Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/58

 honour of the membership of the College of Physicians and the membership of the College of Surgeons of London, has in open competition obtained admission to the Medical Service of this Government, and is now pursuing those studies which will lead him hereafter to a distinguished career. I do not think that there is any other point which I desire particularly now to press upon your attention, but I cannot refrain from expressing the pleasure I feel at the interest which is taken in the success of the University, as manifested by the crowd that surrounds me in this room, of all classes of the community.

There has been, as we have seen in the journals, a considerable discussion going on for some time as to the respective merits of Native and European rule in this country. I do not desire to enter into that point. I believe we have given to this country a certainty of administration of justice, a certainty of the tenure of property, and the knowledge that all are equal in the eyes of the law. And by the institution of a University such as this, we are conferring benefits, not perhaps so direct and tangible, but I think not the less valuable and important. We are teaching the youth of this country not to value knowledge only for the power and the success it brings, but for the self-improvement it gives the student,—teaching him to value knowledge for itself. We teach him, further, that it is his duty, by cultivating the highest qualities which God has given him, to fit himself to fulfil his highest duties, and in doing this I am sure we confer upon this country benefits even more extensive or more important, or at least equally important, with those institutions which secure to all the benefits of a settled and enlightened Goverment.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and Gentlemen of the Senate,—You referred, Mr. Registrar, in the report you have just read, to the occasion on which I lately met the members of the University; and a deeply interesting and important occasion that was. To-day I meet you again at an assembly of a more ordinary character, of which each year will bring us the anniversary; but I congratulate you, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and you, Gentlemen of the Senate, that to-day I see around me, even on this more ordinary occasion, an assemblage