II EOYAL SOCIETY OP CANADA. 



Eoyal Society. The following address was then read by the President, Di-. G. M. Dawson, as follows : 



" May it please Your Excellency, 



" Twelve years have passed since the Eoyal Society was founded by the Marquess of Lome, who, 

 during his administration, in this as in other matters showed the interest he took in the develo])meiit 

 of the art, literature and science of the Dominion. Since he left the country, which he learned to 

 love so sincerely and with whose prosperity he has never failed to identify himself whenever the 

 opportunity has offered, Canada has had as his successors two distinguished noblemen, the Marquess of 

 Lansdowne and the Earl of Derby, who encouraged by many judicious public utterances, and by all 

 the means in their power, the objects of this relatively new society. 



" It has now become the duty of the Royal Society to solicit from Your Excellency the same sym- 

 pathetic interest which it always received from previous Governors-General. In asking you to become 

 ■ their honoi'ary ])resideiit, in accordance with the provision of their constitution and act of incorpora- 

 tion, the members of the Royal Society jjoint with satisfaction to the principles on which it has been 

 organized — the union of two races in friendly rivalry for the promotion of literature and science. The 

 eleven large volumes of transactions which have been already published, through the liberality of the 

 Parliament of Canada, and which are now distributed in every country of the world, show that French 

 as well as English Canadian writers and students have combined to stimulate scientific, historical and 

 other inquiries, and to afford some interesting illustrations of the accuracy and elegance with which 

 the French language is studied and written in this dependency of the crown, whose whole system of 

 political and social institutions rests on a broad basis of equality of races, and on the desire to raise 

 a national edifice to which French as well as English Canadians can jioint with the same confidence 

 and pride. 



" It is also with satisfaction that the Royal Society of Canada calls attention to the fact that since 

 its establishment it has had the cordial co-operation in its work of all tlie scientific, histoi'ical and 

 other associations engaged in kindred studies. In this way the Royal Society has become, in a mea- 

 sure, a literary union of all those elements of our population which have for their stimulating objects 

 the cultivation of letters and the elevation of our people above those mere material necessities which 

 are naturally dominant in a country like this, still in the infancy of its development. In this respect, 

 to quote the words of the Earl of Derby when he said farewell to ' his fellow members,' the Roj'al 

 Society, ' has stepped in and done good work, and has united those who were scattered by distance, 

 and who find in the meeting of oui- Society a convenient opportunity of coming together for the 

 exchanging of ideas and renewing of those fiiendships which, though perhaps only yearly meetings 

 permit, are nevertheless enduring.' 



" Ever since Your Excellency and the Countess of Aberdeen have come into this country Canadians 

 have had many evidences of the lively interest which Your Excellencies take in every subject affect- 

 ing not merelj' the material advantages of the Dominion, but the cultuie ;ind education of the people 

 at lai-ge. Your ExccUenc}^ has the inestimable advantage of belonging to an estate of the realm which 

 has given many great names to the political as well as literary history of England. Not least among 

 those names we find that of your eminent grandfather who was once truly designated by a famous 

 English poet, ' the travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen.' Canada has had already abundant evidence 

 from your public utterances that Your Excellency inhei'its the tastes of your distinguished family, 

 and that it will be your desire to develop among us that high culture without which no country can 

 ever become truly great. 



" It is with deep interest that the Royal Society has noted the ability and energy with which Her 

 Excellency the Countess of Aberdeen is identifying herself with a national raovetnent which must tend 

 to make the women of Canada far more important factors than they are now in the social and intel- 

 lectual life of this new country. 



" With these few imperfect words the Royal Society now takes this the earliest opportunity its 

 members have had, since Your l']xcellency 's assumption to office, to welcome you to this count rj', and 



