(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.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 24 of 75
Words from 12189 to 12731 of 39002