1898-99. ] FIFTIETH YEAR OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 645 
always gaining ground and earning increased recognition, till it attained 
the high position it now occupies. 
Ladies and gentlemen, it is no intention of mine to attempt to enter 
into any detailed consideration of the scientific cause of the Canadian 
Institute. I should be incapable of doing so, even if I wished it. I can 
only presume to recognize as one of the public the high aims it has had 
in view, and the good work it has done. 
As I have already said, the Society originated from a small begin- 
ning ; in its early days it may be said to have been of a professional 
character ; it was originated by a few ardent spirits engaged chiefly in 
surveying and engineering, in the hope of drawing together those inter- 
ested in the same object, who, by discussion and interchange of views, 
might be able to increase and benefit their professional experience, but . 
enthusiastic as was the conception on which the Society was founded 
its promoters soon recognized that its rather narrow professional organ- 
ization was obtaining only a flagging interest, and they boldly ventured 
upon broader lines. They determined that the purely professional char- 
acteristics of the Society must give place to those of greater scope, and in 
1851 the Canadian Institute was incorporated by royal charter, its 
accepted object being “the promotion of pure and applied science,” a 
definition which goes far to indicate the encouragement of all that de- 
tailed knowledge of professional trades, literature, and art which helps 
to ensure a nation’s greatness. 
The Institute has sought successfully by various methods to carry 
out the higher aims it has in view. It has sought not only to encourage 
scientific study, but to encourage investigation and the application of it 
to practical results, and by thc careful publication of its own proceed- 
ings, and by an interchange of these with the proceedings of kindred 
societies all over the world, it has placed a vast amount of varied know- 
ledge at the disposal of the public, and not only that, it has earned for 
itself a claim to respect which any Government would gladly welcome 
in regard to its possible recommendations for those matters of public 
utility with which science is so frequently connected. No doubt you 
all recognize how great a part science has played in the history of the 
world, and looking around us in Canada and the vast undeveloped re- 
sources of the country, we must realize how much the future must de- 
pend on the application of scientific knowledge, and cannot be too grate- 
ful to the learned founders and members of the Canadian Institute for 
the opportunities of scientific study they have so ably placed within the 
reach of a rising generation. - 
