PROCEEDINGS FOR 1916 IX 
As Mr. Samuel E. Dawson was an excellent business man and filled 
with desire for public service it was not long before he took a promi- 
nent part in the life of Montreal. In 1879 he was one of the founders of 
the Dominion Bank Note Company, and in 1880 one of the promoters 
of the Montreal News Company. He was a member of the Council of 
Arts and Manufactures of the Province of Quebec and was admitted to 
the Presidency of that body. He was always an omniferous reader 
and the best part of his education came from the extent of his reading 
to which he brought an alert and critical mind. Amongst his useful 
labours for letters his interest in Copyright Legislation must be men- 
tioned. He mastered the subject, and in 1881 he was a delegate to 
Washington on International Copyright. In 1888 he was elected a 
Vice-President of the Canadian Copyright League. His labours were 
so highly esteemed that the Dominion Government thanked him for 
the service he had rendered at the Washington Congress. When the 
position of Dominion King’s Printer, with the rank of Deputy Minister, 
became vacant in 1891, Dr. Dawson received the appointment and 
filled the position with marked efficiency until 1909, when he accepted : 
superannuation and left the Capital to spend his declining days in 
Montreal. ‘During his years of administration Dr. Dawson carried 
out many needed reforms, introduced modern machinery and methods, 
and the efficiency of the Department was greatly improved during his 
tenure of office. 
Amid all his varied business activities Dr. Dawson cherished his 
love of letters and arts. For some years he was Secretary of the Mont- 
real Art Association. He took a peculiar interest in the question of 
the Landfall of the early navigators and discoverers, and con- 
tributed most valuable papers to the discussions on the voyages of the 
Cabots. He also wrote an exhaustive work under the title “The 
St. Lawrence Basin and its Border-Lands,” in which he showed an 
intimate knowledge of the history of exploration in this region. 
By those who knew him best it will be conceded that the chief 
interest of his literary life was poetry, and ke kept this interest alive 
and vigorous until the end of his life. He was a great admirer of 
Tennyson and a Tennysonian student of reputation, but his admiration 
of the Laureate did not prevent him from admiring poets of all schools. 
He was susceptible to the music of verse, and some of his favourite 
poems were those which depend almost entirely for their effect on 
beauty of sound and subtleties of rhythm, such as Shelley’s lines in 
“Prometheus Unbound,” “Light of Life thy lips enkindle,’’ and the 
wonderful songs of Swinburne in ‘‘Atalanta in Calydon.” Still with 
all this love of pure sound and colour, Dr. Dawson could admire the 
