189U-91,] FIRST MEETING. 3 



oC the Palestine Exploration Fund. He was a member of the 

 Athenaeum Club, which is the great literary club of London, and also of 

 Nobody's Club. I should also state that in 1883 McGill University 

 <;onferred upon him the degree of LL.D. 



"In 1848 he married a daughter of the late Sir John Beverley Robinson, 

 then Chief Justice of Upper Canada, who died in 1859. He subse- 

 quently married a daughter of Lieut-Colonel Thomas Dundas, of 

 Carron Hall, Stirlingshire, Scotland, who survives him. 



" My father was throughout his life a frequent contributor to the 

 proceedings of the various learned societies to which he belonged. He 

 also took a keen interest in the political and public questions of the day, 

 in literature, and in history. For matters of family history, of genealogy, 

 and of heraldry he had a marked taste, and collected with much labour, 

 and in 1868 privately published, the records of our own family. A 

 devoted son of the Church of England, he made a life-long study gf her 

 theology, and was especially an admirer and student of Hooker's great 

 work on Ecclesiastical Polity. 



" It is, however, for others, and not for me, to speak of my father's deep 

 religious convictions, and consistent Christian life ; of the breadth of 

 his mind and the unflagging zeal with which he flung himself into all his 

 work ; of his well-directed energy, of the activity of his mind, and his 

 widely-extended interests ; of the kindliness of his heart, and his 

 charitable efforts on behalf of the Patriotic Fund and numerous other 

 benevolent institutions, and of his high standard of honour and of 

 principle. It would, I am sure, be a gratification to him to know that 

 some record of his life, however imperfect, was preserved in the pages of 

 the Journal of the Canadian Institute, in the welfare of which he felt so 

 much interest, as indeed he did in everything connected with Canada." 



Mr. David Boyle, Ph.B., read a paper on " The Canadian Institute of 

 the Future." He referred to the approaching jubilee of the Institute as a 

 fitting opportunity to look forward as well as backward. Reference was 

 made to the work that has been performed, as evidenced by the many 

 volumes of proceedings and transactions issued, and special notice was 

 taken of the fact that Mr. Sandford Fleming first proposed the standard 

 time system now rapidly becoming adopted. Mention was made of the 

 many distinguished men who have been connected with the Society since 

 its foundation, but, notwithstanding all this, it was deplored that the 

 Institute did not accomplish all the good it was capable of. The condi- 

 tion and management of the reading-room, library, and museum were 

 criticised, and the situation of the building and night of meeting (Satur- 

 day) were mentioned as hindrances to success. Want of funds was 



