242 Ameiicam Association. 



ports which cive in the highest degree creditable to those prints 

 and could not easily have been surpassed in any part of America. 

 The opening Meeting was imposing and interesting. The Di- 

 vine blessing was invoked on the proceedings by the Bishop of 

 Montreal, in a singularly appropriate and beautiful prayer. Prof. 

 -Caswell, the Vice-President, who, owing to the lamented death of 

 the great microscopist Bailey, w^as called to preside, delivered a 

 short but happily conceived inaugural address, from which we 

 extract the following sentences, as worthy of being embalmed in 

 the memory of Canadians and Americans : — " It augurs well for 

 the interests of Science that so many have come to this gathering 

 to place their choicest contributions on her altar, and to welcome 

 to her fellowship the humblest laborer in her cause. I think also 

 that it is a matter of congratulation that Ave have met without the 

 limits of the United States. However it may have been in for- 

 mer times, it is not now the case that mountains or seas interposed 

 make enemies of nations. In the onward march of Science, it is 

 one of the felicities of our time, that little account is taken of the 

 boundaries that separate states and kingdoms. The discoverer of 

 a new law or principle in nature, of a new process in th.e arts or 

 a new instrument of research, of beneficial tendency, is speedily 

 heralded over land and ocean ; is welcomed as the benefactor of 

 his race, and is immediately put into communication with the 

 whole civilized world. We have before us a practical illustration 

 of the amenities of science. We of the United States are here 

 convened on British soil, little thinking that we have passed the 

 boundary of the protection of American law, or that amidst the 

 generous hospitality of this enterprising commercial capital of a 

 noble Province of Great Britain, we are aliens to the British con- 

 stitution. We have left the American eagle, but Ave assure the 

 gentlemen of Canada that Ave feel in no danger of being harmed 

 by the British lion. I have said that Ave are aliens to the British 

 constitution ; but that must of course be taken in the narrowest 

 and most technical sense, for I am proud to say, on deliberate con- 

 viction, that nothing is alien to the British Constitution that looks 

 to the perfection of knov>'ledge, to the furtherance of the arts or 

 the amelioration of the condition of humanity. I further say, and 

 (turning to Gen. Eyre) I here speak by permission, that the proud- 

 est achievements of British arms, and they have been proud 

 enough for the highest desires of ambition or of glory, haA^e been 

 ess gloTiou-s ta.in lliat patronage of science, that success in the 



