110 THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
thinkers and. intellectual workers of Canada, the honors of this chair 
will be esteemed among the most coveted distinctions that this Pro- 
vince has to bestow. Meanwhile, however, I experience somewhat of 
the same difficulty which I believe some of my predecessors have 
felt, with an Annual Presidential Address to deliver, and nothing very 
definite to address you about. 
I might enlarge upon the steady progress of the Institute, and im a 
special manner congratulate you, that—thanks to the zeal and wise 
courage of my predecessor in this chair,—our roll has been purged of 
an accumulation of defaulters, mere men of buckram and straw to us, 
—a source of weakness instead of strength; but a very thorn in the 
side of our too forbearing and courteous Treasurer. It is a duty 
which all societies, constituted as we are, find it necessary from time 
to time to perform; and it is due to the neglect of this unwelcome 
duty by former Councils, until forbearance had become almost culpa- 
ble, that my predecessor has had the opportunity of signalizing his 
close of office by a stern execution of rigorous justice, which confers 
no slight boon on his successor and on the Institute at large. These, 
however, and other facts connected with the history of our progress, 
have already been fully set forth in the Annual Report ; and I must 
turn to other themes for the subject of your Annual Address. 
A resumé of the progress of Science and Literature in the Province 
would be peculiarly suitable to this occasion, but we are scarcely yet 
in such a condition as to furnish fresh materials for any very elaborate 
annual report of scientific progress. Our position as Canadians is a 
very peculiar one, when we consider that only sixty-two years have 
elapsed since Colonel Bouchette described the site of this capital of 
Upper Canada as a scene of dense trackless forests, where the wander- 
ing savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath the 
luxurious foliage, while the bay and the neighbouring marshes were 
the haunts of such multitudes of wild-fowl as to destroy the stillness 
of night by their cries. But while we reflect with just pride on the 
changes which have been wrought on that untamed wilderness within 
the memory of some of our number, we are not forgetful that we are 
a part of the British empire, claiming our share in her greatness, and 
seeking to assume our part in her inherited duties; and im proof of 
this we can point at least to two Canadian Institutions worthy of a 
people sprung from the old stock that gave a Bacon and a Newton to 
the world. 
