Sir JOHN A. MICDONALD was then requested to address the meeting. As he came forward, looking as vigorous and cheery as if time had consented to roll backwards in his favour, the enthusiasm and delight of the audience found vent in a perfect ovation of applause. On all sides among our visitors, as well as our own citizens, were heard expressions of genial interest on the one hand and of delight on the other. Sir John gained the heart of the audience at once, and, after the applause had subsided, said:—I really do not know in what capacity I am called upon to address this audience, whether it is as a scientist or as a Canadian or as a member of the government. I cannot well say—I will say, however—I come here as a scientist. I am not yet settled in my own mind to which section I will attach myself. I think I will wait awhile, use my Scotch discretion, hear all that has to be said on all those questions before finally deciding. (Laughter.) We all cordially join in the sentiments expressed in the address from the corporation. It was a great pleasure to us all in Canada to know there was a possibility of the British Association extending their visits to Canada. I first thought, when the proposition was made, it was asking too much, but the cordial response made and the large attendance, showed these fears were not well founded. I am glad the weather is fine, the country is prosperous, the fields are groaning with products, and altogether we put on our best clothes to do honour to those gentlemen who have honoured Canada (applause and laughter), and I really hope they will not be disappointed. I can assure them, if they wanted the assurance, the people of Canada are proud and grateful for their visit. If there are any shortcomings among us it is because we are a young country; but we will do our best any way and you must take the will for the deed. (Applause.) I am sure I express the sentiments of all in giving the Association a most hearty greeting to the Dominion of Canada. (Loud applause.) The national anthem was then sung by the entire audience, and on three cheers being given for the Queen, the meeting dispersed.
THE GENERAL MEETING.
The first general meeting of the Association was held in the Queen's Hall at eight o'clock last evening, the hall being crowded to its utmost capacity, many having to stand, while others were unable to obtain admission. Sir William Thomson occupied the chair, and beside him on the platform were His Excellency the Governor General and Lady Lansdowne and suite, the Right Hon. Sir John Macdonald, and the president-elect, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh.
His EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL was first introduced, and delivered the following address of welcome:—
Lord Rayleigh, ladies and gentlemen,—I am given to understand that it would be in accordance with the rules under which the business of the 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 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. (Loud applause.) The desire for such closer intimacy is one of the most remarkable and one of the best features in the political life of the present day. Our periodical literature, our proceedings in parliament, the public discussions which have recently taken place and in which some of our most prominent Canadians have taken a part, all indicate a remarkable awakening to the importance of the noblest colonial empire which the world has ever seen, and a desire to draw closer the ties of sympathy and allegiance which bind us reciprocally. (Applause.) And, ladies and gentlemen, whatever difficulty there may be in the way of a revision of the political relations of the mother country and her colonies, it is satisfactory to reflect that there are none in the way of such an alliance as that which you are establishing to-day between the culture of the old world and that of the new. (Applause.) In the domain of science there can be no conflict of local and imperial interests—no constitution to revise—no embarrassing considerations of foreign and domestic policy. We are all partners and co-heirs of a great empire, and we may work side by side without misgiving, and with a certainty that every addition to the common fund of knowledge and mutual enlightenment is an unmixed advantage to the whole empire. (Loud applause.) I believe, Lord Rayleigh, that your visit will be fraught with far reaching advantages both to hosts and guests. We shall gain in acquaintance with our visitors, and in the publicity which their visit will give to the resources and attractions of this country. We believe that it will be more justly appreciated in proportion as it becomes more widely known and more thoroughly understood. (Applause.) Sympathy, as a distinguished Canadian has lately written, begets knowledge, and knowledge again adds to sympathy. You, ladies and gentlemen, who have lately left the mother country, will gain in the opportunity which will be afforded you of studying the life of a people younger than your own but engaged in the solution of many problems similar to those which engage our attention at home, and observing the conduct of your own race amidst the surroundings of another hemisphere. On every side you will find objects of interest. Our political system, the working of federation, the arrangements of the different provinces for the education of our youth, our railways pushed across this continent with an enterprise which has never been surpassed by the oldest and largest communities—(loud applause)—our forests, our geology, our mineral resources, our agriculture in all its different phases ranging from the quiet homesteads and skilful cultivation of the older provinces to the newly reclaimed prairies of the North-west, which we expect to yield us this season a surplus of from six to nine millions of bushels, the history and characteristics of our native races, and the manner in which we have dealt with them—all these will afford you opportunities of study which few other portions of the globe could present in such variety. (Applause.) Of the facilities which will be afforded to you and of the pains which have been taken to render your explorations easy and agreeable, I need not speak. Some of you are aware that a distinguished member of an assembly to which you and I, Lord Rayleigh, have both the honour to belong, has lately been cautioning the English public against the dangers of legislation by picnic. (Loud applause.) I have heard that in some quarters misgivings have been expressed. We too should be exposed to similar danger, and lest the attractions which the British Association is offered here should conflict with its more strictly scientific objects. These are probably rumores senum severiorum, and I will only say of them, if there is any ground for such apprehensions, you must remember that hospitality is an instinct with our people, and that it is their desire that you should see and learn a great deal, and that you should see and learn it in the pleasantest manner possible. (Applause.) I have only one word more to say. I wish to express the pleasure with which I see in this room representatives, not only of English and Continental and Canadian science, but also many distinguished representatives of that great people which, at a time when the relations of the mother country and her colonies were less wisely regulated than at present, ceased to be subjects of the British Crown, but did not cease to become our kinsmen. Many of you will pass from these meetings to the great re-union to be held a few days hence at Philadelphia, where you will be again reminded that there are ties which bind together not only the constituent parts of the British empire, but the whole of the British race—ties of mutual sympathy and good-will which such intercourse will strengthen and which, I believe, each succeeding decade will draw more closely and firmly together. (Applause.) I have now only to apologize for having intervened in your proceedings. I feel that what I have said would have come better from the lips of a Canadian. Others will, however, have ample opportunities for supplementing both by word and deed the shortcomings of which I may have been guilty. It was my duty—and I have much pleasure in discharging it—as the representative of the Crown in this part of the empire to bid you in the name of our people a hearty welcome to the Dominion. (Loud and long continued applause.)
