Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/176

Rh there may be in this Senate differences of opinion, as there must always be about worldly affairs upon details of policy, by the whole Senate it has been heartily bestowed. For myself I would say that no act of duty could be more gratifying to myself than to be the spokesman in conferring the degree upon one whom I have served during his whole Viceroyalty, and in whom I have only recognized again a kind and considerate friend. And though it be to compare small things with great, I cannot but recall at this moment that nearly thirty years ago, at the outset of my parliamentary life, my noble friend introduced me and procured my election to a literary society at home. We then sat on opposite sides of the house, and here to-day I am proud to repay him in kind. May he long live to enjoy this and other honours. I do not hesitate to congratulate him on the honour so nobly bestowed, and congratulate you, gentlemen of the Senate, on the admission of a member so altogether worthy of the honour.

 Lord Ripon expressed his acknowledgments as follows:—

Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and Gentlemen,—I have seldom had a task in some respects more difficult than that which falls to my lot at the present moment. When I entered this hall, I knew that a distinction was about to be conferred upon me which I highly valued, because I saw in it a proof of the approval of a body which had devoted itself for many years to the advancement of the cause of education in India. But I was little prepared to find that I should have, if I may be pardoned the word, to encounter so appreciative a review of my public life as that which has fallen from my friend, your Vice-Chancellor. I only wish that I could think that his friendly judgment rightly described the course of that life, but I may perhaps be permitted to claim for it that there has at least been about it a certain unity. Throughout more than thirty years that I have now taken part in public affairs in England, and now here, I have been actuated by the same general principles of policy, and I may say that I have adhered to them without wavering, I will not venture to occupy your time by following in any degree the observations which have been made upon the details of my public course either at home or in India ; but I will say this, that I esteem it an honour of the highest kind that a body such as this should have given such an unmistakable intimation of their approval of the policy which I have pursued. I should be the last man to take an unfair advantage of the signs of esteem which you have given me to-night, and to interpret them as meaning that all the members of this University approved of each indi-