# Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 1/Sir H. B. E. Frere, K.C.B.

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CONVOCATION ADDRESSES
OF THE
University of Bombay.
FIRST CONVOCATION.
(By His Excellency Sir H. B. E. Frere.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—I am sure it is a subject o£ very sincere regret to the Senate Sir George Clerk. and to every one here present that this meeting could not be presided over by the great statesman who has lately left these shores: to one whose heart was so full of sympathy with everything connected with the welfare of India—who loved India with a large and generous heart as Sir George Clerk did, the present would have been an occasion of no ordinary interest. But while I regret he is not here among us to-day, I cannot but feel grateful to Mr. Vice-Chancellor, for the arrangements he so considerately made, which have enabled me to be present.
I cannot help going back in memory to the occasion shortly after my arrival in this country, The Educational System. when I met Messrs. Bell and Henderson, who had then just landed, the two first oi the highly educated teachers who were selected by Mr. Elphinstone to commence his great system for the education of the youth of this presidency. I recollect, too, when Dr. Harkness, your present Dean of the Faculty of Arts, arrived here with Professor Orlebar in 1835, as the first Professor of the then infant College. Looking to the great difficulties with which they had to contend, I think ​we cannot but be surprised at the rapid growth of the educational system in this presidency.
I find that the first charter of this University was granted on the 18th July 1857. First Charter of the University. It was a time of darkness and discouragement, when all of us were thinking much more of immediate measures of material defence than of the more peaceful subjects connected with education. It has always seemed to me one of the almost sublime characteristics of that period, that when we were all absorbed in measures relating mainly to the immediate defence and security of the country, men were found who made time to calmly and deliberately carry out the measures connected with the grant of a charter to an infant University.
I find that in 1859 the first Matriculation examination was held, when 132 candidates presented themselves. The First Matriculation Examination. Of these Only 22 passed. The cause of so small a proportion Succeeding will be fresh in the recollection of all who took an interest in the University at that period. It was found that a great number of the candidates who would have been well qualified for admission if judged simply by the progress they had made in those branches of learning which were to be the subjects of their University studies, were yet deficient in a complete and scholar-like knowledge of their own mother tongue. I for one, while regretting the disappointment entailed on many an anxious and zealous student, cannot regret the decision at which the examiners of that period arrived, that a knowledge of the student's own vernacular language should be required as indispensable in any one who applies for admission to this University. It is, I am convinced, one great security for the future prosperity as well as utility of the University.
Of the 22 students matriculated in 1859, 15 presented F.A. and B.A. Examinations. themselves in 1861 as candidates for the First Examination in Arts: of whom 7 passed; and six of these 7 presented themselves at the final examination for the Bachelor of Arts degree in the present year. Of these 4 passed, two in the First Division and two in the Second.
It is a circumstance worthy of note, and highly creditable Degree of Master of Arts. to the successful candidates, that they have all intimated their intention of going up to the examination for the Master of Arts degree.
In all the old European Universities I believe the Degree of Master of Arts is conferred without examination on Bachelors of a certain standing; but it is not so in this University. Here the degree of Master of Arts is only granted after an examination ​of a very high standard, similar to that required for honours in other Universities, and it is much to the credit of these young men that they should voluntarily offer themselves to undergo such an ordeal. I would only offer them this one word of advice, that they should not attempt to grasp their academical honours by hurrying through their studies for the examination. The honour they will attain is substantial and permanent, and well worthy of being sought by patient and laborious study.
What I have said relates solely to the graduates in Arts. Graduates in Medicine. As regards the graduates in Medicine, I find many circumstances of peculiar interest. This is the first time that the Grant Medical College has surrendered its privilege of conferring diplomas to the University, and that the College duty of testing the attainments of the students has merged, in the examination for a University degree, I would beg the successful candidates to bear in mind the greater responsibilities as well as the higher honours which devolve on them by this change. They go forth to the world with the stamp, not of a school, but of a University; while they will find their abilities and industry tasked to the utmost to maintain the reputation of the school of Medicine in which they have been educated, and which boasts among its professors and graduates some gentlemen members of this Senate, who are second to none in their noble profession in professional reputation and scientific attainment. I trust that the young licentiates will not rest content with the lowest degree, but will aspire to the higher degree of Doctor, which can only be attained by laborious practical as well as theoretical study, and which will justly confer on them the highest honours the University can bestow.
While I cannot but congratulate the Senate on the great and rapid progress The University Standard. which the University has already made, I would venture to remind every one connected with it that we shall have a hard struggle to maintain a generous rivalry with the sister Universities of the other Presidencies. At an examination which took place shortly before I left Calcutta I was informed that nearly 1,100 candidates had presented themselves at the examination for matriculation, and the greatest enthusiasm appears to prevail on the subject of University education in Calcutta. The range of University studies there, too, is much wider than it is here. I can only hope that we may here make up in depth for what is wanting in expanse, and that when the time arrives for comparison, we may be found inferior to no University in India in ​thorough scholarship in all those branches which we profess to teach. And I would venture to express a hope that no attempt will be made to lower the University standard in any respect.
And, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, while congratulating the Senate Dr. Harkness. on the successful result of this first examination for University Degrees, I am sure I only speak the sentiments of every member of the University present in offering the tribute of the warm thanks of the Senate to the highly respected Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dr. Harkness, who is so shortly to leave us. As the first professor in Elphinstone College, it must be a source of sincere and heartfelt pleasure to him to witness a scene like this before us. He watched over the cradle of the University in its infancy; and now before he finally returns to the country where his own academical honours were gained, he has been permitted to see this University established in its maturity, and promising, I trust, to take its place amongst the great Universities of the British Empire.
I would, in conclusion, say a few words to you who have this day graduated, Graduates' responsibilities. and are about to quit this University for the active pursuits of life. I would beg of you to recollect that you are no longer pupils of any single school, but graduates of a University. Your standard must henceforth be, not that of your masters, or even of the Government to whose service some of you may devote yourselves, but of the whole educated world. You have the character of this University to maintain. Wherever the studies of this University are known and appreciated, you have to establish its reputation, and I trust you will help to remove from the learned men of India the common reproach that we are now compelled to seek professors in every branch of learning, even in the ancient classical languages of your own country, on the banks of the Rhine or the Seine, the Isis or the Forth.
But while I trust that we may henceforward look for profound Development of Vernacular literature. scholars among the educated Hindoos and Development Parsees, I trust that one of your great objects will always be to enrich your own vernacular literature with the learning which you acquire in this University. Remember, I pray you, that what is here taught is a sacred trust confided to you for the benefit of your countrymen. The learning which can here be imparted to a few hundreds, or at most to a few thousands, of scholars, must by you be made available through your own vernacular tongues to the many millions of Hindoostan. The great majority of your countrymen can only learn through the language which is taught them at ​their mother's knee, and it must be through such language mainly that you can impart to them all that you would communicate of European learning and science.
