Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/56

 young University like this the candidates would be almost exclusively drawn either from this city or from the centres of education throughout the country; but instead of that we find by that list which the Registrar read, as I have said, that there is not a district of this Presidency from north to south, from east to west, which is not represented in it. And it shows to us this, that a sense of the value of a University education is not confined only to those who are brought into communion with the professors and teachers connected with the University, but that it has taken wide root throughout the Presidency, and is felt by every class of the people.

It is a matter of congratulation, I think, that what may be pointed out particularly in the report which has been read to us is the number who have succeeded in obtaining degrees in the Faculty of Arts. Now, that implies a more general and a more liberal, a more enlightened course of studies, than that which probably has been followed by those who have obtained degrees in special faculties. There is a wider extent of learning, a wider field of study required for a degree in Arts than that which necessarily would be required for the degree of L.M., and I think it is a matter of congratulation that the great success which has been manifested in the examinations, has attended those who have sought to graduate in Arts.

It is a matter of congratulation, too, that large success has attended the examination in Law, because the University examination in Law is not an examination in the knowledge which qualifies a man to be a successful practitioner,—it is not a knowledge of cases and decisions and practice—it is a knowledge of the principles of law and jurisprudence; it is a knowledge of the history of law; and so, is of infinite value in this country in particular. And I'll tell you why. The British Government has been engaged in introducing into this country a fixed code of law which applies to many of the relations of life. It requires here for the due administration of law—for an enlightened view of law as it ought to be administered in this country—a knowledge of the ancient laws as applying to inheritance, to property, to succession, to marriage, to religion, and to many other subjects of that kind; and it is a great satisfaction to find that there are young men who seek to distinguish themselves not only with a view to success in their professions, but also to obtain that wider and more enlightened view of law which will make a successful prosecution of their profession hereafter most valuable.