British Association is carried on, that the proceedings of to-day should
commence with the vacation of the president's chair and by the
installation of the president-elect in the place which he will so
honourably fill. The occasion, however, which has brought us together is
so remarkable, and will be so memorable, not only in the annals of the
Association, but in the history of the Dominion, that I believe you will
pardon the slight irregularity of which, as a member of the Association,
I am guilty, in rising to address a few words to this distinguished
audience. The occasion, Lord Rayleigh, is the first upon which the
British Association has held a meeting beyond the narrow limits of the
United Kingdom. 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