

1853.] 



MEMORIAL OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



145 



TORONTO, FEBRUARY, 1853. 



INCORPORATED BY ROYAL CHARTER. 



Blemoi-ial of the Canadian Institute to the three hianchrs of 

 the IiJgislature to continue the Rjyal Magnetic Observa- 

 tory under Provincial Managtment. 



To the Honorable the Legislative Council of the Province of 

 Canada, in Parliament assembled. 



The Memoi'ial of the undersigned members of the Canadian 

 Institute, Humbly Sbeweth, — 



That your Memoriahsts have heard with much regret that 

 Her Majesty's Government has determined to -withdraw the 

 Detachment of the Royal Artillery at present employed in mak- 

 ing Magnetical and Meteorological Observations at the Observa- 

 tory at Toronto, and to maintain that establishment no longer. 



That your Memorialists being members of a Society incorpo- 

 rated by Royal Charter, for the piurpose of promoting the culti- 

 vation of scientific pursuits in Upper Canada, view with great 

 concern, the discontinuance of the only observations made system- 

 atically and upon a large scale, on any class of natm'al pheno- 

 mena, in British North America. 



That as regards the science of Terrestrial Magnetism, your 

 Memorialists believe that all which has yet been effected in that 

 subject, has but opened the wa}', to wider and more general en- 

 quiries; that the period over which the observations at present 

 extend, is much too short to have elucidated completely the various 

 annual and secular changes which it has brought to light, and 

 that a prolongation of those researches, more particularly, which 

 have indicated a connection subsisting between the magnetic 

 variations and the solar spots, and a .«ecular period in both vari- 

 ations, is eminently recommended by their novelty and interest. 



That your Memorialists believe that the discontinuance of the 

 observations so long and so systematically made in every depart- 

 ment of Meteorology at this establishment, will not only deprive all 

 those interested in that difficult and intricate subject, of a centre of 

 reference, of comparison, and of support, the local and immediate 

 value of which is, perhaps, more generally felt, than that of any 

 Vol. I, No. 7, FEBRrART, 1853. 



other class of observations, but will also cut off the possibihty of 

 a large class of highly important enquiries, more particularly 

 those which relate to the gradual change of climate which Can- 

 ada is supposed to be undergoing, to their influence upon Agri- 

 culture, and to the periodical recun'ence of seasons marked by 

 peculiar manifestations of disease, and other important practical 

 characteristics ; which require a long, unbroken, and strictly com- 

 parable series of observations for their solution. 



That your Memorialists conceive that it will be a reproach to 

 a country so populous as Canada, of so large a public revenue, 

 and possessing a Univereity so largely endowed, if it suffers an 

 establishment to fall to the ground which is of confessed scientific 

 importance, and in whose continuance scientific men in the 

 United States and elsewhere have repeatedly expressed their 

 warmest interest. 



That your Memorialists believe that the time has rather come 

 when its operations should be placed upon a less restricted basis, 

 and be extended from the special objects for which it was origi- 

 nally founded; to make it a centre of reference for all that 

 large class of pursuits which involve periodical phenomena; and 

 to include those higher departments of science, and more parti- 

 cularly of Astronomy, to which every Canadian must aspire to 

 see his country one day contribute. 



Your Memorialists, therefore, pray that your Honourable Coun- 

 cil, will be pleased to take such steps, as to your wisdom may 

 seem best, to effect the further continuance, by Provincial author- 

 ity, of the Observatory heretofore conducted at the expense of 

 the Imperial Government in Canadii, after the withdrawal of the 

 Military detachment ; by placing it in connection with the Provin- 

 cial University, or by maintaining it as an independent Provincial 

 Establishment. 



And your Memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 



The following extracts from a con-espondence printed by the 

 Royal Society for the infomiation of its members, in 1850, are 

 interesting, in connection with the subject of the foregoing 

 petition, and well calculated to assure the public that in placing 

 the Observator}' at Toronto upon a stable basis, the Government 

 will only be carrying into effect what has been called for by men 

 of the most eminent science in England and the United States. 

 A country, whose public revenue approaches a million pounds 

 cuiTency, (£842,184, in 1851,J and whose enormous and costly 

 public works attest at once the vigour of its resources, and the 

 boldness with which it can be applied in measiu'es of national 

 importance, cannot be excused from bearing also a modest 

 share in those burdens, — if they can be so called, — which a wise 

 recognition of the claims of science has added, in almost eveiy 

 civihzed land, to the necessary cost of civil administration or 

 material developemeut. For what, after all, is Science ? It is 

 nothing but the investigation of those laws of nature and 

 properties of matter, our acquaintance with which is the founda- 

 tion of all national prosperity ; and which, once mastered, enable 

 us to subject the one, and bind the other, to our car of triumph. 

 No country, capable of reciprocating the advantages she derives 

 from others in this respect, can justly refrain from doing so. 



