X. ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
History Society, are also flourishing and useful institutions. The new Natural History Society of 
Manitoba has entered on a vigorous and hopeful career. There are also in the Dominion some 
societies of great value cultivating more restricted fields than those above referred to, and of a 
character rather special than local. As examples of these I may mention the Entomological Society 
of Canada, the Historical Society and the Numismatic Society of Montreal. 
Did I suppose that this Society would interfere with the prosperity of such local bodies, I should 
be slow to favour its establishment. I believe, however, that the contrary effect will be produced. 
They are sustained by the subscriptions and donations of local members and of the provincial 
legislatures, while this Society must depend on the Dominion Parliament, from which they draw no 
aid. They will find abundant scope for their more frequent meetings in the contributions of local 
labourers, while this will collect and compare these and publish such portions as may be of wider 
interest. This Society will also furnish means of publication of memoirs too bulky and expensive to 
appear in local Transactions. There should, however, be a closer association than this. It is probable 
that nearly all the local societies are already represented among our members by gentlemen who 
can inform us as to their work and wishes. We should therefore be prepared at once to offer terms 
of friendly union. For this purpose it would be well to give to each of them an associate membership 
for its president and one or two of its officers, nominated by itself and approved by our council. Such 
representatives would be required to report to us for our Transactions the authors and subjects of 
all their original papers, and would be empowered to transmit to us for publication such papers as 
might seem deserving of this, and to make suggestions as to any subjects of research which might be, 
developed by local investigation. The details of such association may, I think, readily be arranged, 
and on terms mutually advantageous, and conducive to the attainment of the objects we all have in 
view. 
It would be a mistake to suppose that this Society should include all our literary and scientific 
men, or even all those of some local standing. It must consist of selected and representative men 
who have themselves done original work of at least Canadian celebrity. Beyond this it would have 
no resting-place short of that of a great popular assemblage Whose members should be characterised 
rather by mere receptivity than by productiveness. In this sense it must be exclusive in its member- 
ship, but inclusive in that it offers its benefits to all. It is somewhat surprising, at first sight, and 
indicative of the crude state of public opinion in such matters, that we sometimes find it stated that 
a society so small in its membership will prove too select and exclusive for such a country as this; 
or find the suggestion thrown out that the Society will become a professional one by including the 
more eminent members of the learned professions. If we compare ourselves with other countries, I 
rather think the wonder should be that so many names should have been proposed for membership of 
this Society. Not to mention the strict limitations in this respect placed on such Societies in the 
mother country and on the continent of Europe, we have a more recent example in the National 
Academy of Sciences in the United States. That country is probably nearly as democratic in its 
social and public institutions as Canada, and its scientific workers are certainly in the proportion of 
forty to one of ours. Yet the original members of the Academy were limited to fifty, and though 
subsequently the maximum was raised to one hundred, this number has not yet been attained. Yet 
public opinion in the United States would not have tolerated a much wider selection, which would 
have descended to a lower grade of eminence, and so would have lowered the scientific prestige of 
the country. 
Science and literature are at once among the most democratic and the most select of the institu- 
tions of society. They throw themselves freely into the struggle of the world, recognize its social 
grades, submit to the criticism of all, and stand or fall by the vote of the majority; but they abso- 
lutely refuse to recognize as entitled to places of importance any but those who have earned their 
titles for themselves. Thus it happens that the great scientific and literary societies must consist of 
few members, even in the oldest and most populous countries, while on the other hand their benefits 
