XXII EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



pauperis," presented by M. Lusignaii, with its quaint touches that serve to lighten up the underlying- 

 argument, an appeal on behalf of literature. M. Napoléon Legendrc's "La cloche," "La flleiisc," 

 " La noce au village," commend themselves to us, not only as works of literary an, but as affording 

 picturesque and pleasing illustration of traits in our Canadian history and glimpses of the social life 

 and habits of our French people. Then, we have tlie graceful and elegant poem, " Hosanna," b3- M. 

 Pamphile Le May, " Hommage à Sa Très Gracieuse Majesté Victoria, reine d'Angleterre et impératrice 

 des Indes." Messrs. Paul de Gazes and Legendre discuss freely, in separate papers, the subject of the 

 French Language as used in Canada, its degree of purity, corruptions, and tendencies to change. 

 Both of these papers are written in a terse and jiractieal form so as to be useful in an educational 

 sense, while they are also not only intelligible to philologists, but of interest to all who care to ob-*ei'vc 

 the mxitations of living language, the causes that originate, and the influences that control them. Thei-e 

 is no room for fear that the French language will be allowed either to die out or degenerate for want 

 of cultivation in a country where it is spoken of with such fervour as in one of these papers : " Pour 

 moi, je me suis imposé un devoir, je me suis assigné une tâche que je remplirai dans la mesure do mes 

 moyens : c'est de défendre, toujours, partout, contre tous, la langue de mon pays, la langue de ma 

 mère patrie ; c'est de travailler de toutes mes forces à répandre, à faire connaître, à faire aimer, dans 

 toute .sa glorieuse beauté, la langue dans laquelle des voix chères m'ont accueilli à mon berceau, la 

 langue qui a chanté les i-êves de ma jeunesse, la langue qui me consolera, je l'espère, à mes derniers 

 moments !" 



M. A. D. De Celles, in his paper "La cri.se du régime ]iarlementaire," marshals before us an 

 array of facts in the political history of England and the nations of Europe during the last two 

 hundred years, in such a way as to reconcile us with the actual condition of our own Dominion, and to 

 lead us to hope that our rulers will continue to be guided by the spirit of the words of Bossuet, which 

 he quotes : " La vraie fin de la politique est de rendre la vie commode et le peuple heureux." 



The strictly historical papers, in addition to Abbé Casgrain's already referred to, are M. 

 P. J. U. Beaudry's account of the old French fort now known as Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, 

 containing useful materials for history in careful selections from official records of family events and 

 transactions of various kinds, made at the time, from the year 1732 to 1760, and Abbé Verreau's 

 contribution, " Des commencements de Montréal" (1635), which furnishes a chapter in early history 

 that reads with interest in the light of subsequent events, and of the imjiortance, as a centre of com- 

 merce and civilization, of the city of Montieal. 



In the second Section, English Literature and History, Mr. John Lesperance gives a ]iaper on 

 the Analytical Study of Canadian History. He points out that the period during which the prac- 

 tical study of Canadian history has engaged our attention does not go back beyond thirty years, tlKit 

 as an instance of the law of parallels research brought material to light, and the discovery of material 

 gave new impulse to research. The existence of material was not unknown, but its use was not 

 demanded. He argues for the teaching of Canadian history as a specialty in one or more of our 

 universities, appeals to patriotic citizens to provide the necessary chairs, gives a scheme of lectures 

 that would no doubt form an interesting and useful course, and suggests special studies, episodes and 

 problems, involving original lesearch in points in dispute, or that have been imjjerfectly investigated, 

 and for which prizes might be offered. 



We have a detail of the earliest and historically most important exploration of our coasts, in fact 

 pre-Canadian, in a paper communicated by Dr. Stewart, the Secretai-y of the Section, viz., Mr. 

 Ganong's ci-itical account, with illustrated chart, of the circumstances attending Cartier's first voyage 

 to Canada in the year 1534. Although not the first navigator to enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 Jacques Cartier was the first to leave an account of his explorations or observations on the Indian 

 tribes of the region. The special purpose of this paper is to trace with more exactness cei-fain parts 

 of the course respecting which the several vei'sions of the original narrative differ, and to identify 

 more clearly the numerous places visited and described by the early voyagers, few of the place-names 



