PEOCEEDINGS FOR 1888. XVII 



library in llio coming Be:ison, and tlio establishment of an annual competition for a gold medal is also 

 contemplated. Thirteen resident meml)er8 have been elected during the year, and we now trust that 

 the success of the Society is assured. 



In conclusion we would di'aw attention to the publication of Mr. CTorald E. Hart's Essay on tiie 

 Fall of New France, which was mentioned in our last report as having been read before the Society. 

 "VVo ai'c glad to know that this book by the President reflects credit on the Society, and indicates an 

 increasing interest in Canadian histoiy, which it is gratifying to think that we have had some 

 slight part in producing. It is hoped that other similar publications will follow. 



SESSION III. (Public Meeting.) 



In pursuance of notice, a public meeting was held in the Railway Committee room, on the evening 

 ofthc 23rd, at 8 o'clock. 



The Pi-esidenl, Pi-of. Lawson, took the chair, and then delivered the following address: — 



Fellows of the Royal Socfety, Ladies and Gentlemen : — My first duty on this occasion is to 

 express to you, my fellow members, the grateful acknowledgment and thanks which I owe for the 

 honour you have bestowed in placing me in the high position of President of the Royal Society of 

 Canada, an office whose character will bo sufficiently shown by the mere mention of the names of those 

 whom you selected to fill it in former years: Sir William Daw.son, Dr. Chauveau, Dr. Sterry Hunt, 

 Dr. Daniel Wilson, Monsignor Hamel. It would be difficult to select five other names of living 

 men more intimately associated with the intellectual, educational and industrial development of 

 Oaiuida, engraven in clearer lines in the records of our literature and science, or more deeply 

 impi-essed upon the hearts of those classes of our people who are most thoughtful, intelligent and 

 eiitei-prising. I might well, then, shrink from taking this chair and attempting to discharge the 

 duties that pertain to it. If I had thought that your selection was made solely on the ground of my 

 personal fitness, or as an acknowledgment of work done or expected to be done in my individual capac- 

 ity, I should have hesitated to assent to your choice, or to attempt the task which acceptance involved. 

 But the considerations that led to my acquiescence were of a different kind. I felt that we were 

 working together for the success of this Society not as an end in itself, but as a means, an organiza- 

 tion, whereby we might be enabled, in some measure, to contribute our pan in accomplishing the 

 countiy's good, by promoting literary and scientific research and discovery, educational improve- 

 ment, industrial development and general intellectual activity throughout this Dominion; that, as 

 fellows of this Society', we were charged with this work, and each bound to lake cheerfully the part 

 that might be allotted to him ; that we were here, moreover, not only in our individual capacities, for 

 what we might do with our own hands, but also as the representatives of other active laborers in the 

 several departments of knowledge scattered through the various provinces ; and that once a year we 

 might, one and all, come to the common meeting place, not merely to give account of the results 

 reached by our personal efforts, in the way of trying to push forward the boundaries of the known, 

 or to clear the way for discoveries by others, but also to bring in our hands the offerings of co- 

 workers, our associates, in our respective districts, or in our special subjects of research. For these 

 reasons I was led to regard your choice of a president from the extreme eastern part of our long and 

 wide country as a choice deliberately made, in pursuance of a wise and safe policy, of ten referred to 

 in our deliberations, that aims not only at recognizing every department of literature and science, and 

 every form of intellectual activity, but also as offering, to the fullest possible extent, fair representa- 

 tion and encouragement to eveiy province and every part of the Dominion. I trust that this policy) 

 and the principle upon which it is based, will long continue to guide the deliberations of the 

 members and Council of this Society in the selection of officers, so far as comi>atible with efficiency, 

 as well as the action of the several Sections in the nomination of members. 



Proc. 1888. c. 



