28 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



In Ontario our political institutions are thus controlled, and they 

 have been directed not solely to the end of ruling those who live 

 under them, but also to the greatly more important and far reach- 

 ing purpose of causing in them the improvements of all those 

 faculties which distinguish reasoning and responsible beings. It is 

 needful that among the people of Ontario there should exist 

 much mental cultivation much and many-sided intellectual activ- 

 ity and a much greater amount and variety of information than 

 we dare to claim as existing, even among those who are our social 

 and commercial chief men. We seem to have left school too soon. 

 We are good writers and expert figurers in no small proportion, but 

 there is certainly something wanting for the enlargement of the 

 mind, for the continuance of the education of a people with respon- 

 sibilities so great as those which surround the people of this pro- 

 vince. The want is in some measure supplied by the mutual help- 

 fulness manifested in the working of such Associations as our own. 



It must be our endeavor to prove ourselves worthy of the 

 confidence manifested by the Government in our work, and it 

 becomes us to express our thankfulness for its generosity. We can 

 best do so, if we remember the reasonable conditions on which we 

 may be sure that we have obtained its aid. Those who have bestowed 

 this aid have a perfect realization that they are stewards, and they 

 expect, when rendering an account to those whose ministers they 

 are, that they shall be able to show a just balance on the credit side 

 of our account with them. If it be otherwise, it is more than possi- 

 ble that the loss shall be at once written off, and the books closed 

 against us for the time to come. So our candle may be put out. 



It will be perceived that, in what has been said, no reference has 

 been made to an event of the year which has been thought to be of 

 great significance to Canada. I mean the meeting in Montreal of 

 the British Association. Both the British Association and Canada 

 owe thanks to him who was chiefly instrumental in bringing this 

 about. The Association more than Canada lies under this obhga- 

 tion. Many of late years have been thinking that it would be a 

 good thing for it to travel and see the world, and we may be sure 

 that if it was as easy for it to visit the other scenes of its speculations 

 as it is to visit America, many a discussion which has occupied the 

 Association would never have been heard of. We welcomed our 