Remember, too, that not only the character of the University, Two classes of objectors. but the character of your whole people, is to great extent in your hands. You have two classes of objectors to meet. One is to be found chiefly among Europeans, not, I trust, among those who have lived long in this country, but still so common among those who are not practically familiar with your countrymen, as to deserve your earnest exertions to remove it. They will tell you that the oriental intellect is worn out ; that it may possess great capacity to receive and retain knowledge, but that it has no power to analyse or combine; that it is no longer capable of producing those results of a high order of intellect of which your ancient literature contains such abundant evidence. I trust that no one connected with the Senate of this University, or who is really able to judge what native intellect is now capable of, will endorse this opinion; but yet you well know it is widely prevalent, and it rests with you to disprove it.
Again, you will find among members of your own communities a widespread and deep-rooted conviction that an education such as you have received, tends to sap the foundation of social morality, that it tends to make you presumptuous and self-sufficient despisers of parental and all other authority.
The conduct which will be the best answer to both classes of objectors A great University Truth. is shadowed forth in a superstition almost Universally prevalent in the wild mountains of Germany and Scandinavia as well as in every nation in the East. The legend runs of a magic mirror in which may be imaged all things of the visible or invisible world, but the secrets which are there revealed are not visible to every enquirer; they are not to be seen by the seer himself, they are only visible to the eyes of a simple teachable innocent child. It always seemed to me that this old and prevalent superstition shadowed forth a great truth applicable to knowledge of every kind: you will find it taught by the philosophers of Greece, of Persia, and of China—in your own Shasters as well as by the example of all the great intellects of Modern Europe. It is this—that if you would seek the knowledge of Newton or Bacon, or hope to wield the intellectual weapons of Locke, you must learn in their spirit, lowly and reverently with a pure as well as with a humble and teachable heart. Remember the ​great University truth, that Arts rest on Morals, and that if you would be wise and learned, the pure heart is as necessary to the successful pursuit of Science and Art as the high and unclouded intellect.
SECOND CONVOCATION.
(By His Excellency Sir H. B. E. Frere.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Members of the Senate,—I am glad to be able to meet the Senate in this their Second Convocation, and again to congratulate them on the progress which the University has made during the past year.
I find that of 143 caudidates who presented themselves at the Matriculation Examination, Matriculation. fifty-six passed, which is a far larger proportion than that of last year, when only thirty passed out of 134 candidates.
I am glad to see no less than twenty Parsees among the successful candidates, Paucity of Parsees. but I must remind them that they are still fewer in proportion than their Hindoo fellow-students, and that we must have more Parsee candidates, and they must be more successful before they can make good their claim to a full appreciation of the benefits of this University.
I am glad, to congratulate the. Directors of the Bombay Proprietary School Bombay Preprietary School. on the appearance of their first successful students at the Matriculation Examination, but here I must qualify my congratulations by again reminding them that much more is justly expected of them than they have yet effected. The constitution of their school presents many admirable features, it numbers among its students the sons of some of the richest and most respectable Parsee gentlemen. It is I believe entirely self supporting, and the proprietors, with, as it appears to me, very sound judgment, retain its entire management in their own hands. We might justly expect from such a school, if not the largest numbers, certainly the largest proportion of candidates for admission to the University, and of competitors for University honors, and I trust that the young student who has now appeared among us will be but the first of many sons of our Parsee worthies who will vindicate by their career at this University their aspiration to be considered as one of the most enlightened communities in British India. ​ In a greater or less degree what I have said of the Bombay Proprietary School applies to all the schools in the Presidency.
Schools vs. Colleges. I find that of the passed candidates—
25 belong to the Elphinstone College.
18 to the Poona College.
9 do Elphinstone Central School.
2 do Poona College School.
1 do Bombay Proprietary School.
1 do Free General Assembly's Institution.
56
So that the schools of the Presidency furnished but thirteen students for Matriculation, while the Colleges furnished forty- three.
It is evident from this that the teaching resources of the Colleges must, to some extent, be diverted from their proper object, from preparing Matriculated students for their degree, in order to bring unmatriculated students up to the Matriculation standard. I would not have our Colleges do less, but I would urge our schools to do more, for they may rest assured that their excellence as schools for imparting a liberal education will be measured in no small degree by the proportion of students they may prepare for Matriculation at the University.
I am glad to congratulate the Poona College on the large The Poona College. number of successful applicants for Matriculation who were prepared at that institution. They are 20 this year against 6 in the last.
The facilities which the capital of the Deccan possesses for obtaining a liberal education have of late been greatly increased, and I trust that the Brahmins of the Deccan will take advantage of those facilities, and not yield without a struggle the palm of intellectual superiority to their brethren of Bombay.
I am glad to find that the Senate is satisfied that there is a Examination Results. marked and steady improvement in every branch of the examinations. A larger proportion of candidates has passed, while the standards of examination have been in no respect relaxed.
Fifteen out of twenty candidates passed their First Examination in Arts (or Little go).
Three candidates out of six passed for their B.A. degree.
In Medicine, five out of thirteen candidates passed their First Examination, and there were three candidates, who all passed, one of them with great distinction, for their L.M. degree. ​At the examination, the first that has ever been held, for honours in Arts, Mr. M. G. Ranade, the first M.A. in India. one Bachelor was a candidate, and obtained a high position in the 2nd class. The result of this examination entitles him, at the end of five years from his Matriculation to the degree of M.A., and I would warmly congratulate Mr. Mahadev Govind Ranade on being the first student of this University, indeed one of the first in India, who has passed his examination for his degree as M.A.
I would note with pleasure another signal mark of progress. Mr. Cowasjee Jehangeer. One of the most respected and trusted of our fellow townsmen has, during the year, devoted the large sum of £10,000 to provide a suitable building for the Elphinstone College. This is not the place for empty compliment, and the act is only one in a series of deeds of public and private benevolence, but I would congratulate Mr. Cowasjee Jehangeer for being one of the first Fellows whose name will appear on what I hope will be a long and honorable roll of the Founders and Benefactors of this University.
The Senate has also accepted Munguldas Nathoobhoy's Travelling Fellowship. Mr. Munguldas Nathoobhoy's gift of £2,000 to endow a travelling fellowship, and I trust the University will not be tardy in furnishing candidates to take advantage of the enlightened liberality of their countryman.
During the year your second Vice-Chancellor resigned the office which he had ably filled from the time when the University was yet in its infancy, feeling that the pressure of his judicial duties did not allow of his devoting so much time and attention as he wished to the affairs of the University, Sir Joseph Arnould. and I am glad of having an opportunity of thus publicly expressing to Sir Joseph Arnould, the high sense which I am sure every member of the Senate entertains of the value of the services he rendered while he filled the office.
When I last addressed you I dwelt on the important part which this University Bearing of Universities on the administration of public affairs. seemed to me destined to play as the interpreter to India of Western thought and Western civilization. I believe that some of those who then heard me were disappointed that I said little on the bearing which the University would have on the formation of public servants, and through them on the administration of public affairs. You will ​perhaps see the reason of my having said so little on this subject, if I say a very few words regarding our English views on the connexion between our English Universities and our English public men, and the publicaffairs which they administer.
