Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/196

 and happiness to all the gentlemen who have taken prizes here to-day to be admitted on an occasion like this to such a distinguished company as that of which I have spoken. I trust that those who have received prizes and those also who have been admitted to degrees to-day will bear in mind that this distinction does impose upon them a certain duty to this institution, and a certain duty to their country and their countrymen. They are bound to live up to the honour they have gained to-day, to prove themselves worthy associates of those amongst whom they have been admitted, and they are bound, in so far as their abilities will enable them, to push forward the cause of civilization, enlightenment, and learning in all the remoter corners of this country in which there is so much still to be done. The gentlemen who have passed on this occasion for the lower stages leading towards the degrees, are very numerous—more numerous, I believe, than on any former occasion, and it is rather sad to observe that of those who have succeeded so well, perhaps the largest proportional number is due to two institutions over whose face there has been not a little just lamentation in recent days. It happens by a strange coincidence that in some of the examinations the largest proportional number of those who have passed relatively to those who have come up have issued from the Gujarat and the Deccan Colleges. I say no more on this subject at this moment, except that it proves that these institutions, even as it maybe in their hour of weakness and impending danger, have still worked up to a high standard, and have done their duty by the people amongst whom they have been placed. The great increase in the numbers of the gentlemen who come up for these lower stages leading towards the degrees suggests always to one interested in the advancement of learning that the preparatory studies for this University ought to be made wider, deeper, and more complete than they are. I believe there are few of the gentlemen who have taken their degrees to-day, and few who had to go through the torture of examinations in the lower stages, who will not admit that they have suffered considerably by the defects of the primary and secondary education through which they have passed preparatory to their coming to this University. And certainly it is an object well worthy of the attention of an enlightened Government to endeavour to complete the course of study, to enlarge its scope, and to ripen it especially in the secondary schools of this Presidency, if it wishes to have genuine scholarship apart from the mere faculty of passing examinations amongst those students who are hereafter to be the representatives of the intellect of India to the learned world. The Government, however, is not the only power or the only