120 ANNUAL MEETINGS 



and The Times, in a leader, intimated (among other 

 objections) that the meeting in Canada would be 

 merely a glorified picnic of important men of science, 

 who could have no serious purpose in visiting Canada, 

 a land not great in science, so that humbler men 

 and less advanced thought would serve equally well 

 for her instruction ; the more eminent supporters of 

 the visit desired to make it in order that they might 

 have an agreeable outing and be wondered at, and 

 so forth. The Toronto Mail rated Canadian interest 

 rather low ; it foresaw audiences small and uninspired : 

 ' the mind of the average fashionable gathering is not 

 scientific ; it is not even literary in the most meagre 

 sense ; it very hazily comprehends Oscar Wilde ; it 

 fails to grasp Professor Tyndall or Professor Huxley.' 

 Whatever the merits of the opposition, some of its 

 supporters clearly protested too much. It may be 

 observed in passing that the opposition's view of the 

 founders' intention to limit meetings to the United 

 Kingdom is at least open to doubt : in an account 

 of the very first meeting (1831) which appeared in 

 the Edinburgh Journal o/ Science, Vol. XI (N.S.), it is 

 stated that ' the foundation of a general national 

 institution has been laid, which, fixed to no spot, is 

 free to range from city to city of this great empire ' ; 

 though it is fair to add that this statement is not from 

 an official document and might be ascribed to the 

 personal exuberance of the author. However, we 

 do not discover anything in the archives specifically 

 to controvert it, and the Council did not find, in the 

 memorial referred to, ground for action adverse 

 to the General Committee's decision. But, after 

 ascertaining the probable cost of the visit to ordinary 

 members of the Association and the number to whom 



