1852.] 



THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



(ill, for example, those involved iii tlie professions of the Engineer, 

 tiie Artist, the Surveyor, the Architect, all of them represented 

 by Societies of high standing in Great Britain, and therefore 

 capable in their nature of extending the basis of similar bodies 

 here. It must not be forgotten that until about the year 1810, 

 one greiit Society satisfied almost the entire demand for this 

 species of organization in London itself, we might almost say 

 Great Britain, for the local societies were few in number and 

 limited in character. The Geological Society, (1807;) the Astro- 

 nomical Society, (1820 ;) the Asiatic Society, (1824 ;) the 

 Geographical Society, (1831 ;) and a host more, are of very 

 modern foundation ; it would seem, therefore, that no such 

 limitation of object has the sanction of previous experiment, and 

 we may hope that an attempt to unite under one roof, and in 

 one organization a full representation of the acti\-e mind of the 

 community, may be more fortunate. It is unhappily true that 

 the great prominence given to classical learning in England, and 

 ia all education framed on her models, has led to a surprising 

 want of either knowledge of, or interest in, physical or mathema- 

 tical science in English Society generally; which is best attested 

 by the almost incredibly limited sale of scientific books and peri- 

 odicals: it must be therefore expected that an English Colony 

 will yield, at fii-st, but a slender harvest of scientific results, 

 whether of the nature of observation, experiment, or reasoning, 

 and furnish but a small number of minds imbued with those 

 tastes which produce them ; but there is a fund of practical 

 knowlalge and thought, a wisdom of the workshop, the field, and 

 the looin, in every community, which deserves, while it does not 

 claim the honours of science. It is to this also that the Canadian 

 Institute, and this journal as its present organ, addresses itself, 

 and to this offers a medium not only as it is hoped of instruction, 

 but of intercommunication and publicity. In referring, however^ 

 to the causes of the difficulty experienced by Literary or Scientific 

 Societies in this country, it is impossible not to notice the habit 

 of reading for amusement alone, which is fostered and fed by the 

 cheap trash which loads the tables of our booksellei-s, and per- 

 vades society so generally. Until parents and teachers set them- 

 selves more strongly against this habit, not only for the injury it 

 frequently does to the moral strength of the young, but still more 

 universally, its destruction to the intellect, there will continue to 

 be a waste of the best fiiculties, and a distaste for the most 

 rational and elevating pui'suits. We might add the want of 

 Libraries, and enquire why the Provincial Univei-sity with its 

 great endowments, has not long ago acquired something more 

 deserving of that name. In the United States there are 234 

 Librarie.s, containing from 5,000 volumes and upwards, including 

 five that contain more than 50,000. In the same ratio to popu- 

 lation, there should be nearly twenty such in the two Canadas. 

 We doubt if there are half-a-dozen. However, in these mattere 

 cause and effect follow one another, in such recurring succes- 

 sion, a circle, so "vicious" is maintained, that it is useless to 

 distinguish one from the other, and we simply refer to the 

 facts to justify the assumption with which we started, that 

 something more is wanted, and that something, we believe, may 

 be in pait attained by the Incovporatiim of the Crinadian 

 Institute 



INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER. 



|Jrcsit(cnt : 



W. E. Logan, F.R.S., F.G.S., (Director of the Geological Survey 

 of Canadii.) 



J'irst vice Prcsibcnt — Capt. Lefrov, R.A, F.R.St (Director 

 of the Magnetic Observatory, Toronto.) 



Scconb bice J)rC6ibcnt— J. 0. Browne, F.S.A. 



QTorrcsponbiltg Bccrctarg — Frederick Cumberland. 



Qecrctnrn — Sandfoed Fleming. 



!AsGistmit Secrctarn — Walter MonERLv. 



QEreastirer — Dalrymplk Crawford. 



durator — F. F. Passmork. 

 CTouncil : 



Alfred Brunel, 

 Professor Cherriman, 

 Professor Croft, 



Edward L. Cull, 

 H. Melville, M. D. 

 William Thomas. 



As the early history of the Canadian Institute may not be 

 uninteresting, when, in future yeai-s, the Society has assumed 

 that impoi-tant position among the Institutions of this country, 

 which its fii-st promotei's and present Membere earnestly hope for 

 it ; the subjoined brief outline of its origin is appended, as a fitting 

 introduction to the office which this journal is destined to per- 

 form in submitting its transactions to the public. 



The Canadian Institute, like many other Societies of a 

 similar character, dates its origin from a small beginning. One 

 or two individuals whom inclination led to seek for that inter- 

 course between pei-sons of a more practical and scientific turn of 

 mind than is generally to be found in ordinary debating socie- 

 ties, and being themselves connected with the sun-eying and 

 engineering professions, were induced to believe that the forma- 

 tion of a society consisting of gentlemen eng-aged in those pur-" 

 suits, would di'aw together many kindred minds, and offer ap 

 opportunity of accumulating such knowledge as is necessiuy for 

 the divei'sified practice of the professions, and of mutually bene- 

 fiting each other by the interchange of individual observation 

 and experience. 



With the view of oonsiderins the establislimont of such a 



