Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/66

 degrees; and of marked success in our own graduation, or of local academical distinction before this University was formed. Now, when we have obtained such an extended constituency as that which we possess, the annual appointments to the Senate need not perhaps be so large as they have been for some years past. It is a great mistake to appoint to our Fellowship gentlemen, whether Natives or Europeans, for the mere enhancement of their social position in the community.

Our bye-laws regulating our curriculum of study have been very carefully framed, and should not be interfered with without much deliberate consideration, and without being subjected to the test of experience. I think that for our Matriculation Examination the prescription of a course of reading in general history in one or other of our most approved authors (as Fraser-Tytler, Dr. Schmitz, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. White) would be better, because more comprehensive and generalized, than the prescription by the Syndicate of the four select histories of Greece, Rome, England, and India, now in use. To this general history I think we should add, under the heading of "General Knowledge," some elementary knowledge of the classification of animals, and of the geological formations revealed in the crust of the earth. Dr. Oldham, the able and enterprising head of the Geological Survey of India, has justly complained to the Government of India of the want of even the most rudimental knowledge of natural history on the part of many who might otherwise find employment connected with that survey, profitable both to themselves and the State. Independently of the improvement of their observational powers, our young men, by such a study of the works of God as I now venture to recommend, would confer great advantages on their native land. We may be assured that the mineral resources of India will not be fully discovered and brought to light till the sons of India themselves receive at least such an amount of elementary instruction as that at which I have just hinted. I may venture to say, from personal knowledge, that His Excellency the Viceroy feels much interest in this matter, as he does in everything likely to call forth the natural resources of this great and marvellous country.

After our next examinations no cognizance, according to our present bye-laws, will be taken of the vernacular languages of India in connection with our higher examinations. In common with some of our best linguists and educationists, European and Native, I personally regret this circumstance, though I cordially rejoice in