PROCEEDINGS FOR 1903 YII 



6. Decease of Members. 



Once more with the recurring season the council has the 

 melancholy duty of recording the losses which the society has sustained 

 (luring the preceding year. The honorary secretary, Sir John Bourinot, 

 the Honorable Joseph Eoyal, Dr. Brymner, Dr. Selwyn and Dr. MacCabe 

 have passed from among us, and their names must now be entered upon 

 the honoured record of brilliant men who have left the imprint of their 

 influence in the records of their country. The names of all deceased 

 members have in this volume been given at the end of the roll; and, 

 as they are read name after name and their life labour rises before the 

 memory, we must feel the high obligation we are under to carry on the 

 work of literature and science in Canada on the lines tliey have laid 

 down and in a manner worthy of such predecessors. 



The loss which the society has suffered by the death of the 

 honorary feecretary. Sir John Bourinot, is irreparable. From the organ- 

 ization of the society in 1882 he was its honorary secretarv, and the 

 society has had no other. He lived to superintend the publication of 

 nineteen annual volumes of its proceedings and transactions. "WTien 

 the twentieth began to be prepared he was too ill to take a part in it. 

 Xo one can sufficiently appreciate the attention he gave to the society's 

 business and the interest he took in its work. His zeal was unflagging, 

 and during the long series of years he had served as honorary secretary 

 he had acquired such a knowledge of the society's work that the chief 

 part of its administration had of necessity gravitated to him. He was 

 personally in friendly relations with all the members and his wide 

 acquaintance with all the literary men of Canada was of great assistance 

 to the society. It will be well nigh impossible to find a successor so 

 perfectly suited as Sir John Bourinot for all the duties of honorary 

 secretary. ]S[ot 'only did he serve the society in his official capacity, 

 he enriched its transactions b}' many monographs of great value. His 

 wide knowledge of all matters connected with the working of constitu- 

 tional and representative governments is displayed in contributions on 

 the comparative politics of the great self-governing colonies of England, 

 and his learning in political science is manifested in his comparisons 

 of our systcan with the institutions of other free countries. Such 

 studies as these may be supposed to follow from his position as clerk of 

 the House of Commons; but he was also one of the cthief scholars of 

 Canada in all questions of Canadian history. His monograph on Cape 

 Breton is really exhaustive and leaves no room for any one to follow 

 him; and that on the builders of Nova Scotia is a model of painstaking 

 labour and accuracy. No one unfamiliar with the details of the 