And first of all let me remind you that here in India you see but imperfectly, Englishmen in India and Englishmen at home. and you therefore can judge but imperfectly, of the men who influence our Government at home. You see the soldiers and the sailors, whose strong arms and stout hearts enable our writers and thinkers to write and think in peace. You see the active practical men, who throughout our Empire in hundreds of varying professions and pursuits, accumulate and distribute wealth, and deal with all that concerns the material prosperity of England ; but the classes you see here form but a small part of our social and political system and the Englishmen who administer affairs in this country are but a portion of the great administrative machine of the English nation. Part, and the most powerful part, of that machinery is rarely seen here, and can scarcely be sufficiently appreciated in this country. I refer to the great body of men who obtain in their youth the advantages of a liberal education, and of whom a comparatively small number even engage directly in what would be called, in this country, the affairs of Government, yet whose influence is most sensibly felt in the administration of public affairs, and has perhaps been more potent than that of any body of men in rendering our country what it is.
Now I need not tell you that an University education may be regarded University Degree the stamp of Liberal Education. as the highest type, and an University Degree the stamp Degree as the final stamp of a liberal education, and I would have the native members and students of the University compare for a moment the impression they have themselves formed of the value and effect of this stamp with our English ideas on the same subject.
I need not remind you how many of our leading and most honored public men in England were trained at the Universities. The pride and glory of English Universities. No one living in India in this generation is likely to forget that glorious galaxy of contemporary students, which at one University, and at one period of its history, gave to India three successive Governors-General, and to England a goodly number of her most eminent Cabinet Ministers. This is a fact which we are not likely to forget, but I would beg you also to bear in mind that along with these distinguished public men were hundreds of fellow ​stndents, their equals and in some few cases their superiors in academical distinction, who, after leaving the University, entered into almost every one of the numerous professions open to educated Englishmen. Some fought as soldiers in India and China and the Crimea; some became Lawyers, and Members of Parliament; some of the most distinguished applied themselves to teaching to others the knowledge they had acquired, and devoted themselves to learning, and science, and to the service of God in various ways, while a great proportion betook themselves to the management of their own estates, and affairs, their land, their counting houses and their banks.
The fact is that in England we consider a liberal education Liberal Education, a sine qua non of social and political position. a necessary part of the claim of any man to prominent social or political position. It is true that many men do, by force of natural ability or by other natural and acquired advantages, obtain distinguished positions in society or political life without such education, but they are the exceptions, and, as a rule, the only one point which all prominent men, in society and politics, of all classes and opinions, have in common, is their liberal education.
But it may be said a man may be very happy and prosperous, and do great good and possess great influence and enjoyment in life, without a liberal education or indeed, without any education at all. I will not detain you to consider how far this is true in the abstract, nor to account for exceptional instances, which might be adduced to prove it; I can only assure you that this is not our English view, and that, practical hard-headed money-making race as the English are said to be, no man amongst us, as a general rule, aspires to political or social eminence without the advantage of a liberal education, and what is more, no family long maintains a high position, in the political or social scale, unless its members seek to acquire this advantage. This is a truth which I would wish the successful merchants and bankers of this island more particularly to lay to heart. If they go to England they will find our leading commercial men treated as equals by the most exclusive aristocracy in the world, and occupying a position of the highest influence in the administration of public affairs. You will soon find out your mistake, if you suppose that this position is due to their wealth. You will find that in England the possession of wealth, unaccompanied by that refinement of thought and manner which liberal education alone can give, makes the possessor simply ridiculous, and you will find, if you enquire into the history of particular families, that whereas new born wealth in the hands of men liberally educated or who ​rightly value a liberal education for their offspiing, has a tendency to consolidate and perpetuate itself, the most ample fortune entrusted to a man who does not possess and deliberately undervalues a liberal education, has a perpetual tendency to waste away, and leave the possessor far worse off than his industrious ancestor who first emerged from poverty by his own exertions.
I would beg the Native gentlemen of Bombay to bear in mind Definition of Liberal Education. that what I have told them is mainly true of a liberal education. It is not simply reading and writing, it is not even what is called a good practical education highly valuable, if not indispensable, as such knowledge is to many of the most important classes of the community that I now speak of; no amount of mere reading and writing, nor even of purely practical signs properly so-called, can do what I have told you we expect in England from a liberal education. It must be an education which, whatever its subject, aims at training, purifying and strengthening the intellect, which seeks not merely to impress on men's memories, knowledge which may be useful and. profitable to them, but which aims at training them, to correct modes of thinking and reasoning, and to fill their intellects with the loftiest and most beautiful results of human thought. I cannot now attempt to discuss the reasons why such training must be useful to the student and profitable to the community of which he is a member; I can only beg you to receive my assurance of the fact, and to ponder over the reasons of it, that we English hold these views and habitually and deliberately act on them, at immense cost of personal labour and even privations, and that it is my deliberate opinion, shared, I feel assured, by every educated Englishman here present, that the adoption of the course I have indicated as that which Englishmen adopt by long habit, and as it were by instinct, affords the best chance of perpetuating that wealth which is now flowing into this community from every side, and of ennobling it by those attributes which in the opinion of civilized Europe can alone give to wealth permanent dignity and permanent influence.
Nor will I attempt to point out those branches of liberal learning which appear to me most likely to have such a permanent beneficial influence on those who study, not for immediate profit, but with a view to strengthen and elevate their own intellects.
There is, however, one branch for which the facilities have lately been largely increased, and which appears to me so ​important that I would say a few words regarding it, I allude to the study of your own classical languages.
Some discussion has arisen which must, I believe, bear useful fruit regarding the relative merits of the classical languages Importance of Indian classical languages. of this country as compared with the vernaculars, as objects of University study. I will not anticipate the results of this discussion. No one estimates more highly than I do the importance of vernacular education; no one has a higher estimate of the capabilities of some of our Indian vernacular languages; no one has higher hopes as to the space which they may one day fill in the literature of India. But I would remind you that the improvement of any vernacular language, which has but a scanty modern literature of its own, must depend mainly on the cultivation of classical languages. However great the natural capabilities of a language, it cannot become suited to the wants of a highly civilised people, except by the cultivation of those languages which already have a classical literature of their own. It was the men who learnt, and lectured, and examined in Latin and Greek, who matured the modern English and German, French and Italian, out of the illiterate dialects which served the purposes of our ruder ancestors, and it is only by a similar process that we can hope to see the vernacular languages of modern India occupy the same position of popular usefulness and permanence. You have now in this University, in the professors of Zend and Sanscrit, unrivalled facilities for the study of your own classical languages. I would beg you who value the usefulness of the University, to take good heed that the opportunity does not pass by unimproved.
