S Tlie Royal Society of Canada. 



It is, gentlemen, greatly owing to your organization that the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science will next 

 year meet at Montreal, following in this a precedent happily 

 established by the visit last year of the American Association. 

 These meetings at Montreal are not without their significance. 

 They show that it is not only among statesmen and politicians 

 abroad that Canada is valued and respected, but that throughout 

 all classes, and wherever intellect, culture and scientific attain- 

 ments are revered, her position is acknowledged, and her aspira- 

 tion to take her place among the nations is seen and welcomed. 



I am sure that your British brethren have chosen wisely in 

 selecting Montreal, for I know the hearty greeting which awaits 

 them from its hospitable citizens. The facilities placed at the 

 disposal of our British guests will enable them to visit a large 

 portion of our immense territory, where in every part new and 

 interesting matters will arrest their attention, and give delight to 

 men who in many cases have but lately realized our resources. Their 

 words, biased by no interests other than the desire for knowledge, 

 and founded on personal observation, will find no contradiction 

 when they assert that in the lifetime of babes now born the vast 

 fertile regions of Canada will be the home of a people more 

 numerous than that which at the present time inhabits the United 

 Kingdom. 



I must not now further occupy your time, but would once more 

 ask you to accept my heartfelt thanks for the determination shown 

 by all to make the Boyal Society a worthy embodiment of the 

 literary activity and scientific labor of our widely-scattered 

 countrymen throughout this great land. 



Principal Dawson, in replying, referred to the kind and 

 generous manner in which the last meeting of the Society had 

 been treated by the people and press of Canada, and to the faith 

 apparently entertained by the people that Canada is capable of 

 sustaining such a Society. He then noticed the various points 

 of progress during the recess — the gracious permission of Her 

 Majesty to assume the title of the Boyal Society of Canada, 

 and the obligations thereby imposed ; the incorporation of the 

 Society by Act of Parliament and the grant in aid of its publica- 

 tions ; the movement toward the beginning of a national museum, 

 the new feature in the meeting arising from the presence of dele- 

 gates from local societies, and the advantage accruing therefrom : 



