Fully an hour before the time for presenting the civic address crowds
of people began to ascend the stairs
Leading to the Queen's Hall, and by
half-past four o'clock the hall was filled to overflowing, and when the
mayor and aldermen, with the members of the British Association put in
an appearance, they were heartily received by the audience. His Worship,
Mayor Beaudry (who wore his chain of office) presided, and was supported
on the right by Sir William Thomson (representing the retiring
president, Prof. Cayley), and the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh
(president-elect), and on his left by the Premier of the Dominion, the
Right Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald. Amongst others present - were Sir
Lyon Playfair, Capt. Douglas Galton, Prof. Henry E. Boscoe, Sir James
Douglass, Prof. Chandler Roberts, Mr. W. Terlawney Saunders, Prof.
Glaisher, Hon. C. W, Freemantle, Capt. Bedford Pim, Rev. Prof. Bonney,
Sir Richard Temple, Dr. Alexander, Principal Dawson, C.M.G., Prof.
Cheriman, Mr. M. H. Gault, M.P., Hon. J. S. C. Wurtele, Dr. Persiford
Frazer, U. S. Consul-General Stearns, Andrew Robertson, and the
following members of the city corporation: Aldermen Grenier, Fairbairn,
Laurent, Stevenson, Rainville, Donovan, Beauchamp, Archibald, Robert,
Prefontaine, Holland, Tansey, Beausoleil, Mount, Rolland, Hood, J. C.
Wilson, Thos. Wilson, Mooney, Jeannotte, Farrell and Genereux; Mr.
Charles Glackmeyer, city clerk; Mr. Perceval W. St. George, city
surveyor; Mr. J. F. D. Black, city treasurer; and Mr. H. Paradis, chief
of police. Mr. W. R Spence, organist of the Church of St. John the
Evangelist, presided at the organ.
His Worship the Mayor opened the proceedings by reading the following: -
ADDRESS.
_To the President and Members of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science_:
GENTLEMEN, - It is with no common pleasure that we, the mayor and
aldermen of Montreal welcome to this city and to Canada, so
distinguished a body as the British Association for the Advancement of
Science. Already indeed, not only here, but through the length and
breadth of the land, that welcome has been pronounced with a heartiness
to which we are proud to add the confirmation of formal expression.
During the last two years, and especially since the acceptance of our
invitation made it a certainty, your coming amongst us has been looked
forward to as an event of deep and manifold importance to the Dominion.
Aware of the devotion with which the Association had for more than half
a century, applied itself to the object indicated in its name, and
knowing that its present membership comprised the most eminent of those
noble students and investigators who have made the search after truth
the aim of their lives, we could not fail to perceive that Canada would
gain by the presence of observers and thinkers so exact and so
unprejudiced. Nor were we without the hope that in the vast and varied
expanse of territory which constitutes the Dominion, our learned
visitors would meet with features of interest that should be some
compensation for so long and wearisome a journey here in that great
stretch of diversified region between the Atlantic and the Pacific, the
student of almost every branch of science must find something worth
learning whilst for certain sections of the Association there are few
portions of the world in which the explorer is more likely to be
gratified and rewarded.
Throughout this broad domain of ours, rock and herb, forest and prairie,
lake and river, air and soil, with whatever life or whatever relic of
life in past ages, they may severally contain, - afford to the diligent
seeker of knowledge various and ample scope for research. Nor to the
student of man at a social and political being, is there less of
opportunity for acquiring fresh facts and themes for reflection in a
young commonwealth like this.
We flatter ourselves that here you will find a people not unworthy of
the great races from which it has sprung, and that on your return to the
mother land, you will be able to speak with satisfaction, from your own
experience, of our federal system, our resources, our agriculture our
manufactures, our commerce, our institutions of learning, our progress
and our destinies.
You have come and we place our land, ourselves and all we are and have
at your disposal. We bid you a hearty welcome, and in so honouring
ourselves we only ask you to consider yourselves at home, remembering
that you are still on British soil.
In conclusion Mr. President and Gentlemen, we sincerely hope that your
stay in this portion of Her Majesty's Empire may be as happy and as
fruitful to the Association as it is grateful for so many reasons to the
people of Montreal and of the Dominion.
J L BEAUDRY,
Mayor
CHAS GLACKMEYER,
City Clerk
Sir WM THOMSON acknowledged in cordial terms the hearty welcome
expressed in this address. The Association, he continued, when it
commenced the experiment of being a peripatetic Association for the
advancement of science, made an experiment which many considered of a
doubtful character. It was urged that although zeal for a new thing
might carry the Association on for a few years successfully, the success
would cease with the novelty. This prophecy had not been fulfilled. On
the contrary, the experiment had been crowned with brilliant success. He
did not think the founders of the Association, fifty-two years ago, when
they drew up the wise plan and regulations of the society which have
since continued in force almost without change, imagined, for a moment,
the possibility of a meeting being held on this side of the Atlantic.
(Applause) Their meeting here was strictly within the letter of the law
and wholly in accordance with the spirit by which the British
Association was directed, and that was to carry through the British
Empire any advancement in science that could be promoted by the
existence of the Association. At the outset, when the body was formed,
some fifty years ago, the mathematical section, of which he was now
president, held that it was impossible for a steamboat to cross the
Atlantic.
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