LXVl ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the outlines of French history taught in the English schools, and by 

 promoting the teaching of the French language in every way short of 

 rousing opposition by making it obligatory. It is ignorance which 

 causes estrangement. 



In this respect the work of our late colleague, Dr. Drummond, has 

 been most important. With the insight of a true poet he discerned, 

 through the outer husk, the true nature of the Habitant, and interpreted 

 the soul of one-third of our people to the other two-thirds. For one 

 hundred and fifty years the Habitant had lived his self-contained life. 

 Happy, contented, and good natured, he was untroubled by envy of his 

 richer neighbours. Those few of the English people who knew the 

 Habitant liked him, but did not stop to study him until Drummond 

 revealed the intrinsic worth of his character, his humour, his patient 

 courage, his endurance, his simple faith in God. 



The same tendency is manifest in the unification of our history by 

 the increased devotion of English Canadians to the study, in the 

 original authorities, of the period of the French Eegime, The organiza- 

 tion of the Champlain Society of Toronto is only one instance, though 

 a notable one, of the movement in Ontario. It is now recognized that 

 in the battles on the Plains of Abraham both sides won. The English 

 troops overran the country, but the French continued to possess it. The 

 French lost nothing, but gained free institutions; and, by dint of long 

 companionship, the English have come to regard the history of Old 

 Canada as theirs also. While the French Revolution severed the French 

 Canadians from France, the sequence of the American Revolution 

 severed the English Canadians from the English-speaking people of the 

 South. The two elements of our people are nearer and more to each 

 other than to either of the nations from which they sprang, and, in the 

 study of the history of their common country the two races find a bond 

 of common interest drawing them closer, year by year, as they know 

 each other better. 



The l)road field of human interest thus included within the limits 

 of literature has been, in some important sections, diligently cultivated 

 by the Fellows of the Royal Society. The monographs and papers in 

 the French and English literary sections are so numerous and valuable 

 that it has become impossible for anyone to write upon the history of 

 the northern part of this continent without reference to the series of 

 OTir '' Transactions." The two sections have vied witli each other in 

 elucidating the Cartier voyages. The Cabot voyages have been placed 

 in their true historical setting, and the movement which resulted in the 

 .erection of the Cabot tower at Bristol, England, originated here. The 

 tracks of the early explorers have been traced, and, in short, there is 



