Presidential Address. 205 



ing Japan the next neighbour of Canada on the west, and 

 offering to Britain a new way to her Eastern possessions ; or 

 than the possibility of this Association holding a successful 

 meeting on the other side of the Atlantic ? To have ventured 

 to predict such things in 1865, would have appeared quite 

 visionary, yet you are now invited to meet in Australia, and 

 may proceed thither by the Canadian Pacific Eailway and its 

 new lines of steamers, returning by the Suez Canal. 1 To-day 

 this is quite as feasible as the Canadian visit would have 

 been in 1865. It is science which has thus brought the once 

 widely separated parts of the world nearer to each other, 

 and which is breaking down those geographical barriers 

 which have separated the different portions of our widely 

 extended British race. Its work in this is not yet complete. 

 Its goal to-day is its starting-point to-morrow. It is as far 

 as at any previous time from seeing the limit of its conquests ; 

 and every victory gained is but the opening of the way for 

 a farther advance. 



By its visit to Canada, the British Association has asserted 

 its imperial character, and has consolidated the scientific 

 interests of Her Majesty's dominions, in advance of that great 

 gathering of the industrial products of all parts of the 

 empire now on exhibition in London, and in advance of any 

 political plans of imperial federation. There has even been 

 a project before us for an international scientific convention, 

 in which the great English republic of America shall take 

 part, a project, the realisation of which was to some extent 

 anticipated in the fusion of the members of the British and 

 American Associations at Montreal and Philadelphia in 1884. 

 As a Canadian, as a past President of the American Asso- 

 ciation, and now honoured with the Presidency of this 

 Association, I may be held to represent in my own person 

 the scientific union of the British Islands, of the various 

 Colonies and of the great Bepublic, which, whatever the 

 difficulties attending its formal accomplishment at present, 



1 It is expected that, on the completion of the connections of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, the time from ocean to ocean may be 

 reduced to 116 hours, and from London to Hong Kong to twenty- 

 seven days. 



