144 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



[1854 



seeming to disparage any just claim to excellence, and distinction, 

 can not yet be pointed to as the birth place of any who have won 

 for themselves the celebrity that waits on genius successfully 

 cultivated, nor perhaps even of any who have greatly signalized 

 themselves by an enthusiastic devotion to art or science. When 

 I hesitate to say that we can wholly and clearly ascribe this want, 

 which I think we must acknowledge, to the influence of any or 

 all of the causes that I have mentioned, it is because I can not 

 forget that in other countries we do see, every now and then, 

 starting up, as if to relieve the monotony of hie, poets, philoso- 

 phers, mathematicians, mechanics, linguists, artists, whose very 

 existence has seemed bonnd up in some one particular pursuit, 

 who, under every disadvantage of position — oppressed by waut 

 — disheartened at times by neglect— unaided by instruction, and 

 having access to no advantages which may not be enjoyed here, 

 have worked their way to eminence, and have made their 

 names like house-hold words, likely to endure to the end of time 

 — men 



Whose honors with increase of ages grow 

 As streams roll down, enlarging as they flow. 



I suppose after all, the solution is that we must look upou 

 these prodigies as the gifts of God vouchsafed to a Country 

 when he thinks fit ; and that in the order of Providence, the day 

 of Upper Canada has not yet come — for we must say of genius, 

 as the Poet has said of taste, — 



— This nor gems, nor stores of gold 

 Nor purple state, nor culture can bestow 

 But God alone, when first His active hand 

 Imprints the secret bias of the soul. 



It will not, however, I trust be long before Canada will have 

 her sons whom future generations will have a pride in remem- 

 bering, for as respects her political condition, and the public 

 provision made for instruction, such is her actual state, and such 

 the prospects of the future which are opening upon us that 

 we can scarcely name a country of which it can be said that 

 those who are to be born in it will have fairer opportunity and 

 freer scope, for the cultivation and use of their intellectual 

 faculties. 



We can not, it is true, hope for many years, or, should I not 

 rather say, for many ages, to possess seats of learning which can 

 rival the time-honored universities of the United Kingdoms ; but 

 in what portion of the British Empire is instruction more 

 accessible to all ?— I mean instruction to such an extent as is 

 necessary for developing and cherishing any latent spark of 

 genius, or discovering the germ of any peculiar talent, and for 

 facilitating the early progress of youth in the pursuit of any 

 ecienee to which their nature may particularly incline them. 



Throughout a large portion of Upper Canada, and in many 

 entire Counties, the difficulties of a first settlement in a thickly 

 wooded Country have been overcome by the patient though 

 tedious and toilsome labour of the axe-man, for which the 

 inventions of science have not yet provided a substitute. The 

 second and third generations of farmers are now occupying fertile 

 lands, cleared by the toil of those who have gone before them. 

 Very many of these are in comfortable circumstances, able to 

 appreciate and enjoy the advantages of education, and not without 

 the ambition to improve them, and to ascend to positions among 

 their fellow-men, which, in Canada, as in other portions of the 

 British Empire, are open to all. Our commerce, too, expanding 

 with the rapid and enormous increase of our productions is accu- 

 mulating wealth — and wealth brings leisure. We shall soon have 

 a larger elass of men among us who, having succeeded to some- 

 thing more than a bare competency, or having secured an 

 independence by their own exertions will be exempt from the 



daily toil which is the common lot; and some of these we may 

 hope will bo inclined to devote themselves to the pursuits of 

 Science, and to encourage aud assist the efforts of others. 



The current literature of the day now circulates as freely and 

 almost as cheaply in Upper Canada as it can do any where. The 

 system of education m the Common Schools, extended as it 

 is to the remotest parts of the Province, brings instruction 

 within the reach of almost every household. The formation of 

 public Libraries in connection with this system ; the multiplica- 

 tion of grammar schools ; the establishment of Colleges fully 

 adecpiate in number to the wants of the Province ; and the forma] 

 tion in most of our large towns of Mechanics' Institutes, all show 

 a population alive to the importance of intellectual culture; and I 

 believe those who have acquired experience in Europe and in 

 Canada in the business of instruction, will not hesitate to declare 

 that there is no want of good natural capacity in the Canadian 

 youth. 



What useful part may be taken by this Association in encour- 

 aging a taste for Scientific pursuits, is in some measure fore- 

 shadowed in the numbers of the Canadian Journal. 



Besides the papers read and discussed here by members, which 

 form, properly speaking, the proceedings of the Institute, we find- 

 collected in the Journal, and presented in a convenient form, 

 notices of important discoveries in the Arts and Sciences, and 

 discussions of various scientific questions, which have engao-ed 

 the attention of learned bodies, or of individuals possessino- a 

 profound knowledge -of the several subjects, and the advautao-e 

 of every aid which the most favorable circumstances could supply. 



Some of these discussions relate to questions which are not of 

 a nature to be affected by any peculiarities of situation or climate, 

 but have an universal interest, so that the truths which may be 

 ascertained, and the results arrived at, are useful in one country as 

 well as in another. Others may turn upon particular diversities, 

 arising from local causes, and may from that very circumstance 

 furnish grounds for useful comparison. It is a great advantage to 

 have such facts, and the reasoning upon them collected and pre- 

 sented in a convenient form, unmixed with political and other 

 controversies of a merely temporary interest, and unincumbered 

 with the crowd of advertisements which swell the bulk of daily 

 and weekly newspapers. In a Country, too, which is advancing 

 by such rapid strides in population and wealth, and which is 

 making such remarkable exertions to procure for itself those 

 advantages which till lately were confined to older and more 

 opulent communities, it is deeply interesting to collect and pre- 

 serve for future comparison and reference, the history of its 

 developement. Those who come after us will feel that no light 

 obligation has been conferred upon them by the Association which 

 has taken the trouble of recording the first movements made in 

 our great public enterprises, thus enabling them to see the time 

 and manner of originating them, and to compare the predic- 

 tions of their promoters with the results which have followed. 

 Again, the early history of our settlements ; the gradual growth 

 of our towns and cities ; the increased and improved quality and 

 the varying proportions of our agricultural productions; — the 

 unforseen turns which the trade of Canada will have taken under 

 the freedom of intercourse permitted to her ; the extension and 

 improvement of our navigation ; the stupendous railway under- 

 takings; the introduction and growth of manufactures; and 

 what is really more important than all, the developement of civil 

 and religious institutions; upon all, or most of these points, the 

 pages of the Canadian, Journal may be made the means of 

 disseminating aud preserving much valuable information, — as I 

 think we may say they have already done, in regard to several of 

 the subjects which I have alluded to. Some of these, though they 



