PEOCEEDINGS FOE 1889. XXIII 



jiriiK-ijJiil learned societies, libraries and educational institutions throughout the civilized wi)i-ld have 

 been accepted as evidence of the intellectual advancement of the Dominion, and it is eatisfactory to 

 obtain testimony from many (juai-ters that the good fame of Canada has thus been widely extended. 



My distinguished predecessors in the ofiice I have the honor to hold have refcri'od in some detail 

 to the objects of the Eoyal Society and the position it is destined to occupy in the Dominion. They 

 have reviewed lucidly and at length tiie intellectual activity which lias characterized the investiga- 

 tions of literary and scientific men thioughout the world in recent years, and they have dwelt upon 

 the researches of our own members as they have been submitted at our Annual Meetings. 



It would in no way be profitable if I attempted to pass over the same ground as they have 

 done ; I could not hope to glean much of any real value, nor could I expect to add anything of 

 interest to those learned expositions which have been submitted to you. I trust I may count upon 

 j-our indulgence if I ask you kindly to grant your attention to my humble eftorts in another direction. 



There is one subject in connection with our Society which, I considers may with propriety be 

 examined. It is one of wide I'amitications, and I maj' fail to a large extent in the investigation which 

 I purpose to attempt. All enquiry, however, is conducive to truth, especially when honestly made. 

 I trust, therefore, that my examination of the question, however imperfect, will not be out of accord 

 with the spirit that should animate us. If I should be so fortunate as to succeed in awakening the 

 attention of my fellow-members to the subject, particularly those of the Historical Sections, I shall 

 be greatly gratified ; of this much I feel confident, that the topic I propose to bring before you, cannot 

 be wholly barren of interest to us as Canadians. 



In opening the volumes of our Proceedings, the reader in any part of the world must be struck 

 with one peculiarity manifest in their pages : I refer to the use of two languages. 



The division of the Society into French and English Sections cannot but arrest attention, so that 

 the query naturally arises. Who, ethnologically, are the French and who the English ? Whence arose 

 those peoples thus represented? How came they to assume a position so distinctively traceable not 

 only in this Society but in this country'? 



I hope that I shall not be considered a trespas.ser in entering into this field of research, and in 

 attempting au enquiry which does not appertain to the Section with which I am directly connected. 

 I have to- ask the forbearance of those to whom the historical facts I may allude to are familiar, 

 although perhaps not so well known to the ordinarj' reader. Equally I solicit the consideration of 

 merabei-s of Sections I and II, if I attach, what may seem to them, undue importance to certain 

 records and traditions of history which have attracted my notice; and I ask each of my fellow, 

 members kindly to overlook any imperfections apparent in mj- argument. 



We cannot fail to be awai'e that at no remote period in the world's annals the names of France 

 and England had no place on the map of Europe. It is not necessary to revert to the geological period, 

 when Europe and the British Islands were geographically connected to form one land. There was 

 a time long after the first written memorials of history when the peoples whoni we call Fiench and 

 English were unknown among the races of mankind. Writers agree that at one time Gaul and Biitain 

 were inhabited by tribes of a common origin. On excellent authoiity it is held that " in the exten- 

 sive region of the Alps, in the South of France and in Spain and Portugal, there survives in the names 

 of streams and headlands and mountain passes, imperishable evidence that in the far off past" Celts 

 who spoke Gaelic occupied that portion of Europe. "There is much in the topography of Brittany 

 to sustain the theory that Celts who spoke the language now heard in the Highlands of Scotland 

 gave the names which the rivers and headlands and islands of Brittany still bear." In the south of 

 England wo have the same evidences. The nomenclature of the topography of Devonshire and Corn- 

 wall is held to he fundamentally Gaelic. In this part of Britain once known b}- the name " Dumnonia," 

 also in Armorica, now Brittany, Gaelic appears to have been succeeded by another Celtic idiom 

 resembling the Welsh. This language was in use in Dumnonia until the close of the last century. 

 The language of the Celt is still spoken in Wales. It is a living language in Brittany; so late as 1838 



