PREFACE. 



NAMED after Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, it 

 is fitting that the first words of the preface of this 

 Volume of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, 

 should contain an echo of that deeply loyal sentiment to 

 which all Her Majesty's subjects have sought to give ex- 

 pression in this year of Jubilee. 



The following Address was presented by the Institute : — 



To THE Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. 



May it Please Your Majesty : 



We, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the 

 President, Council and Members of the Victoria Institate, gladly 

 embrace the opportunity of once more approaching Your Majesty, 

 and tendering our heartfelt congratulations on the completion of 

 the sixtieth year of Your Majesty's beneficent reign. 



We acknowledge with thankfulness that in the growth of the 

 Empire abroad, in large measures of benevolent legislation at 

 home, in Literature and in the investigation of the truths of 

 Philosophy and Science (with which it is this Institute's privilege 

 to be specially connected). Your Majesty's reign may confidently 

 challenge comparison with those of our gTeatest and most illus- 

 trious Sovereigns. But we particularly rejoice to believe that 

 the humblest and poorest classes in these Dominions may identify 

 Your Majesty's reign with a sensible diminution of ignorance, 

 poverty and suffering during the years which have elapsed since 

 Your Majesty ascended the Throne, and that they may gratefully 

 remember that every movement for the greater glory of God and 