I would in conclusion say to the graduates and under-graduates of this University Prospects of graduates. that Government will every year look with increasing interest to the results of the University examinations, and I trust that we shall find in the tests here applied the same unerring touchstone by which to recognize who are likely to be fit for an impartial share in public offices.
The graduates of this University have now opened to them with a far better prospect of attainment than any other part of the educated youth of this country, the highest posts on the Judicial Bench, and an influential share in the most important functions of the public administration; but I need not remind you that no man who is indifferent to the advantages of a liberal education can hope to fill with dignity or efficiency a seat on the bench, which has been occupied by Macintosh or Sir William Jones. When ​England affords you the opportunity of filling offices hitherto reserved for her ablest and most experienced public servants, be assured it is not because she undervalues the office, nor will she continue the offer unless you on your part can furnish men who are fit to sit beside such men as an English University can furnish.
You will not, I am sure, suppose that I would make the University degree Love learning for its own sake. in itself a passport to the public service; it must be sought for its own sake, as the test and in itself the great reward of the best education we can give you. I cannot better illustrate the spirit in which I would have you seek it, than by an anecdote of the great statesman beneath whose statue we are now assembled. It was told me by an officer of our Bombay Army, who devoted his leisure during his furlough to attend the classes in the University of Edinburgh, that he habitually sat beside an old man whom he noted for his diligent attention to the lecturer long before he knew the name of his fellow student. It was Mountstuart Elphinstone, who had long filled the highest offices in this country, and was believed to have twice declined the Governor- Generalship of India. To the close of his life he sought as a privilege that knowledge, which this University here freely offers to you. Let the same spirit animate you, and you will be worthy of the high public employment which England offers you, if it can be said of you, as it was of one of the wisest and most learned Cambridge graduates of the last generation,
The purpose of his life — its end and aim —
The search of hidden truth, careless of fame,
Of empty dignities, and dirty pelf.
Learning he loved, and sought her for herself.
THIRD CONVOCATION.
(By His Excellency Sir H. B. E. Frere.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—It is a matter of sincere gratification to me Results of Examinations. to find in the report just read, so much cause for congratulating you on the progress made by the University during the past year. The number of Matriculations (56) is still small as compared with the other Universities, and considering how many of these were prepared at the Colleges which ought to reserve their teaching for students already matriculated, it seems clear that the High Schools are not as yet fully adequate to their proper task of supplying the University with students sufficiently ​grounded and advanced. Some particular schools sliow a marked improvement over last year, especially the Surat High School, which sent up six successful candidates ; and I trust that if our finances allow of our giving such a staff as the Director of Public Instruction desires for all High Schools, others will be found to emulate that of Surat. I regret to see no admissions this year from the Parsee Proprietary School. I am told that some improvement has lately taken place in its management, which, it is hoped, will produce a better result hereafter, but I would beg to repeat to the managers of that Institution what I said last year, that, as the only entirely self-supported school, as filled mainly with the children of our richest native merchants, we should look to the Proprietary School as a model to all other High Schools, and I trust the proprietors will not rest content, as they have done hitherto, with providing a merely commercial education for young men whose future position in life demands the liberal education of gentlemen. I am glad to see among the B.A's two pupils of the Free General Assembly's Institution. They are, I believe, the first B.A's who have been trained at any but Government Institutions, and the University and Government must equally rejoice at and congratulate the Institution on such success.
I also offer a special welcome to the three Parsee gentlemen The Parsees. who have this year graduated as B.A's, the first, I believe, of their race. The spell once broken, I feel sure they will not be again left far behind in the honourable competition for University distinction. Their friends, of whom they have so many now in England, will tell them that, unless they add to the power of riches the power of knowledge, they cannot hope to stand on a par with the commercial classes of England, nor like them to deserve and obtain a really influential share of the government of their own country. It is a gratifying circumstance that one of the candidates for the M.A. Degree went up and passed in Sanskrit, and that four of those examined for what would be called at Oxford the "Little go," passed, I am told, a very creditable examination in Latin.
I made particular enquiry as to whether there had been any Standard of Examinations. relaxation of the standard at the examinations this year, and I was glad to be assured that there had not. I trust the University will ever maintain the determination it has hitherto shown, to allow no desire for an early increase of numbers to tempt her to open her gates to an inferior grade of scholars. As far as I can judge, all the changes made during the past year have rather had a tendency in the ​opposite direction; and I trust that Mr. Erskine, whom I should have been glad to have seen among us to-day, had his health permitted him, will carry from these shores the conviction that the great principle for which he always contended, and which has been so well maintained by his successor in the office of Director of Public Instruction, is not likely to be departed from in this University.
In any other assembly than this I could dwell on the noble Munificent benefactors. liberality of those to whom, during the past year, the University has been indebted for numerous benefactions, remarkable alike for their princely amount and for the judicious selection of the conditions which accompany the gift. But I shall best consult the feelings of the benefactors by confining myself to a general expression of the gratitude of the University, and to noting one feature which is common, I believe, to all the benefactions; and that is the simple unostentatious manner in which the gift has been tendered for the acceptance of the University. The tender was often made through the Government party, perhaps from a traditionary feeling that the Government is a sort of general trustee for all great public funds, partly from a natural difficulty in separating the Government from an institution originally founded and endowed by the Government, and in the success of which the Government takes so lively an interest. But there could not have been a more entire absence of any parade or self-seeking. One of the most munificent benefactors of the University has been a gentleman well known to me, indeed, by his high repute as one of the ablest and most successful of our great merchants, but personally known to me only at a single interview to which I invited him, that I might myself express to him my sense of the obligations, under which he had placed the University. These gifts were not legacies, given when a man can no longer himself enjoy the wealth he leaves behind him. They are gifts by men in the full enjoyment of life, and keenly alive to all the pleasures that life and fortune can give, but living among you in a simple unostentatious fashion, and setting to the younger members of their community as good an example of steady application to business and unaffected plainness in habitations, dress and manners, as they set to all India in the princely munificence of their benefactions. It is the manner and the objects, much more than the princely amount of these benefactions, which make me sanguine that they may be regarded as indications of the same spirit which moved the merchant princes of the middle ages in Europe, and that Arts and Learning may find in the ​commerce of Bombay the same enlightened patronage which has formed the permanent glory of Florence and Venice. Two of the foundations are further intended to bear the names of two men whose memory will, I trust, not be soon forgotten in this University. Many of the elder members of the Senate will join me in recognising the fitness of such a monument to my valued friend the late Framjee Cowasjee, a man not less remarkable for his effective support of education, and of every judicious project of native improvement, than for his genuine originality and sturdy independence of character. I dare not trust myself to say all I would of the fitness of the tribute paid to Lord Canning. But I believe that the honour thus done his memory, under circumstances which render that honour like a verdict of history, will be deeply felt by all Indian and English statesmen who love India as he loved her, though they may not be able to devote, as he did, their lives and their labors to her service.
