ADDEESS 



BY 



THE EIGHT HON. LOED EAYLEIGII, 



M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., Professor of 'Experimental Physics in the 



University of Cambridge, 



PRESIDENT. 



It is no ordinary meeting of the British Association which I have now 

 the honour of addressing. For more than fifty years the Association has 

 held its autumn gathering in various towns of the United Kingdom, and 

 within those limits there is, I suppose, no place of importance which we 

 have not visited. And now, not satisfied with past successes, we are 

 seeking new worlds to conquer. When it was first proposed to visit 

 Canada, there were some who viewed the project with hesitation. For my 

 own part, I never quite understood the grounds of their apprehension. 

 Perhaps they feared the thin edge of the wedge. When once the principle 

 was admitted, there was no knowing to what it might lead. So rapid 

 is the development of the British Empire, that the time might come when 

 a visit to such out-of-the-way places as London or Manchester could no 

 longer be claimed as a right, but only asked for as a concession to tho 

 susceptibilities of the English. But seriously, whatever objections may 

 have at first been felt were soon outweighed by the consideration of the 

 magnificent opportunities which your hospitality affords of extending 

 the sphere of our influence and of becoming acquainted with a part of 

 the Queen's dominion which, associated with splendid memories of the 

 past, is advancing daily by leaps and bounds to a position of importance 

 snch as not long ago was scarcely dreamed of. For myself, I am not a 

 stranger to your shores. I remember well the impression made upon me, 

 seventeen years ago, by the wild rapids of the St. Lawrence, and the 

 gloomy grandeur of the Saguenay. If anything impressed me more, it 

 was the kindness with which I was received by yourselves, and which I 

 doubt not will be again extended not merely to myself but to all the 

 English members of the Association. I am confident that those who 

 •have made up their minds to cross the ocean will not repent their 



b 2 