Sir WM. THOMSON, in responding, said:—You will allow me, in the first place, to offer my warmest thanks to His Excellency the Governor-General for coming among us this evening, and for the very kind and warm welcome which he has offered to the British Association, on the part of the Dominion. Your Excellency, it devolves upon me as representing Professor Cayley, the president of the British Association, to do what I wish he were here to do himself, and which it would have been a well-earned pleasure for him to do—to introduce to you Lord Rayleigh as his successor in the office of President of the British Association. Professor Cayley has devoted his life to the advancement of pure mathematics. It is indeed peculiarly appropriate that he should be followed in the honourable post of president by one who has done so much to apply mathematical power in the various branches of physical science as Lord Rayleigh has done. In the field of the discovery and demonstration of natural phenomena Lord Rayleigh has, above all others enriched physical science by the application of mathematical analysis; and when I speak of mathematics you must not suppose mathematics to be harsh and crabbed. (Laughter.) The Association learned last year at Southport what a glorious realm of beauty there was in pure mathematics. I will not, however, be hard on those who insist that it is harsh and crabbed. In reading some of the pages of the greatest investigators of mathematics one is apt to become wearied, and I must confess that some of the pages of Lord Rayleigh's work have taxed me most severely, but the strain was well repaid. When we pass from the instrument which is harsh and crabbed to those who do not give themselves the trouble to learn it thoroughly, to the application of the instrument, see what a splendid world of light, beauty and music is opened to us through such investigations as those of Lord Rayleigh. His book on sound is the greatest piece of mathematical investigation we know of applied to a branch of physical science. The branches of music are mere developments of mathematical formulas, and of every note and wave in music the equation lies in the pages of Lord Rayleigh's book. (Laughter and applause.) There are some who have no ear for music, but all who are blessed with eyes can admire the beauties of nature, and among those one which is seen in Canada frequently, in England often, in Scotland rarely, is the blue sky. (Laughter) Lord Rayleigh's brilliant piece of mathematical work on the dynamics of blue sky is a monument to the application of mathematics to a subject of supreme difficulty, and on the subject of refraction of light he has pointed out the way towards finding all that has to be known, though he has ended his work by admitting that the explanation of the fundamentals of the reflection and refraction of light is still wanting and is a subject for the efforts of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. But there is still another subject, electricity and the electric light, and here again Lord Rayleigh's work is fundamental, and one may hope from the suggestions it contains that electricity may yet be put upon the level of ordinary mechanics, and that the electrician may be able to weigh out electric quantities as easily and readily as a merchant could a quantity of tea or sugar. (Applause.) It remains for me only to fulfil the commission which Professor Cayley has entrusted to me of expressing his great regret that his engagements in England prevented his being with us, and in his name to vacate the chair of president of the Association and to ask Lord Rayleigh to take his place as President for 1884. (Applause.)
[Lord Rayleigh then delivered the Presidential Address, a copy of which is appended to this work.]
Lord Rayleigh was loudly applauded at the conclusion of his address.
HON. DR. CHAVEAU in an eloquent speech in French proposed a vote of thanks to Lord Rayleigh for the interesting sketch he had given of modern science. In this scientific review Lord Rayleigh had also displayed great literary ability. The reunion to-day of the British Association was significant in the sense that it extended the operations of the society to all parts of the British Empire, so that while on the other side the question of a federation of the British Empire was being raised, the British Association had taken the lead in its sphere by casting out the roots of a scientific federation. In this connection he spoke of the work the Royal Society was doing in Canada. He was glad to see that Lord Rayleigh did not hold extreme views as to the elimination of classical studies from our schools, for he believed that in those stores of antiquity our modern mind found a great deal of its strength, and were this study abolished our mental grasp and vigour would be greatly lessened. What Canada required was the greater development of our universities. In this way would science be most benefited, for we would have a greater number of men able to devote themselves entirely to the study of scientific subjects. He expressed the pleasure he felt at the honour of knighthood conferred on Principal Dawson, an honour in which the whole Canadian people felt pride, and concluded amidst great applause.
Mr. HUGH MCLENNAN in seconding the resolution said the very interesting address which Lord Rayleigh had given them was not only a source of pleasure to the audience, but gave them an adequate idea of the wide field of knowledge and research opened by those who devoted themselves to different scientific pursuits. The presence of so many men devoted to scientific pursuits in our midst could not fail to give an impetus to the study of science in this country. We had not many scientific men, owing principally to the fact that the people who settled here had given their attention to material pursuits, but a new era was now opening. The worthy chief of the government must be gratified at the success of his wise policy in encouraging this movement, which could not fail to be of great profit to Canadians, and he felt sure that no vote would be more heartily given than the vote of thanks to Lord Rayleigh, which he had much pleasure in seconding.