Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/42

 believe that such an education as this University would seal with its approval is the most powerful of levers to move the great mass of popular ignorance, and that every graduate going forth from this University will, in one way or another, prove a valuable recruit in that army of teachers which is needed to act effectu- ally on the millions in this country who are still destitute of the first elements of knowledge.

FIFTH CONVOCATION.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and Gentlemen of the Senate,—I believe we may congratulate the University that the time has now come when it is no longer necessary for any one speaking from this chair to discuss points of merely speculative and theoretical interest, since the actual working of the University and the practical details of its management afford ample grounds for consideration at the great meeting of the University when we count up our gains and losses of the bygone year, and review the past with the practical determination that the result shall influence our action for the future.

There appears from the report which has just been read by the Registrar, to have been a moderate, steady, and satisfactory amount of progress achieved during the year. There has been an increase in the number of students matriculated. There were 282 candidates, of whom 111 passed this year, against 241 candidates, of whom 109 passed last year. In this respect, the only noticeable feature is the great increase this year in the number passed for Matriculation by the Poona High School and the Free General Assembly's Institution, and the large number of Institutions which have lately sent one or more successful candidates. This is satisfactory progress when we remember how lately the Elphinstone College and School were almost the only Institutions which, educated up to the Matriculation standard.

I am especially glad to welcome two distinguished students of the University as the first to take the degree of Bachelor of Laws. I on a former occasion referred to the great value of the strict and regular study of theoretical law to the educated youth of India, and of the great practical importance to the country of a body of students who should add a sound theoretical knowledge