XXn EOYAL SOCIETY OP CANADA. 



SESSION II. (Public Meeting.) 



In 23Ui'suance of notice a public meetiug was held at •1.30 o'clock, on Tuesday, in the Eailway 

 Committee Eoom, and His Excellency the Governor-General was pleased to occupy the chair as 

 Honorary Pre.sident. 



The President of the Society, Mr. Sandford Flejiing, then delivered the following address: — 



May it please your Excellency. — It is my agreeable duty on behalf of this Society to offer 

 you our united thanJcs for accepting to-day the position of Honorary President. It is esiwcially my 

 duty respectfully to thank your Excellency for presiding at this meeting on the opening day of the 

 present session. 



The Eoyal Society of Canada since its establishment, has enjoyed the friendship and countenance 

 of each successive Governor-General. We have great satisftiction in knowing that your Excellency, 

 takes an interest in our proceedings as your predecessors have done. 



In fulfilling the duties of my office, it would, under ordinary circumstances, bo my high privilege 

 to address the Annual Meeting at ^ome length. On this occasion I have the distinguished honor to 

 speak by permission of your Excellency. 



Fellows op the Eoyal Society: — At the closing meeting of last year I was impelled by a 

 sense of duty to address j-ou on the subject of the choice of President. Sensible of my own deticiencies 

 in many respects in regard to those qualifications which the President of this Society should possess, 

 I desired to relieve my fellow-members from an}' embarrassment which might arise from observance 

 of the rule followed on previous occasions. I do not feci myself called upon to repeat the opinions 

 I then expressed and which I still hold. They are recorded in my letter of May 21st, 1888, which 

 appears in the last volume of the Proceedings. The views I submitted were overruled, and it con- 

 sequentlyibecamc my duty to bow to your decision. I can, therefore, only renew my sincere thanks 

 to my fellow-members who saw fit to place me in this exalted position. 



In addressing the Society on the opening of the eighth session, a primary duty exacts my atten- 

 tion. Wo cannot refer to the original list of eighty members, nor can we examine, even in a cursory 

 manner, our published proceedings, without observing how many of our body, by their labors and the 

 distinctions they have gained, have justified their ajjpointraent as Fellows by the founder of the 

 association on its establishment. I feel warranted in saying that wc all feel gratified by the knowledge, 

 that not a few of our Fellows have distinguished themselves in their several walks of life, and that 

 the services of a number have gained public recognition. Among the latter I point with unalloyed 

 satisfaction to those who have obtained positions of importance in the Departments of State to those 

 on whom have been conferred honorary academical degrees ; to others who have received high 

 ecclesiastical preferment; and to several who have been directly distinguished by the favor of Her 

 Majesty the Queen. I am sure I only express the general feeling, when I say that every member 

 regards these well merited distinctions as honours which reflect upon the whole Society. 



While reference to the brighter side of the picture can only be a matter of common satisfaction, 

 on the other hand it is my sad duty to allude to those whose deaths have left blanks in our midst. 

 Although the years are few since the names of the eighty original members of the Societj' were 

 , nscribed on the charter roll, no less than seven of our Fellows have been removed from our ranks. 

 The last name to be added to the list is that of Dr. George Paxton Young, late Professor of Meta- 

 physics and Moral Philosophy in Toronto University, who has died since our last meeting. Dr. Young 

 was a man eminent for his varied attainments, a mathematician of no common order, distinguished 

 by profound scholarship and as a sincere and earnest seeker after truth. It falls to my lot to perform 

 the sad duty of recoi-ding his loss and to pay my humble tribute of respect to his memory. 



It is only necessary to point to the six volumes of published Proceedings in order to prove that 

 since the formation of the Society its members have not been unmindful of their obligations, and that 

 in no way have they failed to attain a fair measure of success. The volumes distributed among the 