I would notice more especially the tendency of some of the foundations Indian Legal System—Remarkable product of British rule. to encourage the study of law, for of all studies which can be appropriately grafted on an University course there is probably none which is likely to produce such important results, as the study of law. A great experiment is, as you all know, now going on in India. In the course of little more than a single generation,—within the memory, in fact, of men now living,—many nations, each containing millions of people of diverse races and religions, have passed under the sway of the Sovereigns of England. Diverse in every other respect, there was this one feature common to all, that in no one nation from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin was there any court of justice such as we have been for centuries used to in Europe,—that is to say, open and accessible to all men, dependent on no man, and professing, however imperfectly, to administer to all impartial justice according to one known body of laws. I do not say that substantial justice was not often practically administered in Native States in a manner which rendered it as accessible to all as it would be in many countries in Europe. In some parts of India the private character of the sovereign, or the usages which had descended from former ages, gave substantial security for person and property. But certainly India in the 18th century would never have struck a traveller, as we are told it did in the 14th century, as remarkable for the just and equal administration of the law, and I cannot call to mind any single instance in which any nation of modern India could boast of regular courts of justice, possessing the characteristics I have described, as ​open to all, independent of all external authority, and professing to administer to all alike one known and uniform body of law. Whenever the British Government succeeded to the sovereignty, this defect was one of the first which it strove to remedy. From the very nature of things it was often impossible to do more than to provide the most just and upright men the Government could obtain, who knew something of the language and people, and leave them to administer justice as best they could, with no other guide than the light of their own conscience and reason. Even this was a considerable step; because, however imperfect the machinery, the men employed belonged to a race which has an almost superstitious veneration for law, and had been trained to guide their conduct by habitual reference either to written find authoritative rule and regulation or to well-known and undoubted usage. But the British Government was never content with this ; no considerable province was ever annexed to the British Empire without some attempt being made to introduce some sort of written and systematic code of law and practice within a few years after the province became an integral portion of British India. In many cases, as in the Elphinstone Code of 1827, which for so many years was the Mofussil law of the Presidency, the system, administered as it generally was by upright and conscientious men, was proved in practice to be well adapted to the transition state of a country where written authoritative law had been long unknown. But neither did the British Government rest content with this. Many years ago under the administration of Lord William Bentinck, to whom India owes so much, a commencement was made of the gigantic work of drawing up codes of law and procedure for all India. The best intellects which England and India could furnish were engaged for many years on the task. Some of the most important portions of the Criminal Code and the Procedure Codes have only within the last few years become law. I can speak from personal observation of the labour of those employed. Sir Barnes, Peacock and Mr. Harrington, the one in some respects the greatest English lawyer who ever sat on an Indian Bench, the other vindicating an hereditary title to the fullest knowledge of Indian Law, are at this moment on their way homeward, worn with labours of which the preparation of these codes has been the greatest and the longest continued, and they will, I hope, long be spared to aid still further in the completion of the great work of so many of the best years of their lives. It has been sometimes supposed that these codes were intended, or at least destined, to deprive you of the advantages which you, in all the Presidency cities of India, so justly prize, of an administration of English law by ​men trained as our English judges are. I can safely say that nothing was further from the intention of those who framed and passed the codes. I believe nothing can be further from the probable result. The intention certainly was to do at once, and on system, for India, what has been the aim of our great masters of law in England for generations past, to embody our law and practice into written systematic codes, but in every case the guiding principles of law and practice were intended to be those of English law and practice; and in training our lawyers and judges the model before our legislators has ever been that body of lawyers which gives to England a constant succession of judges of whom every Englishman is so justly proud. Nor can I doubt that the desired result will follow in due time. It is no light task which the English Government set before itself to provide laws and suitable tribunals to administer them to so many millions of men; for you must remember that such tribunals as the British Government proposes, require not only a judge to sit on the bench, but a trained bar, and a knowledge of the general principles of the law and practice of the tribunals very widely diffused among the community at large. It is in this direction that we may hope the University will prove here as valuable as Universities have been in every country in Europe, as giving that kind of intellectual and moral training without which the most accurate knowledge of the mere letter of the law will fail to make a good lawyer in our English sense of tho word.On the other hand, I believe that, in the profession of the law, the scholars of this University will find, as do their brethren in Europe, a most congenial and useful field for their talents improved and stimulated by University training. I hope that many of them will avail themselves of the aid so liberally offered them by the benefactors of the University to travel and perfect themselves in our great practical English schools of law. They will there be struck, as early travellers from our own country used to be struck in India, by the spectacle of a whole people among whom the law is paramount. But more than this, they will find themselves welcomed as members of a brotherhood which is at once the most liberal in tho admission of members, and the most strict in exacting from them such conduct as is consistent with a profession of which law is the exclusive study.
And this brings me to note that, during the past as during of former years, Importance of foreign travel and Indian prejudices. several of the foundations connected with the University have indicated an appreciation on the part of the founders of the great advantages of foreign travel as a part of University education. ​I believe that in every country whose condition in matters of education can be likened to that of India in the present day, the thirst for foreign travel has ever been one of the peculiarities most strongly marked in the educated youth, whose intellect is beginning to be stirred by a consciousness that all knowledge is not comprehended in the teaching of a single master, and that it cannot be grasped by one who never quits the limits of a hermit's cell. If you look at the picture drawn by our greatest living poet of him who, from the earliest ages of classical lore down to the present time, has stood the type of practical experience and wisdom, you will find the insatiable passion for travel as for knowledge marked as the one characteristic which age and years could not obliterate or satisfy. At the time when our present system of modern European education was yet in its infancy, no scholar ever dreamt of aspiring to eminence till he had not only acquired by reading all the learning within his reach, but had seen the manners of many races in the cities wherein they dwelt, and had exercised his own intellect in personal contact with all that he could reach of the great and wise in other countries. This passion for foreign travel has gone on increasing among all the advancing nations of Europe down to the present day. Among the under-graduates of our own Universities there are few destined to hold a high place in academical honours who do not habitually either travel as far and as often as their means will allow without serious interruption to their studies, or who look forward to be enabled to travel as one of the best rewards which can follow some temporary pause in the labour of learning. I think we see around us many reasons for hoping that, in this respect, there is a movement going on in the awakening intellect of India, which, in fact, has marked the dawn of a new era of civilization in every age of which we have any record. It may be necessary to wait with patience till the prejudices which prevent the gratification of this most natural and wholesome form of education shall be counted among the things of the past; but it would be an insult to the intellect of India at this period to suppose that many years can elapse before men will think with something like incredulity, that it was ever seriously contemplated to treat as out-castes men who had sought to improve their minds by foreign travel. In this as in many other respects the Parsees have shown themselves worthy to load their fellow countrymen; and scores of your fellow townsmen are now living and laboring in England, drinking in, as they walk the streets on their daily avocations, knowledge as valuable in its way as SLy that they could derive from books, and quite unattainable by any man who never stirs from his own native province. I trust that we shall not long be ​able to count travellers of other races by units. Every religious and domestic objection which ingenuity could raise has now been dissipated, and the educated youth of this part of India must be well aware, that if they would save themselves from the contempt of their fellow scholars in every other civilized country of the universe, they will talk and think of no other obstacle to foreign travel than such as the benefactions lately made to this University for the benefit of its poorer scholars are intended to remove.
