Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/94

 power to confer which will, I trust, before long be extended to the Universities of Madras and Bombay.

Turning from this subject of congratulation and satisfaction to one of a diametrically opposite nature, it becomes my duty to allude to the great loss which this University has sustained by the death of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, who from its foundation had been a great, if not the leading, spirit of the Institution. Distinguished not only as a linguist and an antiquarian and honoured by the diploma of the Fellowship of the Royal Society, but possessing a cosmopolitan reputation as a man of letters, this venerable missionary brought all his powers, tempered by a most truly catholic spirit, to the service of this University; and in every branch of its government, including the office which I have now the honour to hold, gave it not only his best and warmest support, but also the incalculable benefit of his great experience as a teacher and a guide of the native youth of this Presidency. He has gone, in the fullness of the age allotted to man, to his reward and his rest. The regret we entertain for his loss is sincere, though perhaps selfish; but all will, I think, concur in the applicability to him of the often- quoted sentiment of the Prince of Denmark:-

The Senate at its last meeting decided that Dr. Wilson's memory should be perpetuated in the University; and the Syndicate, to whom the matter was referred, has determined that a bust be placed in these buildings at the expense of the Fellows. By his death a change of some moment takes place in the system of the University; hitherto it has been a purely examining body, it will now commence its career as a teaching one. It will be remembered that a large sum of money was raised in honour of Dr. Wilson in 1869, the interest of which was payable to him for his life, and after his death the principal was to form an endowment for a Philological Lectureship in this University; and the Syndicate is now taking the necessary steps for the first series of lectures under this endowment which yields about Rs. 1,000 per annum, and I would express a hope that this may not long remain the only lectureship attached to this University.

The memorial in honour of our late Registrar is now complete, and the sum of Rs. 2,500 has been tendered to found a James Taylor Prize for proficiency in those branches of knowledge in which he took a special interest. It rests with the