XXX EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



My remarks go to show that those whom I have the honor to address, with the people in the 

 Dominion whom they represent, are equally the des^îendants of the races who laid the foundation of 

 western Europe. Every individual mau is more or less moulded by forces which date from a remote 

 past. The subtle influences of ancestry and the conditions due to hereditary transmission affect us all. 

 It the individual be the resultant of remote and occult forces, so also to a great extent is the family 

 anil the nation. 



The population of Canada presents the .spectacle of two peoples possessing early kinships and 

 affinitj' of ancestry, subsequently sejiarated for centuries, again forming a reunion in poliiical and 

 social life. A century and a quarter ago, a French population numbering some 60,000 souls, came 

 under the British flag. It is a somewhat singular coincidence that seven centuries earlier the same 

 number of Fienchmen crossed the Channel, eventually to become Englishmen, and to give to the 

 British nation the strength and influence and distinctive characteristics we now find it possessing. 



It is said that history repeats itself; are we warranted in assuming that it will do so in this 

 instance? If the fusion of the French and English after William's conquest was productive of the 

 results I have specified ; if the difference of language five to eight centuries back failed to impede 

 the vastly important conseqences now traceable ; if the absence of complete homogeneity was in no 

 way a hindrance, but on the contrary, proved a solid and substantial advantage by the diversity of 

 talent and stiength which it bi'ought; if like causes produce like effects — are we not warranted in 

 looking forward to our future with confidence ? It is surely a happy augury that we have become 

 a fully-organized political community, inheriting in common all that is to bo cherished in French 

 and English history. To my mind there is the best ground for hope that in coming years the 

 successive generations of Canadians will bo distinguished by the best qualities they inherit from their 

 compound ancestiy, developed under the free institutions which it will be our happiness to bequeath 

 to them. 



It is indeed true that in the past France and England have frequently been in conflict, but those 

 conflicts have been much less frequent and not more fierce than the domestic struggles in either 

 country. Happilj^ a state of open warfare is no longer the normal condition of society, and all must 

 acknowledge that hostility of race is entirely out of place in this age in this Dominion. We have 

 now reached a stage in our country's i^rogress when antagonism in its strongest and worst aspect has 

 passed away. Whatever their origin or creed or color, all who live within the limits of the broad 

 domain of Canada cannot fail to be convinced that they have interests in common. As the inhabit- 

 ants of England discovered in the reign of King John in the thirteenth centmy, so the population of 

 the Dominion must perceive, that no interests of real and lasting importance can exist which are not 

 common to all. This feeling fully developed, the complete identification of general sentiment will be 

 the pledge of lasting friendship, the Magna Charta of a united community. It will elevate our aims 

 and promote aspirations worthy of our common ancestry and our common inheritance — an inherit- 

 ance which throws upon us weighty responsibilities and the duty of employing our best efforts in 

 woi'king out our destiny. If we do well our part, it will be for the historian of the future to chronicle 

 the results, which we anticipate will follow the reunion and comixtiwe of the French and English on 

 the soil of Canada. 



Perhaps I have dwelt at too great length on this topic, and I should not venture further to tres- 

 pass on your kind indulgence. In closing the remarks which I have the honor to make on this 

 occasion, I shall (inly ask your permission to add a very fow words on other matters. Looking at the 

 four Sections into which the Society is divided and the definite objects for which they are organised, 

 it is obvious that the scope of our researches as an association is broad and deep. The remarks 

 I have submitted come within the cognizance of the Historical Sections. There is another Section 

 which embraces subjects relating to past time. While history takes us back to the earliest dates of 

 existing records, the Section which includes the science of geology carries us to periods in the world's 

 annals a thousandfold more remote, and into fields of research immeasurably wider than the chroni- 



