Page:University of Calcutta Convocation Addresses Vol 3 (1899-1906).djvu/12

 the winning of a degree,—a literature which contains invaluable lessons for character, and for life, and a science which is founded upon the reverent contemplation of Nature and her truths, without leaving a permanent impress upon the moral as well as the intellectual being of many who have passed through this course? I then proceed to ask the able officials by whom I am surrounded, and whose trained assistance makes the labour of a Viceroy of India a relaxation rather than a toil, whether they have observed any reflection of this beneficent influence in the quality and character, of the young men who enter into the ranks of what is now known as the Provincial Service. And when I hear from them almost without dissent that there has been a marked upward trend in the honesty and integrity and capacity of the native officials in those departments of Government, then I declined altogether to dissociate cause and effect. I say that knowledge has not been altogether shamed by her children; and grave as the defects of our system may be, and room though there may be for reform, I refuse to join in a wholesale condemnation, which is as extravagant as it is unjust. But, gentlemen, when I admit the existence of imperfections, you may say that, as head of the Government, it is my duty to define them, and still more to find a remedy. May I remark in reply that,