It is not necessary to enumerate her contributions to art, to literature or to science further than to call attention to the fact that her celebrated Pierre Simonde de Laplace was the first to unfold the Nebular Hypothesis in his “Exposition du Système du Monde” to account for the formation of the solar system, and that her Charles Messier was the first to catalogue stationary objects so faint as to be hardly observable through his small telescope and by him first named “nebulae.” The diaphanous, spiral convolutions in such of these, as the great green nebula in Orion, the brilliant white nebula in Andromeda and the whirlpool nebula in Canes Venatici, by the aid of powerful telescopes, may now be photographed and by the revelations of the spectroscope, their dimensions, character and composition may be determined.
If these nebulae, first discovered by Messier, be distant universes, not unlike the Milky Way, as suggested by Dr. Edward Arthur Fath, who estimates the diameter of the nebula in Andromeda at thirty-five trillions of miles, we at most have but little conception of their magnitude and the wonders of the realms of infinite space about us. The contributions of Laplace and Messier as well as of Lalande, Leverrier and others to astronomy indicate to some extent the leading position France has always taken in the domain of science and original research. All nations recognize that La France est la patrie des sciences et des arts.
Her contributions to civilization and to the world’s diplomacy entitle her to the gratitude of other civilized nations.
The people of this nation are especially grateful to France for her services in opening up the heart of this continent to its early settlers, for her assistance to our people in their struggle for independence and for other acts of friendship, gratefully acknowledged elsewhere in this Report, the last of which is beautifully expressed in the gift of the Rodin bust, “La France.”
III. SOCIAL FUNCTIONS AND HOSPITALITIES EXTENDED TO THE FRENCH VISITORS IN NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON AND ELSEWHERE
Upon their disembarkation, the visitors took rooms in the Hotel Vanderbilt. In the evening, they witnessed “Les Fourberies de Scapin” of Molière, played by the students of French in the College of the City of New York at the Carnegie Lyceum, and also the French version of an English play. On April 27, 1912, Mayor Gaynor received the delegation in the City Hall of New York and expressed his pleasure at their safe arrival in the city. M. Hanotaux replied that it was an honor to present their respects to the first citizen of the great city of New York. On the same day, members of the French delegation and members of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions were tendered a luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in New York by Hon. McDougall Hawkes, chairman of the American Board of the French Institute in the United States. Mr. Hawkes in a graceful address welcomed the guests and extended an invitation to the First Loan Exhibit of the Institute that afternoon. In the course of his address he said:
Your visit, Mons. Hanotaux, with other distinguished delegates from France, who have come on so flattering and pleasing a mission, will constitute a strong landmark in what has been so interestingly termed by the distinguished librarian of the city of Paris, Marcel Poëte, the intellectual expansion of France in the United States. This so-called expansion, based on intellectual relations between the two countries, is in fact a natural corollary to other relations, which for more than three centuries and a half, have inclined each towards the other in common sympathies. (Applause.)
He was followed by Ambassador Jusserand, Mayor Gaynor, Baron D’Estournelles de Constant, M. Louis Barthou, Mr. Paul Fuller, who spoke in French, and others. At the Loan Exposition that followed in the East Gallery of the building of the American Arts Society, John W. Alexander, President of the National Academy of Design and a Trustee of the French Institute in the United States, in a brief address spoke of the cordial reception given in France to students of art from this country and welcomed the delegation in a most cordial manner to the Institute. M. Fernand Cormon, President of the Fine Arts Academy of France, expressed his thanks for the cordial welcome they had received and declared that
such occasions as the opening of the Museum of French Art in this country would do much to bring artists of the two countries into closer communication and would multiply the means and the occasions, through which Americans and the French could better know and appreciate one another. For this good work, which has been so auspiciously begun to-day, you will have our active co-operation and I extend to you our sincere thanks. (Applause.)