tloyal Society of Canada. 331 



so far from proving an obstacle to the Society's usefulness, 

 it has been one of its most fruitful features. The French and 

 English sections have, by their harmony and good-will, set 

 an example which the whole Dominion might follow with 

 advantage. Differences of race and creed have been revealed 

 only by mutual courtesy and willing co-operation in the 

 grand aims of the Society. From the rule of kindliness 

 and deference there has been, from the opening of the first 

 to the closing of the last meeting, no instance of departure. 

 It is also noteworthy that the Society has been the means 

 of renewing relations between the two branches of the 

 French race in the new world — that of Canada and Acadia, 

 and that of Louisiana — the Athenee Louisianals of New 

 Orleans, being one of the first of foreign organizations to 

 respond to the invitation of the Honorary Secretary. 

 In the list of the corresponding members, moreover, emin- 

 ent sons of the French race have their places along with 

 illustrious Anglo-Saxons of both hemispheres. Had the 

 Society effected nothing else than these exchanges of cor- 

 dial sympathy, it would not have lived altogether in vain. 



The letters from eminent foreign societies which greeted 

 the entrance of Canada into their illustrious sisterhood were 

 most gratifying. M. Camille Doucet, perpetual secretary of 

 the French Academy, in acknowledging the Hon. Secre- 

 tary's invitation to the Institute of France to send a dele- 

 gate to the meeting at Ottawa, said that Dr. Bourinot's 

 letter had been received with the most cordial sympathy by 

 each of the five Academies that constitute that great centre 

 of universal learning. 



The circulation of the Transactions has done much to 

 make Canada better known at the chief seats of enlighten- 

 ment in the Old World. " Not a week passes, says the re- 

 port of the Council for 1887, "without some evidence being 

 furnished of the attention that the papers are receiving in 

 cultivated circles abroad, and requests for the volumes are 

 constantly at hand from various centres of intelligence to 



