PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 619 
(may I say it?) of devastation, that this obligation upon the 
obliterator of the beauties of nature assumes larger pro- 
portions than it did in the past. Take mining, for instance: 
it may be conceded that the first effect of a rush of diggers 
to a new field was to pretty well devastate it; but of the 
multitude of workers, some generally came to stay, and the 
district, stripped of its original face, soon assumed a new, 
and often picturesque, dress from its varied occupants; but 
now, with giant nozzle and hydraulic elevator, a few men can 
direct operations which will devastate in a fewdays a larger 
strip of ground than hundreds would formerly treat in as 
many weeks. Is there not to be an obligation on us to 
make some amends to the earth that has thus been made 
to yield the treasure at the expense of her fair face ?—or 
is all this to be left to nature and tiine ? 
My paper will not be complete without some reference to 
the following : — 
1. Marine Architecture—The modern vesse] is but a 
floating hotel or floating city, and its architecture and 
engineering are subject to very much the same laws as those 
we have just reviewed—with this difference, that the elements 
of safety and efficiency, both in design and construction 
and in management, assume predominant proportions. 
Fortunately, these seem to go hand-in-hand with beauty of 
form, for it is difficult to conceive of a vessel appropriately 
designed for her purpose which does not necessarily become 
more or less a thing of beauty. 
But the accessories of maritime architecture! The wharf! 
The crane! The shed! Is there any reason why the first 
view of a city when landing on the wharves should so often 
be an uninviting one? 
Let me not be misunderstood. I am not pleading for 
effeminacy. There are different kinds of beauty in 
nature—from the lilies of the field and of the valley to the 
rugged gorge and frowning cliff—and the beauty of the 
fountain square must be another thing from that of the 
foundry, the poppet-head, or the landing-wharf; but some 
beauty each should have, and that one distinctly its own. 
2. Military Engineering.—Even this revolves round the 
central idea of the “ glorified roof.’ All our works of art 
and science which we. have produced with so much thought 
and toil would be liable to be destroyed or taken from us 
but for the defence and protection of our navaland military 
forces. Let us not forget the debt we owe them. Then, 
too, both architecture and engineering owe much to the 
developments of military works for offence and defence. 
Many of our most beautiful architectural forms had their 