You have been often reminded that the object of a University Character of University men. would be very imperfectly attained if it did not in some sense separate its members from the general crowd of learners around them, and stamp them with a character peculiarly its own. This is in fact a part of the work of every great place of education, and any one versed in the social peculiarities of Englishmen can tell with some approach to certainty at which of our great public schools or Universities any man with whom he associates was educated. I cannot doubt that here as elsewhere similar results must follow similar causes, and I would wish in this, as in every thing else, that you should set the best models before you, and that you who, in time to come, will be looked on as the founders of whatever character the University is to bear, should consider betimes the immense importance of a correct standard in manners as well as in weightier matters. I would urge this with the stronger emphasis on all the under-graduates and younger members of the University, because the results must come by an impulse from within. It cannot be impressed, however much it may be modified, by action from without. No course of study, however elevated, no distinction of separate buildings or peculiar costumes, though all tending to the same end, can avail much, unless there be among yourselves the spirit to create a standard for your own guidance in all minor morals, distinct from and higher than that of men who do nob belong to so honoured an institution. You. can hardly doubt what answer I would give to any question as to what standard I would prescribe. When a mighty Emperor, who a few short years ago was reckoned one of the ablest as well as one of the most powerful potentates of modern Europe, desired to describe his wish to discuss matters with perfect frankness and confidence, he said he wished to discuss them "as a gentleman," and he used an English word to express a character not peculiar to any country or race, but which his sagacious observation had shown him, plays in England a more important part than in any other country in the world. He had there seen that the character may exists apart ​from riches, from lineage, or from social rank, from learning or from talent, without one or other of which it is rarely seen in other societies. He had observed, too, that it is the large proportion of gentlemen in English society, Most marked characteristic of English society. and among those who bear rule among the people, which renders possible that combination of individual liberty with subordination to law which is the most marked characteristic of English society. It is this which enables typical representatives of almost every influential class to mingle freely in that great assembly which is an epitome of the English nation. Without visible restraint on any one beyond what the common good demands, it allows tho proudest and most fastidious to consult for the common good, and on equal terms, with those who in other forms of society it would be almost impossible for them to meet on common ground. As one who has not had the benefit of a University education, I may go a step further and tell you that I believe we owe to our Universities, and to the professions, and great public schools which take their tone from the Universities, tho general maintenance of our standard of what is required of a gentleman, and I trust we may in time look to our Indian Universities for a similar service in establishing a common standard of manners and minor morals which shall be recognized not only by men of diverse professions, ranks and interests, but by those whom diversity of faith and race would otherwise keep asunder. I cannot give you a better proof of the high estimate I have ever had of the capabilities of those natives of India who are trained at this University, than by speaking to you as capable of bearing the stamp of "gentleman and scholar;" and I earnestly and confidently hope that, as a rule, it will be borne and deserved by all who claim degrees from the University of Bombay.
FOURTH CONVOCATION.
(By His Excellency Sir H. B. E. Frere.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—Before offering any remark on the proceedings of the past year Constitution of the Senate. I would wish to say a few words on the constitution of our own governing body—the Senate. You are aware that up to the present time there has been no limit to the number of Fellows save the minimum limit of 26 fixed by the Act of Incorporation. This is far too small a body if the Fellows are expected to take an active part in the work ​of the University. Many deductions must be made on account of absence and pre-occupation; and the working residue of a body limited to twenty-six Fellows, which could be present at any one time in Bombay, would be very small indeed. On the other hand, there are obvious disadvantages in throwing the important work of the University, especially that of examinations, on men who have no special connection with the University. It is a noteworthy fact that at the first institution of the University much difficulty was found in selecting fit and proper persons to fill the office of Fellows, but now our difficulty is of the opposite character, and we are forced to select from among those who would be eligible and useful as Fellows, and the necessity has become apparent for fixing some maximum limit to the number of such appointments. The present number on the rolls is 127 Fellows, including those who are Fellows ex-officio, but a large proportion of the whole number is non-resident in Bombay. There are, or will shortly be, ten or twelve vacancies caused by the death or departure of Follows. We have thought it well not at present to make any great addition to the numbers on the present roll. I will briefly state, for the information of the Senate, the claims which seem to us to entitle the gentlemen selected to the high honour.
The Rev. Mr. Beynon is a distinguished Canarese scholar, Merits of newly appointed Fellows. one of the few who is able to assist tho University in dealing with that great section of tho people of this presidency who speak the Canarese tongue. I trust he will remember that we can not yet boast of a single Canarese graduate. Mr. Coke is a graduate of Cambridge who has long occupied a prominent and most important post in the Educational department of this Government, and I feel assured that, whatever his future pursuits in life, he will always retain a deep interest in the cause of education in this country, to which many of the best years of his life have been devoted. Mr. Dhunjeebhoy Framjee Nusservvanjee has, as I am assured, turned his special attention to the study of the ancient languages of bis race. This is a branch, of learning in which the University of Bombay ought to excel every other University in the world, and I trust the day is not far distant when we may find the Zend and Pehlevic learning of our great German scholars at least equalled by that of the Parsees of British India. Few men have done more for the cause of education in Guzerab than Mr. Hope. His claims to a seat in our Senate are so well known that I will only bid him welcome among us. Mr. Kursou- dass Madhowdaas has, by a long and consistent course of self​sacrifice, inseparably connected his name with the cause of truth, enlightenment, and civilization in India. I feel assured that the spirit which has actuated him will give life and vigour to the action of the University, and to its connection with a most important section of the Hindoo community, which cannot but produce important results. We welcome Kerupunt Luximon as the most eminent of native mathematicians in Western India. Dr. Muncherjee Byramjee Cola and Rao Shaib Maheputram, Roopram, have both established similar claims to a seat in your Senate. They have visited the great Universities of Europe, and have thence brought back something of those Western views of true learning and mental discipline on which we must act in this University if we hope to attain that position which centuries of well directed labour and study have given to the Universities of Europe. To Mr. Mahadowrow Govind Ranade I would offer an especial welcome, as the first of, what I trust will be a long and distinguished roll of Fellows, who will look to this University as their own mother in learning. The first of our graduates who has attained the honours of a Master in Arts, he has Well earned the distinction of being the first indigenous Fellow of this University. Captain Sherard Osborn has already earned for himself a name equally honoured in literature and in the service of his country as a distinguished Naval officer and traveller. I feel assured he will not be a passive member of an institution on which the intellectual development of Western India so largely depends. There are many gentlemen here who have witnessed the architectural glories of our great Universities in Europe. It is, I believe, a fact which we should all do well to bear in mind that there is not, so far as I am aware, to be seen in them a single building of any kind erected by the Government. All is the work of private munificence, and we owe to a similar source the promise that this University will one day possess a hall of its own suitable in every way to such a body as this University is distined to become. As a founder, a benefactor, to whose princely munificence the University already owes so much, Mr. Premchund Roychund will be regarded by the Senate as a most worthy addition to the list of Fellows. Mr. Stedman represents the body of Professors of the Grant Medical College. Possibly further additions may hereafter be needed to fill the vacancies caused by the departure of Doctors Peet, Ballingall, and Coles, whom we have this year lost from our list of Fellows. The Rev. J. V. S. Taylor is distinguished for his accurate knowledge of the dialects of Guzerat. I know of no province in India which affords field for the action of those powers which will be evoked by this University than ​Guzerat, which combines in so remarkable a degree so much that remains of the civilization of ancient India and so much of the promise of the future.
