Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/170

 immediately to a measure which the public voice in India had already cried out for in unmistakable tones. That was the repeal of the Vernacular Press Act. That Act, I believe, and we all here believed from the beginning, was passed under a total misconception of the necessity for it. It was opposed to the spirit equally of Englishmen and of Natives, who have been brought up not in vain to English ways and habits of thought. It could not effectually be carried out, by an English administration and by English officers whose whole life and training had been in a different atmosphere. They could not deal with such a measure without falling into contradictions and a constant sense of a false position. It was abortive, and it was well got rid of, in the opinion of the general public. Next let me refer to the financial and fiscal measures. First, I will refer to that which met with anything but universal approval, and specially on the part of my Native friends and associates, that is, the abolition of a large portion of the import duties. I believe that Lord Ripon and his Government in abolishing these import duties were doing what was perfectly right in the interests of this country and in the interests of England and of the world. But whether that was so or not, the spirit in which Lord Ripon met with such an opposition as he encountered on that occasion showed him to be a man not to be deterred from what his conscience bids him to do, by any outcry of the crowd. Next I will mention the resolutions of his Government which go to determine in a way more favorable to the cultivator and the landowner, the calculation of the land revenue in times to come. This subject has been treated by a very able and distinguished Native friend of mine, and it has some technicalities about it which are not well fitted for discussion on an occasion of this kind. I call attention only to the careful watchfulness with which Lord Ripon's Government have set themselves to alleviate the unnecessary burdens of the people.

But, then, comes a measure of greater importance for the future than one of revenue. Lord Ripon, as Lord President of the Council, had had the educational department in England under his charge, and one of the greatest measures of his Viceroyalty will doubtless be commemorated in the future as the institution of the Education Commission and the resolutions of his Government consequent on its report. It is now a generation since the working upon the basis of the Despatch of Lord Halifax began in this country, and to one who can look back at the early years of progress of that great measure, the amount of advancement that we have enjoyed is