:i3 



THE CANADIAN JOURNAL 



NEW SERIES 



No. XXXVII.— JANUARY, 1862. 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



BY THE HON. J. H. HAGARTY, D.C.L., 



JTJDGH OF THE COUBT OF COMMON PLBA8. 



Read before the Canadian Institute, January 18, 1862. 



A master of English prose has told us how he found in an old 

 writer, a quaint apologue, in which human life is symbolized by a vast 

 board pierced with innumerable openings of every size and figure, 

 — circular, square, obtuse and acute angled. 



Every denizen of the earth has there his fitting opening — if he 

 can only find it. But some maladroit influence has arranged the 

 occupants, and, as the author says, feelingly, " How often do we see 

 the round man in the three-cornered hole ? " 



The occupation of the chair this evening may possibly revive this 

 pleasant fable in many memories, as it certainly has in mine. I can 

 but console myself by the thought that, like thousands of others 

 similarly situated, I am but in a secondary degree responsible for the 

 misplacement. 



The custom of the Society calls upon me for a few introductory 

 remarks on assuming the position with which I have been honoured. 

 The short space in which I intend to trespass on your patience, must 

 be occupied in viewing the topics suggested by the occasion, from a 



Vol. VII. A 