The report which we have just heard read again speaks of steady, Results of the Examinations. assured progress as compared with former years. There are two features in it which seem to me especially noteworthy. First, there is the greatly increased area from which matriculated students have been drawn. Not only is the number of such students greater than in former years, but in the enumeration of more than thirty institutions from which students have been drawn, I observe the names of many schools from which no student has ever before been matriculated. This speaks well for the extended influence of the University, and for the hold it is establishing over our schools as the standard of education in this part of India. The other fact which I would notice is that we find among the graduates this day, and holding a very honourable place among them, the first Sindee scholar who has been educated at this University. I notice this not merely on account of the great personal interest I shall ever feel in a province where so many years of my life were spent, but because it illustrates, in a very remarkable degree, the influence which an institution like this University cannot but exercise over all education down to the most elementary. Probably there is no province in India where there was, previous to the British rule, such an entire absence of education of any kind as in Sind. There were indeed a few traces of the learning of former days. Philologists investigated the language, and discovered that it had once held a high place among the most cultivated and copious dialects of India, and there were yet traces of what in former days had been famous Seminaries of Persian and Arabic learning, but all was of the past. There were no public schools to teach even the very elements of learning. Schools, scholars, teachers, professors, had alike to be created. It might be said, and it was said by many most influential educationists, "This is a case where nothing can be done but to provide elementary schools—schools for primary or popular education, on which in future generations, may be grafted schools of a higher character, as colleges." These primary branches of education were not neglected, but it was decided, and I think most wisely decided, not to rest content with these first steps in education, but to endeavour to train a few of the most promising scholars to join at once the higher institutions for national education which have their seat in this island. We have now the results of this experiment. ​ The young Sindee, who has this day taken his degree, What Graduates may do. will return to his own house well instructed in most branches of secular English education, such as most English gentlemen would desire for their sons, and we may now ask what will be the influence he will there be able to exert in the matter of education? First, as to the higher classes. To judge of what he may do we must, I think, as has been often suggested by a learned friend of mine, to whom this University owes so much, and who, I am sorry to think, is shortly to leave us—we must, I say, look back to the time when the young scholars of mediaeval Europe visited the courts of the great princes and nobles who in those days thought it scarcely less glorious to found a college than a kingdom. Scholars of Medieval Europe. The history of that period paints to our imagination many picturesque scenes in which the young and travelled scholar who came laden with the riches of Roman and Grecian learning, displayed his treasures before princes and peers, ecclesiastics and warriors, and by translation placed many of the gems of ancient lore within the reach of those who knew none but the vulgar tongue. May not something of the same kind await him who in these days will carry to the court of Rajpoot Chiefs or Pathan Ameers the stores of Western learning which he has here acquired? The Moulvie who can repeat the Koran with half its commentaries by heart, the Shastree who is a living library of Hindoo literature, men who had long passed in their own courts as miracles of erudition, may find in the young scholar who comes fresh from the teaching of Germany or England more profound knowledge of their own sacred books than they themselves ever dreamed of. He will bring, too, learning in many branches of science never before heard of in those regions, all the wonders of physical science, and all the varied history, philosophy, and literature of the great race who govern India. And, withal, prince and peasant, priest and warrior, will, Humility the true stamp of wisdom. I trust, marvel to find in him that modesty which they rarely find in the narrow minds which hold all the knowledge of those who have been used to style themselves the "learned men" of that contracted circle. The young stranger knows what they have never learnt, how varied are the aspects, how many-sided the forms, of truth, how unlimited is the field of possible knowledge, how little is the sum of all human science and learning when compared to that which is still unrevealed. All this he has felt, and it has given him that true humility of spirit which learned and unlearned alike instinctively feel is the true stamp of wisdom. But, great as may be the effect of one such scholar upon the ​upper classes, how will it fare with the poor, with those who can neither read nor write, who seem condemned to perpetual ignorance, because it is hardly possible for them to hear a teacher's voice, and the written word is to them sealed by ignorance of the first elements of learning? "Would it not be better," it may be asked, Higher versus Primary Education. "that all cost and pains which have been spent in equipping this one scholar with so many costly gifts had been divided so as to instruct hundreds of poor peasants in the simple arts of reading and writing?" I believe that to such questioners the true answer would be that experience shows that one such scholar accomplished, as I have supposed, will do more to promote the primary education of all around him than could possibly be effected by almost any sum of money simply spent in teaching the illiterate to read and write. We are too apt to forget that this work of primary education is not simply a matter of arithmetical calculation, or of the expenditure of a given sum of money. Were it so, a single decree of any Parliamentary grant would solve the question of popular education, and banish ignorance of at least the elements of learning for ever, but we know that it is not, and never can be so. We know how for years every civilized country in the Western world has laboured, not wholly in vain, but with at best imperfect success, to give to the mass of the people the first elements of education. It is not the want of money, but the want of human hearts and heads capable of applying that money intelligently to the work of teaching, which so long has kept, and will keep so large a proportion of the poorer class in every country unable to write or read. Let us consider where in England or in Germany would popular education be were it not for those who have themselves been educated at a University, or at schools which take their tone from the University? The landlords, the clergy of all denominations, the schoolmasters, the authors and editors, these classes are surely not unimportant agents in spreading primary or popular education. No man of refined education can stand unmoved by the spectacle of a people wholly in darkness. Unless he sat himself up within a barrier of entirely selfish enjoyment he must go forth and act the part of a teacher, and he will teach with an intelligent power a thousand-fold greater than can be applied by him who, however zealous in the cause, has himself no more than a perfect knowledge of the bare elements of learning. These are the reasons why it seems to me that it is a very superficial view of the effects of this University education to suppose that it is in any way antagonistic to the great cause of primary education. On the contrary, I ​believe that such an education as this University would seal with its approval is the most powerful of levers to move the great mass of popular ignorance, and that every graduate going forth from this University will, in one way or another, prove a valuable recruit in that army of teachers which is needed to act effectu- ally on the millions in this country who are still destitute of the first elements of knowledge.
FIFTH CONVOCATION.
