The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-02 00:00:00

THE LORD RECTOR OF ST. ANDREW'S

INAUGURATION ADDREIB.

ST. ANDREW'S, FRIDAY NTowr.
This afternoon Mr. Mill was installed as Lord
Rector. After taking the oath of office he was
presented with the diploma of the honorary degree
of doctor of laws, conferred on him by the
senatus. His reception by the students was most
enthusiastic, and his inaugural address, occupy-
ing upwards of two hours in delivery, was listened
to with an attention only broken by irrepressible
bursts of applause, on the delivery of some of the
more eloquent passages. The sentences setting forth
the share that each man has in making history,
and his adjuration against bartering away freedom
of thought, or multiplying dogmas, produced the
strongest impression on the audience.
At the conclusion the Lord Rector announced
the name of the winner of the prize he had
offered for the beet essay on the sources of fella-
' cioua thinking, and the remedies for them.
That Mr. Mill should be the Lord Rector of
St. Andrew's is a proof that there are members
of its university who prefer reason to tradition,
who do not stand in dread of the bugbear called
" advanced opinions," and who, if faithful to the
teaching of their chief, will never dream of intro-
ducing as improvements any arrangement& which
are reproductions of bygone systems. The Daily
News, which contains the text of Mr. Mill's ad-
dress, comments upon it in terms which indicate
its tenor. We read—
To discuss Mr. Mill's theory of university education,
and, still more, to raise controversy upon sonic of his
minor applications of it, such as the methods of teaching
the classical languages, and the place which belongs in a
system of general cultivation so modern and foreign
tongues and to history, would be to attempt • task en-
.manageable within narrower limits than those within
which Mr. Mill himself was forced to compress a vast sub-
ject. The philosophic breadth of his views and the minute ac-
curacy of his discrimination were not new to those who did
honour to these qualities in his election to the post he
fill. They have never been more felicitously displayed.
Mr. Mill's own writings are the beat illustration of his
doctrine of education. An intellect more variously cul-
tivated than that, perhaps, of ally of his contemporaries,
is entitled to protest against narrow and exclusive
theories. No one has a better right than he to vindicate
for literature and science their true place side by
side in education—the one as teaching men to
think, the other as teaching them to express
their thoughts ; fur few haNe used both instru-
ments so conscientiously and so successfully. His
own style, at once large end precise, free and yet
exact, unfettered in its movements, and yet never wan-
dering from the goal to which the thought is addressed,
merits some part of the eulogy which he asses upon the
fgra
d classical masters of language. Ipt reflects the
eatig feature of Mr. Mill's mind—an easy mastery over
the whole of a great subject, and minute acquaintance
with its pettiest detail,. The characteristic of the
ancient writers as distinguished from the modern,
marks Mr. Mill but trom many of his more
popular contemporaries. The effect is due to the
same cause in both cams—to a lucid intelligence and
to a perfect sincerity of conviction and simplicity of
purpose. The down-nee de /axe which is the splendid
blemish of most modern writers, is generally the result of
a disguised egotism which desires rather to dazzle than to
enlighten ; and subordinates the subject to the author.
Mr. Mill's precept and example have done much to en-
courage, against potent influences, the return to a sane
taste in literature. Perhaps he too sharply discriminates
when he makes it the business of science to teach
men to think, and of literature to teach them
to express their thoughts ; for thought and lan-
gunge, though logically diverse, cannot be practically se-
vered. A nun will write clearly who thinks clearly ; his per-
ception of analogies and contrasts in facts will furnish
him with felicitous illustrations. Scientific training is,
therefore, itself a means of literary education. Mr. Mill's
review of the circle of the sciences, of the place of each in
the ascending series, of the light which every one reflects
on every other, and of their special contributions to the
equipnient of the human intellect, is • condensed treatise
ou the philosophy of knowledge and educational method.
If it contains little which is absolutely new to thaw who
are acquainted with his larger and more systematic
writings, it re-states with added force and felicity much of
what is best worth heeding in them. The application
of the two-fold discipline of science and literature, of
the faculty of thinking and the faculty of expression,
to the service of humanity—the lines by which Mr. Mill
advances from the mathematical and physical to the intel-
lectual, moral, and social sciences—reflect his own career
and purpose. All Mr. Mill's studies in science and scien-
tific method, in speculation, in history and in letters,
abut, like his hierarchy of the sciences, on politics, that
is to say, on the regulation of human affairs, on the
better constitution of society, and the elevation of herzan
nature. A generous ardour, and that earnest enthitsia. N;
for 70#914 it
_mid 130
CChristiana't`tt Its word ant Wuial i:;;e, have carried
Mr. Mill through the severe and varied intellectual disci-
pline of which 7w writings see the record on his own part,
and the instrument in the case of others.

ROYAL ASYLUM or ST. Air Nett SOCIETY. —A
sermon on behalf of this institution will be preached to-
morrow morning bathe Right lirr. the Lord Biabop of
Oxford, at St. rhilip's Church, itegent•atrcet.

THE PACKING-CASE 34•LERH. —LEM. evening a
crowded meeting of the members of the above trade was
held at the Harp•alley School-rooms, Parringdon-street, for
the purpose of receiving a report from the volotuitee as to
the present position of the dispute in the trade, and to de-
termine on the measures to be adopted thereon. About MI
members were present. Mr. Bowler, the secntsry, reported
that five of the leading shops in the trade—six.. Messrs.
Pound's, lumen's, Harvey's, Taamates,and Mitchell's—bed
OD Saturday last suddenly posted up notic‘e in their estab-
lishments that the hours of worl:ing on and after Monday
would be altered from 4$ till half-past sto from 7 till 7.
This being contrary to the rule agreed upon about 12
months since both by the euiplileni and the won, the men
demurred to the alteration, when they were told that they
must either work under the new rubs or leave the shop
at once. The men almost uneniniously ad,pted the latter
course and left. A long discussion °mama, during which
a large number of the men freely expressed their opinions,
and gave those of the shops in ithich they worked. A
member then proposed, and souther member seconded,
" That at 12 o clock on Saturday (this day) the men now
working in the shops of those entployem belonging to the
masters' association give notice that they will not reamers
work on Monday morning unless the notices for alteration
of the working hours are withdrawn in the meantime."
An amendment was moved, " That the working hours
offered by the employers be °melded." On Icing put to
the meeting but six hands were held up for the amend-
ment, and the resolution was then e.uvierl amid great
cheering. Another resolution was then carried UlDUll-
mously to the effect that if the limn are compelled to
strike on Monday morning, no shop shall r. mine work
until the whole of the employers in the association have
agreed to abide by the original agreement of G a.m. until
0.30 p.m. as the working hours. It was also resolved that
every man remaining at work for those employers con-
nected with the association shall contribute Ss. per week
out of every 20a. earned, to the support of those on strike,
the latter not voting on the question. The committee
having been instructed to early out the decisions of the
meeting, the proceeding. terminated.
COLLISION ore Du NOEN I:A.S.—Yesterday morn-
ing, at 4 o'clock, the Courier, of London, was run into off
Dungeness and stranded to the westward of the Point.
The Courier, 208 tons burden, was laden with palm oil
and nuts, and was on her voyage from the coast of Africa
to London. The captain and mate are missing, but the
crew, seven in number, were saved, and Me now at the
Dover Sailors' Home.