Page:Thirty years' progress in female education.djvu/7



the earlier years of its history, it was the custom of Queen's College to hold an annual meeting, at which the Principal read a Report of the condition and work of the College during the year which had just gone by. But after a while the meeting ceased to be held, and for many years an Annual Report has been addressed to the Visitor in the names of the Council and the Committee of Education, and has been printed for distribution instead of being orally delivered to an audience. Queen's College has never had any recitation of speeches nor any Prize-giving; and probably the reading of an Annual Report, giving an account of a quiet year's work, was not thought a sufficient inducement for the assembling of a meeting. We have not resolved to recur to the original practice; the Council and Committee will present their Report this year as usual to the Visitor. But we feel that it is a loss to the College to be without some yearly gathering of its members and friends, such as the Prize-Day brings to nearly all colleges and schools. And for the present year, at all events, we have thought that there are exceptional circumstances, affecting female education generally, and our own College in particular, which it is important to bring to the special notice of the students and their friends, which have therefore warranted us in inviting your attendance to-day.

You cannot be unaware of the great progress that has been made of late years by the cause of higher female education. But how rapid the movement has been, and to what points it has advanced, is not easily realized. It is evident that the time for this success had come. We often find in the history of social movements that for years and generations the in-