(By His Excellency Sir H. B. E. Frere.)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor, and Gentlemen of the Senate,—I believe we may congratulate the University that the time has now come when it is no longer necessary for any one speaking from this chair to discuss points of merely speculative and theoretical interest, since the actual working of the University and the practical details of its management afford ample grounds for consideration at the great meeting of the University when we count up our gains and losses of the bygone year, and review the past with the practical determination that the result shall influence our action for the future.
There appears from the report which has just been read by the Registrar, Number of Matriculates. to have been a moderate, steady, and satisfactory amount of progress achieved during the year. There has been an increase in the number of students matriculated. There were 282 candidates, of whom 111 passed this year, against 241 candidates, of whom 109 passed last year. In this respect, the only noticeable feature is the great increase this year in the number passed for Matriculation by the Poona High School and the Free General Assembly's Institution, and the large number of Institutions which have lately sent one or more successful candidates. This is satisfactory progress when we remember how lately the Elphinstone College and School were almost the only Institutions which, educated up to the Matriculation standard.
I am especially glad to welcome two distinguished students of the University Bachelors of Law. as the first to take the degree of Bachelor of Laws. I on a former occasion referred to the great value of the strict and regular study of theoretical law to the educated youth of India, and of the great practical importance to the country of a body of students who should add a sound theoretical knowledge ​of law to a good general education. I trust the time is not far distant when Government and those who have the task of testing the claims of candidates for admission to the native Bar, and of selecting Judges to sit on the native Bench, will be able to substitute the University stamp of merit and qualification for the present imperfect departmental tests and examinations.
I am also glad to see the Bhugwandass Purshotumdass Sanskrit scholarship awarded to a worthy candidate. Sanskrit, Persian and Assyrian Literature. I trust the day is not far distant when we shall find the Parsees of this University devoting to the study of their ancient and sacred languages some such attention as their learned Hindu brethren devote to Sanskrit. The two fields of study have much in common, and though we may not hope to recover from the lost treasures of ancient Persian and Assyrian literature anything approaching in quantity or value to the stores of Sanskrit learning, yet there is enough to be done^ to fire the ambition of scholars who trace the history of their race and faith back to the early days of Persia and Assyria.
In speaking of the year's progress I used advisedly the words "moderate and satisfactory;" but I would not have it supposed Alleged defects in the University system. because I use no stronger terms that I doubted the progress being quite as great and rapid as is consistent with permanence and healthy growth. Whatever doubt may formerly have been felt on the subject, it is now beyond question that this University has taken deep root among the institutions of Western India, that the rising generation of educated natives is deeply impressed with an enthusiastic desire to obtain the benefits of University education and the honours which the University can bestow ; and our danger is now, not that the University should languish as an exotic unfitted for this soil and climate, but that its too luxuriant growth should make too rapid a display of flowers and leaves while it fails to bring much valuable fruit to perfection. I believe that for some time to come, our main difficulty will be to maintain the high standard of University learning, and to discourage all attempts, by lowering that general standard, to increase immediate and apparent results without corresponding security for the completeness of the work done. And this brings me to notice a discussion in which we have all lately taken an interest regarding the University standards as applied to Oriental learning. It was maintained with great ability by one of our most valued Fellows, of whose claim for respect on account of his great and varied learning ​we cannot speak too highly, that there was something defective in our University system, because we did not educate Sanskrit scholars up to the standards of the old Shastris; and some fear was expressed of a supposed intention to substitute a comparatively easy classical language like Latin for the venerable mother of Indian tongues.
The answer to the first objection is that, in the words which I have heard used by our learned Vice-Chancellor, Primary object of the University. the object of this University, as in England, is to establish a standard for the education of men—not as mere means of teaching savants. I trust that the two objects are not entirely incompatible. I look to this University as a great means of arresting the lamentable decline in the knowledge of the ancient languages of India, and I trust that there are pupils of this University who will rival the profound learning of Shastris of old; but let us ever remember our primary object is to educate men, men fitted for every walk of life in which high education is needed, complete as far as the University can make them in every moral and intellectual faculty—and not to produce prodigies of learning in one particular branch, the especial cultivation of which renders them necessarily defective in general adaptation to the business of the world. So with the study of Latin. Latin versus Sanskrit. No one, I hope, would ever dream of comparing it as a language in completeness, in copiousness, or in all that constitutes the perfection of language, with Sanskrit; but while there is a large majority of Indian youths to whom the study of Sanskrit is natural as the classical language of their country and mother tongue, there are many for whom it has no special fitness, compared with a language like Latin, which has for centuries been the classic language of all the great nations of Europe. There are, I trust, many students in this University who will find in the study of Latin all the benefit that has been experienced by the great students of Europe for the last eighteen centuries; but it is no part of our object to purchase this benefit by the sacrifice of aught that is fairly due to Sanskrit.
In reviewing our losses and our gains during the past year, Fluctuations in the governing body of Fellows. there is nothing of more permanent interest than the fluctuations of the governing body of Fellows. It is a necessity of our position that every year should give us cause to note the loss of several wheat our previous meetings were active and matured members of the University, some removed by death, some by the inevitable ​fluctuations of the public service, or by change of residence. We have sometimes the pleasure, as in the case of my honoured colleague, to welcome back to the body of resident and active Fellows, those who had taken a prominent share in the labours of the University in its earlier years, and who, while absent from among us, have borne an honourable and distinguished share in the Government of sister institutions in other parts of India. And, in all cases, we have done our best to supply by fresh additions to the number of Fellows our losses during the past twelve months; and by adding the names of discreet and learned men, fitted by their ability, learning and influence to give weight to the deliberations and action of the Senate, we have hoped to make up, as far as possible, for the injuries inflicted on us by time. But there are some losses which we cannot hope to replace. The report which the Registrar has read alludes in fitting terms to the loss of our late Vice-Chancellor (Mr. Kinloch Forbes), and he could have no more fitting eulogy than the sorrow thus expressed, of the Senate over which he presided; Mr. Kinloch Forbes and his love of justice. but I may be pardoned if I point the late Mr. Klinloch Forbes out to , those of my own countrymen who desire to aid in the great work of the University, as a bright example of what they have it in their power to do. It was not his intellectual ability, great as that was, nor his learning and accomplishments, though we know them to have been profound and varied; but it was the innate English love of justice which, with such singular modesty, was his great characteristic, which gave him such a hold on the sympathy of all with whom he came in contact, and which was the true secret of his power. There is another name which we miss from this year's roll of Fellows, and which we could ill spare. I have elsewhere had opportunities of expressing the obligations of Government to the late Mr. Jugonnath Sunkersett in his general character as a public citizen, and I would now but allude to his loss as one of the earliest, ablest and most consistent promoters of native education in this Presidency, Excellent example of a Hindu gentleman. and one whom I would hold up to my young native friends as an excelent example of what an educated Hindu gentleman in the present day may achieve—always cautiously and wisely progressive, liberal as well as conservative, careful of the wants and wishes of his own community, yet never unmindful of the good of the community at large. I feel certain, Sir, that even without the appropriate movement to his memory which the Registrar's>&report records, the name of such a man will not easily pass from our remembrance.