Royal Society of Canada. 325 



The Royal Society of Canada. 



By John Rbade, A.M. 



The Royal Society of Canada owes its existence to the 

 thoughtful interest of Lord Lome in the intellectual pro- 

 gress of Canada. The movement out of which its organiza- 

 tion arose was inaugurated in 1881. Already its enlight- 

 ened founder had established a Canadian Academy of Arts, 

 for the encouragement of design as applied to painting, 

 sculpture, architecture, engraving and the industrial arts, 

 and the promotion and support of art education. The suc- 

 cess which had attended the formation and early proceed- 

 ings of the institution led his Lordship to believe that a 

 national organization which would be to science and litera- 

 ture what the Academy was to art would be of real service 

 to the cause of the higher intellectual culture in the Domi- 

 nion. After consulting with the leading men of science 

 and letters, both French and English, his Lordship invited 

 the gentlemen whom he had designated as provisional offi- 

 cers of the proposed organization to meet in Montreal. The 

 meeting accordingly took place on the 29th and 30th of 

 December, 1881, and thereat a memorandum from Lord 

 Lome on the subject was read and considered. 



A provisional basis was then agreed upon for the consti- 

 tution of the new society, the first meeting of which took 

 place at Ottawa on the 25th of May, 1882. The G-overnor 

 General (Lord Lome) had invited the members of the pro- 

 visional council to Government House for the settlement of 

 the procedure, and the arrangements proved entirely satis- 

 factory. The Council consisted of Principal (now Sir) J. 

 W. Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., President; the Hon. 

 P. J. O. Chauveau, LL.D., Docteur des Lettres, Vice-Pre- 

 sident ; and the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of sections : 

 J. M. LeMoine, Esq., and Faucher de St. Maurice, Esq., first 

 section; Dr. (now Sir) Daniel Wilson, F.R.S.E., and Gold- 

 win Smith, Esq., D.C.L., second section; Dr. T. Sterry 

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