.0.33 



1853.] 



MR. JUSTICE DEAPER'S ADDRESS. 



217 



€\}t Caiiiiiiian SimrEii 



TORONTO, MAY, 1853. 



Aildics* Dtlivercd at tiie Annual Conversazione of the Canadian 

 Institute, April 2nd, by Mr. Justice Draper. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen, — 



Our Annual Con\-ersazione unites with the other signs of tlie 

 times, to I'cmind us that Spring is at length emerging from th.e 

 icy thraldom uf Winter, that the season of opening lea\-es and 

 blossoming buds is just arriving. May we not, without foj'ced 

 analogy, trace the signs of the same sjiring time of the yeai-, as 

 iipplieil to the state and condition of Upper Canada. 



The few posts, whether military or ti'ading, or e\'en those of 

 the earliest missionaries, which were established in any part of 

 what was afterwards declared to be Upper Canada, before the 

 peace of 1783, were too inconsiderable to require notice as form- 

 ing any exception to the general proposition, that this part of 

 Canada was then a mere wilderness, in which civilization was at 

 Zero, and into the gloomy depths of whose prima3\-al forests, 

 neither the light of Science nor the radiance of Christianity had 

 penetrated. It was after that period that the settlement of Up- 

 per Canada was begun by that loyal and de\'0ted body of people, 

 of whom E'lmund Burke spoke as "persons who had emigrated 

 from tlie United States," " who had fled from the blessings of 

 the American Government," and with regard to whom he fur- 

 ther obsv'fved : " there might be many causes of emigration not 

 connected with government, such as a more fertile soil, or more 

 congenial climate — but they had forsaken all the advantages of 

 a more fertile soil, and more southern latitude, for the bleak and 

 b:llTen regions of Canada." It is to them and to their enduring 

 efforts that this country owes its first germ of improvement. And 

 let it be borne in mind, that they were not of a class who emi- 

 grated from the mere pressure of want, or to escape the danger 

 of starvation — whose principal craving was to find such eniplo}-- 

 ment of their physical energies, that in return for their labour, 

 they should obtain food for themselves and their little ones. 

 They had been accustomed to the most valuable enjoyments of 

 civilized life, to the advantages of Education and Christian teach- 

 ing, and they sought in Upper Canada a home, where, in the 

 course of years, their unremitting and feai-less toil might realise 

 for them those advantages, — which their attachment to their 

 Sovereign, and to British institutions, had caused them to aban- 

 don. Their numbers were increased, and their exertions aided 

 by the jiartial influx of other emigrants, among whom, in time, 

 came- the well-known Glengarry Highlanders, and they soon 

 ■wrought a change. The luxuriant bounty of nature, as exhibited 

 in a fertile soil, and a not unfavourable climate, was approjiriated 

 to the use of man ; lands hitherto occupied by primaeval forests 

 were cultivated, schools and churches were built, and those who 

 had struggled through the privations and hardships of the win- 

 ter begati to look with confident hope for the enjoyment of the 

 spring time of this young and I'ising Country. 



The war of 1S12, however, cheeked for a time the progress 

 which had been so f ivourably begun, and while in some respects 

 it gave an unnatural impulse to development, it was exhausting 

 the vital energj-, so that when peace was restored, it became ap- 

 parent, that it' there had been no re'rogression, there had been at 

 all events little, if there was any, advance. This check was, 

 howev'er, but temporary. Those exertions, which for the time 

 Vol. L, No. 10, May, n 853. 



Lad been devoted to other, and in some instances, stei'ner pursuits, 

 were soon restored to their [iroper channels, and became devoted 

 to the improvement and development of the country. The un- 

 emplojed inhabitants of the British Isles bea'an to arrive in 

 liimdreds and thousands, to unite in the task of turning the wil- 

 derness into a smiling field ; the population of Upper Canada, 

 which, in 1791, was estimated at ten thousand, in 1824 exceeded 

 150,000; and in 1837, was increased to 375,000; and the ob- 

 servations, long before made in the Hou'e of Commons, with 

 respect to the thirteen old Colonies, might have, with full force, 

 applied to Upper Canada : — " Such is the streng-th with which 

 population shoots in that j)art of the world, that state the num- 

 bers as high as we will, whilst the dispute continues, the exagge- 

 ration ends. Your children do not grow faster, from infancy to 

 manhood, than they spread from families to communities, and 

 fiom villages to nations," 



In the full tide of this pros;ierity, howevei-, there came another 

 check — of no long dui-ation fortunately — though of painful 

 chai'acter — to which I allude only as forming a part of that 

 truthful picture, which I am endeavouring to exhibit before you. 

 This, as well as the war of 1812, may (in strict adherence to that 

 analogy with which I set outj be compared to those tempests of 

 the vernal equinox, which, though disastrous in their immediate 

 consequences, whether to individuals or to localities, are ordered 

 or permitted by an all-wise and overruling Providence, in further- 

 ance of its general and beneficent designs, and now that they 

 are passed over, and calm is restored — now that the sufferings 

 they caused ai'e removed or alleviated — may we not indulge our- 

 selves in the application of the poetical imagery of Soloman: — 

 " The winter is past — the rain is over and gone — the flowei's 

 appear on the earth — the time of the singing of birds is come, 

 and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." 



But the song of rejoicing would lose half its power and beauty 

 if its application were confined by us to the consideration of ad- 

 vancement in material prosperity alone. It is not only foreign to 

 my present purpose, but it would occupy far more than the limit- 

 ed time I mean to detain you, were I to attempt e\en an outline 

 of the various eftbrts made for public education, for intellectual, 

 moral and Christian cultivation. It is not, however, the least 

 significant proof of the success of those efibrts that they have 

 created and fostered an earnest longing for more extended know- 

 ledge — a desire which exhibits itself at different times, and, 

 among other ways, in the attempts to establish societies or insti- 

 tutions to assist in scientific research — in intellectual development. 

 Such was the literary and philosophical society formed more than 

 twenty years ago by the exertions of the eccentric but talented 

 Dr. Dunlop, and which was followed afterwards by the City of 

 Toronto Literary Club, and the Cit\' of Toi'onfo Ethical and 

 Literary Society — both formed in 183G — all which, with perhaps 

 some others I might more particularlj' mention, seem to have 

 been put forth a little too prematurely, and, like precocious blos- 

 soms, to have been nipped, and to have perished without reach- 

 ing any maturity. Such is — may it flourish and take deep root 

 — the Canadian Institute, established, as yon well know, princi- 

 pally for the purpose of promoting the physical sciences — for 

 encouraging and advancing the industrial arts and manufactures — • 

 an establishment which I am well assured we all regard as oneol 

 the fairest promises of our spring, and to the unfolding of whose 

 blossoms, and the peifection and maturity of whose flowers and 

 fruit we cannot but feel it a duty — one well i-ewarded in its own 

 accomplishment — to contribute our best exertions. 



Among other advantages to which I look forward willi great 

 confidence as the result of the success of the Institute, is the at- 

 tention it is likely to attract to this Province, and the consequent 



