The Royal Society of .Canada. 11 



This Society would have the effect of bringing together men: 

 from all parts of the country, who have followed various pursuits 

 in the world of science and literature. He noticed with pleasure 

 in the list of papers to be read in the section of English Literature, 

 one on French Canadian literature, by Mr. John Lesperance, an 

 Anglo-Canadian writer with a French name. He was almost 

 ashamed that the French section had allowed itself to be distanced 

 in that courteous move, and could only account for it perhaps by 

 the fact that as a good deal of criticism was always mixed up with 

 any literary review his section had perhaps acted in accordance 

 with the famous word at Fontenoy, "Messieurs les Anglais, tirez 

 Us premiers ." He hoped, however, that Mr. Lesperance's action 

 would meet with reciprocity, and no one could do better in the 

 French section than Mr. Oscar Dunn, a French litterateur with 

 an English name. 



In anticipation of this he would say a few words on Anglo- 

 Canadian literature. He then alluded to the poems of Adam 

 Kidd, the Huron chief, and to the subsequent poems of Heavysege, 

 Sangster, Reade, Murray, and the works of Mrs. Leprohon, another 

 English writer with a French name. He also referred to the works 

 of Kirby, Lesperance, and Mrs. Moody, as well as to the works 

 in prose of Dr. Ryerson, Mr. Dent and others. He concluded 

 by alluding to the reception which the invitations of the Society 

 had received abroad, and especially to the response made by the 

 Academie Francaise, and praised the conduct of the French 

 government in offering to defray the expenses of a delegate. He 

 spoke in warm terms of M. Marmier as an old friend of Canada, 

 who had accepted the choice made of him by the Academy, and 

 regretted that a gentleman who had been in Canada nearly forty 

 years ago, and who had ever since shown a strong interest in 

 Canada and Canadians, could not, on account of sudden illness, be 

 present. M. Marmier had done much in making Canada known, 

 and especially in recommending to the French Academy the works 

 of Mr. Frechette, the poet laureate of Canada. 



The proceedings of the sections devoted to the sciences will 

 naturally be of interest to our readers, and therefore we give a 

 resume of them. 



