XLVI ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Executive Committee — Mrs, Charlotte Morrison, Mrs. W. Cummings, 

 Mrs. Walton, Mrs. Edward Leigh, Miss Beard, Miss Sara Mickle. 



This society is of comparatively recent formation. In consequence 

 of a desire expressed by Mrs. S. A. Curzon and Miss FitzGibbon, who 

 have for some time been enrolled as honorary members of the York 

 Pioneer and Provincial Historical Associations of Ontario, and their 

 representations of the advantages that might arise through a deeper 

 interest in the historical events and records connected with the history 

 of our own country being aroused in the minds of the women of Canada, 

 a resolution was moved by D. B. Eead, Q.C., seconded by the Eeverend 

 Dr. Scadding, and passed at a meeting of the Provincial and Pioneer 

 Historical Association held in Toronto on September 5th, 1895, b}^ which 

 Mrs. S. A. Curzon and Miss Mary Agnes FitzGibbon w^ere appointed a 

 committee to form a Women's Canadian Historical Society in Toronto ; 

 said society to be in affiliation with, and having the authorization of, the 

 Provincial and Pioneer Historical Association of Ontario, but in all 

 respects to be a separate and distinct society with power to form its own 

 constitution, by-laws, etc. 



In pursuance of this resolution Miss FitzGibbon addressed herself to 

 thirty Toronto women, members or representatives by name or descent of 

 families long resident in the city, or whose ancestors had taken a more 

 or less prominent part in the making of Canada's history, requesting 

 their attendance at a meeting to be held on N"ovember 19th, 1895. 

 Twenty-nine responded, expressing their sympathy and interest in the 

 project. At this meeting provisional officers were appointed and the aims 

 and objects of the proposed society ably demonstrated by the chair- 

 woman, Mrs. S. A. Curzon, and at a subsequent meeting a form of constitu- 

 tion and by-laws was submitted and adopted. The provisional appoint- 

 ments were confirmed, and an executive committee appointed, the date 

 fixed as that of the annual meeting for the election of officers and other 

 business being November 16th, the late Col. James FitzGibbon's birthday, 

 in recognition of the services rendered to Canada and Toronto during the 

 first half of the present century by that officer. 



The following preamble of the constitution adopted by the society 

 explains its aims and objects : 



"The rapidly rising status of Canada among the nations of the 

 world ; that a unity of national purpose and a high ideal of loyalty and 

 patriotism in her people will alone sustain her in such high position ; 

 that to this end a thorough acquaintance by her people, both native and 

 immigrant, with her heroic past, is of the first importance. That her 

 history, literature and archives, her poetry and art, are yearly becoming 

 more valuable in affording the necessary knowledge that an intelligent 

 and self-respecting national pride in Canadian literature needs to be 

 awakened and encouraged ; that the value of documents, records and 



