PROCEEDINGS FOR 1922 VII 



unable to appreciate what he had been in his prime. It was widely 

 recognized that he had on the Bench few superiors in weighing the 

 value of evidence or estimating the credibility of witnesses. His 

 activities, too, extended far beyond the field of his professional work. 

 He was a public speaker of rare gifts, whose services on the platform 

 were in constant request, not only in his own Province, but in many 

 a direction outside its boundaries. His contributions to journalism 

 were copious and effective. He took a keen interest in Canadian 

 history, and was himself the author of two interesting biographies: 

 TJie Life of Joseph Howe and The Life of Sir Charles Tupper. Other 

 and more elaborate historical projects had been undertaken and 

 were partially carried out when the break-down in his health pre- 

 vented their further prosecution. In nothing else during his later 

 years did Mr. Justice Longley take a deeper delight than in the 

 work of The Royal Society, to which he was elected in 1898 and of 

 which he was Vice-President in 1916. He never missed an annual 

 meeting, or failed to take his part in the discussions of Section II. 

 He was of Irish descent, a past president of the Charitable Irish 

 Society of Halifax, and to the last was much concerned about Irish 

 questions. By a pathetic coincidence, his death occurred on 17th 

 March, the national Irish anniversary in celebration of which it 

 was his invariable custom to share. In his passing from us The 

 Royal Society has lost a Fellow who, in enthusiasm and affection 

 for our brotherhood of letters, was surpassed by no other within our 

 ranks. 



JOHN MACOUN 



John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S., one of the charter members of 

 The Royal Society of Canada, and since 1887 Assistant Director 

 and Naturalist of the Geogolical Survey of Canada, died in his nine- 

 tieth year at Sidney, Vancouver Island, B.C., on the 18th July. 

 1920, with a distinguished record of scientific exploration and public 

 utility. 



He was born at Maralin, in the North of Ireland, 17th April, 

 1831, emigrated at nineteen years of age with the rest of the family 

 to settle on farm land in Seymour Township, Northumberland County, 

 Ontario. At 28 years of age we find him attending the Normal School 

 in Toronto; after v/hich he became a public school teacher in Belle- 

 ville, rapidly rising in the profession and in reputation as a Natural 

 History authority until at the age of 43 we find him Professor of 

 Botany and Geology in Albert College. 



