TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

Literary & Historical Society

OF QUEBEC.

SESSION OF 1863-4.

PAPER I.-OPENING ADDRESS.

BY JOHN LANGTON, M.A., PRESIDENT.

We have arrived at that period of the year when we are to resume our regular meetings, and it becomes my duty to open the session by an address from the chair. Nothing of moment, affecting the interests of the society, has occurred since I last addressed you, and since the report of the Council was presented at the commencement of the year. We have expended the amount received on our insurance in the purchase of works of established reputation in the leading branches of literature and science; and though our library is still very imperfect in some departments, and though we have to regret the loss, by the late fire, of many valuable books, which we may never be able to replace, yet, upon the whole, I think that our collection will be found more generally useful than it was before that calamity. It is certain that the

library is much more frequently resorted to by members than was formerly the case, which may, to some extent, be accounted for by the more convenient situation of our apartments; but the greater variety of subjects which are now represented on our shelves, and the more modern character of most of the publications, are, no doubt, the chief reasons. The rapidity with which the book on our table is filling up, in which members enter the volumes they take out, is a convincing proof of the usefulness of the library, and I hope that it will induce us, now that a nucleus is once formed, to employ as much as can be spared annually from our funds, in adding to it, from year to year, the latest authorities upon the several subjects which are embraced within the scope of the plan we have laid down for ourselves. We may thus hope that in time the city of Quebec may possess a public library, in which the best books on the most important branches of literature and science may be accessible.

We have also made some commencement towards reconstructing our museum; but a well-selected museum is necessarily of slow growth, and the state of our funds has cramped our means of progress. The collections which may be accumulated both in a library and in a museum are practically infinite, and where the means and the accommodation are limited, the utility of both is very much diminished, unless they are formed upon a well considered plan, adapted to our capacity. In both it is far better to have a limited number of departments, all adequately represented, than to embrace a larger range of subjects, and to leave them all imperfect. But it is much easier to pursue a consistent system of this kind with a library, than with a museum. It is true that, even in a limited number of departments, or even in one department, the books which may be collected are endless; but books of value -the books of real authority-are, after all, not so very numerous. In a great national library it is doubtless desirable to possess everything that has been written; and if the student can extract from a book comparatively worthless a stray fact or a useful illustration, it has not been stored up in vain. But to the general reader the

structure, which has been built up by that student from his scattered materials, is of much more importance than the materials themselves; and even a few dozen well selected works, giving the results of the latest researches upon any subject, would be of themselves a valuable possession. But it is not so with a museum, which is essentially a collection of details. A single book may classify or generalize from a multitude of facts, and may nearly exhaust the subject; but a museum contains the facts themselves, and unless we have them tolerably complete, we might almost as well be without the collection altogether. It is necessary, therefore, to lay down a far more restricted plan for the one than for the other; and the limits we have proposed to ourselves are: that our museum should be almost entirely confined to the Natural History, the Geology, and the Archæology and Ethnology of Canada. Such a collection we may, in time, hope to carry to some respectable degree of completeness; but it will require considerable self-restraint in our Curator and Council not to enlarge their plan, for there are few more seductive pursuits than that of collecting a

museum.

The small volume of the Transactions of the last session has been placed in the hands of the members. We can hardly say that it contains any very brilliant papers, or any great amount of original research; but we may hope that our increasing number of members may afford us better materials, during the present session, for our next volume; and that we may, ere long, regain the position we once bade fair to occupy-a position worthy of this the most ancient city in America, and of the patriotic men who were the founders of the society.

I believe that I have now laid before you all that I need say upon the business of the society during the past year, and of its plans and prospects for the future. I propose devoting the remainder of this address to some general observations upon one of the subjects, for the advancement of which our society was especially constituted.

We often refer with pride to the astonishing progress which has

been made, during the past half century, in almost all branches of physical investigation, and in those practical applications of them, which have been such a convincing illustration of what so called practical men are apt to ignore-that pure science is the true mother of all useful arts. Geology, chemistry, and electricity in all its numerous modifications, hardly date their recognition as sciences beyond the present century; whilst the marvels of photography, the electric telegraph, and the application of steam to locomotion, both by land and water, have arisen during the lifetime of most of us. Since the invention of printing, and its legitimate consequence, that great upheaval of the human intellect, after centuries of thraldom, which resulted, on the one hand, in the Reformation, and, on the other, in that free spirit of enquiry which placed the physical sciences on their present basis, there never has been an era in the history of man, which has been marked by such vast accessions of knowledge and power. But, whilst we render due homage to those philosophers, whose genius has given us this insight into the constitution of the material world, and this command over its resources, we must not overlook the almost equal progress in those sciences which deal more particularly with man and his place in creation. Political economy, as a systematic science, is not more than seventy or eighty years old; and it is within a still later date that archæology and ethnology have been approached in that philosophical spirit, which has removed them from the regions of wild conjecture, and has entitled them to rank as well established branches of sober investigation. The study of languages, of their affinities, and of the laws which regulate their formation, and their gradual change and corruption, is the growth of the present century; and within the same period we have learned to decipher, with more or less confidence, the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria, which had remained sealed books for two thousand years. All these branches of investigation have had a powerful influence upon the study of history, and have given us an insight into the position of the human race in the earlier periods, when written records are scarce,

or fail us altogether. But it is to the progress of history, properly so called, that I wish to direct your attention to-night, and to the revolution which has taken place of late years in the spirit in which this study has been pursued; and in doing so, I wish to point out some of the errors, into which I think that an undue zeal for reform has led us to fall, and the directions in which a succeeding generation will probably think that we have overstepped that philosophical caution, which, on the whole, has undoubtedly characterized the historical investigations of the nineteenth century.

The distinguishing characteristic of the study of history, as now pursued, is the same as that which has marked the progress of the physical sciences. We have learned to form an independent judgment, and to disregard mere authority unless it can be proved to rest upon a solid foundation of ascertained fact; we refuse to accept an incident, or a version of events, because it has been so related by an author of celebrity, without a rigorous examination into the means of accurate information which he possessed, and of the authorities upon which he relied. The only ultimate evidence which is admitted as really valid, is that of a contemporary witness, and not even then, unless it can be shown that he had opportunities of personal observation, or was in a position to have intercourse with those who had; and when, as often happens, such witnesses, competent in other respects, disagree, far greater pains are taken than were formerly thought necessary to sift the matter thoroughly, and to examine the party or national bias which may have influenced each, and all the points that may affect the credit to which they are respectively entitled. Historical evidence, in fact, is treated almost as we would deal with the testimony in a court of justice; excepting that, from the nature of the case, we are obliged to admit of hearsay evidence to a greater extent, provided that the reporter be himself entitled to credit for truth and intelligence, and that his informant had the requisite qualifications.

In the history of more recent times, the change in this respect is not so striking, as when we recede to more remote periods, because the same process had always been followed, though not so