PROCEEDINGS 



or THE 



rScotian Institute of 



SESSION OF 1897-98. 



ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING. 



Legislative Council Chamber, Halifax, 8th November, 1897. 

 The PRESIDENT, DR. GILPIN, in the chair: 

 The PRESIDENT addressed the Institute, as follows : 



"GENTLEMEN, I have much pleasure in opening another session of 

 the Institute, and trust that our meetings will be successful and our 

 papers more numerous. We have held our own in numbers, and have 

 maintained our position among our sister societies. 



The Institute had recently to mourn the removal, by death, of our 

 friend and President, Dr. Lawson, and we have now to deplore the loss 

 from our ranks of Rev. Dr. Patterson. It is true that he was not as 

 intimately and directly connected with our work as Dr. Lawson. This, 

 however, was our loss, for he had eminently the Academician mind, and, 

 had his other pursuits permitted, his services to the Institute would have 

 been both great and distinguished. His thirst after knowledge, his 

 assiduity in collecting facts, his faculty of assimilation, would, if directed 

 specially to any of the objects of the Institute, have given him a most 

 cherished position among us. 



George Patterson was born in Pictou, April 30th, 1824, and, on .his 

 mother's side, was a grandson of the Reverend Doctor McGregor, a name 

 famous in the annals of Presbyterianism in Pictou County. What 

 Pictou County in particular, and generally the Province, owe him has 



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