Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/211

 citizen Ráo Sáheb .V N. Mandlik. A sum of Rs. 6,000 was handed to me yesterday (Monday) with, a view to the foundation, on terms which we shall have to settle hereafter, of a Sanskrit scholarship to bear the name of that eminent individual. I am sure that whatever views different persons may take of the line which the Ráo Sáheb has adopted, either in politics or social movements, or any other ways, every one will admit that in this University he has been a faithful and a devoted sustainer and supporter of learning. His services have been constant and unremitting, and nothing can give us greater pleasure than to find that he is so highly appreciated, and that his name is to remain for ever in the golden book of this institution. He will be enshrined amongst the best and most deserving men of our institution, uniting within himself the attributes of a Sulpicius, a Varro, and a Macenas, and the fame of them all. Even our late Assistant Registrar, Ráo Sáheb Granpatrao Moroba Pitale, I believe, is to be shortly commemorated. A movement is on foot for presenting to the University some memorial of that gentleman whose services and his figure in our ceremonials you no doubt remember very well. And as the committee for commemorating his name is headed by so eminent a scholar and so devoted a friend of the University as my friend Mr. Justice Birdwood, I have no doubt that next year a successful result of this movement will have to be announced.

Hitherto I have been on comparatively common ground. But now paulo majora canamus, and although the bounty which I have next to speak of is not directly bestowed on the University, yet it is so closely connected with it, that this is no doubt the proper place in which to make a public acknowledgment of it. When I mention the name of Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit, I mention a name which calls up a glow and a thrill of gratitude in the hearts of every one who is interested in the welfare of our community, or who has sympathy for kindness, goodness and pity for suffering. Sir Dinshaw Petit has placed at the disposal of the Government a building, the value of which is estimated at three lakhs of rupees, and by an interchange of the locality in which the Elphinstone College is placed—supposing that can be carried out with the assistance of the learned Judges of the High Court—we shall have that College brought very shortly into the immediate neighbourhood of this University. That, for the College, will be a great advantage; for the students will then be placed close to the library of the University, and will have an opportunity of making use of it to