PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 5 



able interpretations of Britanno-Roman inscriptions which, even 

 before their publication as a separate work, gained for him the posi- 

 tion of the first English scholar in classical epigraphy. 



7^ ii: ^ ^ -^ •:f[t 



The chief use of the Journal has been to disseminate the views 

 and investigations of our members by means of exchange among the 

 members of the various learned societies of the world. The societifiS 

 with which we are thus connected extend over the whole civilized 

 world, including not only every country in Europe, but India, Japan, 

 Australasia, and South and Central as well as North America. 

 Publication in our " Proceedings " ensures a hearing for the author 

 of a paper whei-ever scientific men are gathered together ; and the 

 Institute may therefore claim that it has in the past fulfilled honour- 

 ably, with small means at its command, its pretensions to be an 

 institution for " the promotion of pure and applied science," as far, 

 at -least, as dissemination of knowledge is concerned. Nor has the 

 Canadian Institute ever been narrowly local, or shown any jealousy 

 of kindred institutions in other parts of the country. It has, on the 

 contrary, more than once extended a helping hand to its weaker or 

 younger sisters, and has encouraged individual workers in all parts 

 of Canada to come forward with the results of their investigations. 

 Thus, in the columns of the Canadian Journal, there were published 

 in 1855 the proceedings of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society 

 and of the Montreal Natural History Society, though both were 

 older societies than our own, the former established in 1834, the 

 latter as early as 1827, or moi'e than twenty years before the first 

 inception of the Institute. Again, in the volumes of the Journal 

 throughout will be found papers contributed from all parts of 

 Ontario, as well as from the neighbouring province. So far as the 

 promotion of pure science, then, is concerned, it may safely be 

 asserted that the Institute has done its fair share. How stands the 

 matter with regard to applied science, the handmaid through whom 

 pure science confers her most immediate benefits on mankind 1 



A further enquiry into the past history of the Institute will show, 

 as to this point, that the members, individually and collectively, 

 have constantly been alive to all questions of public moment, whether 

 afiecting this country as a whole, or only the city in which the 

 institute is situated; and this most effectually in two ways, viz., (1) 



