Such A Departure From The Usage Which You Have Hitherto
Observed, Though An Inauguration, Is Certainly Not Inconsistent With The
Objects of the Association or with the designs of its founders; its
earliest records contain the statement that it was
Instituted for the
promotion of intercourse between those who cultivated science in
different parts, not merely of the British Islands, but of the British
Empire. I question whether any means of promoting this intercourse could
have been discovered more effectual than the holding of your annual
meeting in one of the great cities of this colony, and my object in now
addressing you is to express at the very outset the satisfaction with
which the people, not only of Montreal, but of the whole Dominion, hail
your arrival here and to welcome you in their name to these shores.
(Loud applause.) Perhaps you will allow me to state my own belief that
if you were to select for your place of meeting a spot within the
colonial empire of England, you could not have selected a colony which
better deserved the distinction, either in respect of the warmth of its
affection for the mother country, or in respect of the desire of its
inhabitants for the diffusion of knowledge and of culture. (Applause) In
a young country such pursuits must be carried on in the face of some
difficulty and of the competition of that material activity which must
to a great extent engross the time and absorb the attention of a rapidly
developing community such as this. We may, however, claim for Canada
that she has done her best, that she has above all spared no pains to
provide for the interest of science in the future, and that amongst
those who have done scientific work within the Dominion are men known
and respected far beyond the bounds of their own nation. In this
connection I cannot deny myself the pleasure of referring to the honours
which have been conferred upon Sir William Dawson within the last few
days. (Loud and long continued applause.) He is, unless I am
misinformed, more responsible than any one person for the visit of the
Association, and I feel sure that I shall command the acquiescence of
all those who have worked in the cause of Canadian culture when I say
that we regard the knighthood which Her Majesty has bestowed upon him as
an appropriate recognition of his distinguished services, and as an
opportune compliment to Canadian science. (Applause.) But the
significance of this meeting is far greater than it would be if its
results were to be measured merely by the addition which it will make to
the scientific wealth of the empire. When we find a society which for
fifty years has never met outside the British Islands transferring its
operations to the Dominion - when we see several hundred of our best
known Englishmen, who have acquired a public reputation, not only in the
scientific, but in the political and the literary world, arriving here
mingling with our citizens, and dispersing in all directions over this
continent; when we see in Montreal the bearers of such names as
Rayleigh, Playfair, Frankland, Burdon, Sanderson, Thomson, Roscoe,
Blanford, Moseley, Lefroy, Temple, Bramwell, Tylor, Galton, Harcourt and
Bonney, we feel that one more step has been taken towards the
establishment of that close intimacy between the mother country and her
offspring, which both here and at home all good citizens of the empire
are determined to promote.
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