society is likely to prosper in proj)ortion as it is independent of official 

 patronage and interference, may we not say that Literature itself will thrive best in an atmosjjhere of 

 independence, and that any attempt to i mpose uj^on her such an organization as this will do her more harm 

 than good. I can conceive such an argument being held. I can even conceive that a person using it 

 should go on to say that the case of Literature is widely different from the case of the Fine Arts, because, 

 while the art student of the New World is excluded from the treasuj'cs and teachings of the Old, the 

 literary student of the New World has, in these days of cheap books and public libraries, access to the 

 best sources of information, and the noblest examples which the Old World can supply. Well, sir, all this 

 is perfectly true. It is perfectly true that in the age in which we live, thanks to these facilities, thanks 

 to the avenues opened by the public press, to the volumes of our periodical literature, and to the intel- 

 lectual activity of our public life, the influence of such a Society as yours is absolutely incapable of 

 keeping a man of good literary abilities in the background, or of foi'cing an indifferent performer to the 

 front. To this extent it is jierfectly true that freedom from official trammels, a fair field and no favour, 

 should be the password of every friend of Literature. But, sii', is this contention inconsistent with the 

 belief, that there is good and useful work to be done by a Society such as yours ? Nothing could, I 

 think, be further from the truth. Your Society has not been formed for the purpose of creating a liter- 

 ary monopoly, or erecting a close literary corporation, or overriding the elïbrts of individuals or of 

 societies. I have read with pleasure the statements which have, at different times, been laid before 

 you of the objects which the Royal Society desires to achieve. I certainly do not gather from those 

 statements that is your ambition to put the Literature and the Science of Canada into leading strings, 

 or to deprive them of the natural vigour and spontaneity of their growth. 



What then are the objects of the Society ? May we not say, in the first place, that as man is 

 natui-ally social and gregarious in his habits, it would be a little hard if the friends of Literature and 

 Science were to be the only section of society without an organization of their own. I think, too, 

 we might say that the need of such an organization, such a rallying point, such a common ground, 

 upon which the representatives of the Literature and the Science of the Dominion maj^ meet together 

 is specially felt in a nation, where the population is as widely scattered, and the centres of intellec- 

 tual activity are as far apart, as they are with us, and where every effort to give cohesion to the dif- 

 ferent portions of the nation deserves encouragement and sujjport. Nor will the effects of its exist>- 

 ence be less valuable because it includes representatives of the Literature of both the great races, 

 which dwell side by side in this country, and each of which brings to the common fund a contribution 



