The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-18 00:00:00

THE QUEEN'S U.NIVERSITY, IRELAND.

A meeting of the above university, for the purpose of
confer' lug degrees and distributing honours, wan held in
St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle. This noble apart-
ment was almost filled by the members of the elite who
assembled to witness the interesting ceienionial, and the
aplaYanorer of his Excellency theL7ft'd-Lieutenant was
the signal for warm applause- Accompanying his Ex-
ce:l-ncy were the Rightam. the Lord 011ancoil or, Vice.
Chancellor of the University ; Mr. F. Howard, Private
Secretary; and Lieutena,nt-Colonel Uduey, A.D.C. in
waiting.

The members of the senate and examiners, who were
attired in the state robes of their office, then took their
seats.

The students entered the hall in proccssinn,- wearing
ih it acadewics, and having occupied the places assigned
to them,

The LORD CHANCELLOR rose and addressed the assem-
bly at great length, and having resumed his seat amidst
general applause, the candidates for degrees were then
calied in the following order. They were introduced to
his Excellency ami Vice-Chancellor in succession by the
respective presidents of their colleges, when having
signed the roll and the secretary having certified for
them, his lordship conferred the degrees which had been
awarded by the senate.
The business of the meeting having been brought to
it close,
The LORD CHANCELLOR addressed the assembly as
follows: May it please your Excellency,—Having
reached the close of our university proceedings, there
remains to me the grateful office of returning to you
the thanks of the senate for the privilege you have been
graciously pleased to accord to them of holding their
public meeting in this hall, and for the honour you have
dons in gracing our assembly with your presence. The
College of Cork has been already visited by your Excel-
lency, and that of Belfast, I presume, will receive the
honour of your inspection on the occasion of your ap-
proaching visit to that great emporium of Irish manu-
facturing and commercial industry ; and, perhaps, a
future journey to the west may give to the College of
Galway the occasion of a similar honour. This personal
examination will speak infinitely better than I can for
the benefits such institutions are calculated to confer
upon our country, and, I trust, must favourably com-
mend them to your Excellency's judgment and care.
His EXCELLENCY, who on rising was warmly ap-
plauded, said—Mr. Vice-Chancellor and gentlemen, I
receive with pleasure and gratitude the compliment so
obligingly proposed by you and conferred upon me by
ycu on behalf of the senate. I can assure every one of
the most learned and distinguished assembly now con-
vened here that it has been no common satisfaction to
me—and must he to all, I should imagine—to see noble
and princely halls like that in which you are now assem-
bled, and which are ordinarily set apart for lighter pur-
poses, and for the mere festivities of state, made thus
ancillary to the highest ends of science, art, and litera-
ture. (Cheers.) After the similar functions which
have been discharged here in previous years, and eerie.
cially after the very full and lucid expo-ition which on
this as well as on former occasions have been delivered
by the leaned Vice-( hancelier of this University, I
should feel it worse than supeifluone for me to dwell
for one moment on the nature and object of the insti-
-1 etien with which we are now cosine, wed, or on what
I may term the eta i-tics of learning and instruction
c.,nnected wiih it. I wish, indeed, that our meeting of
this afterooon csuld have been graced by the presence of
my noble friend and colleaeue the Earl of Cal en,on, the
Chancelior of the Univereity—(hear, and cheers) - to
where festering and enliebtened care it owes already so
mu la ; but as we know the war is pressirg- upon his
,
attention, we cannot wonder, however we may grieve at
absence. Since the foundation of the University
nu ler his auspices, its new-born uses have been succes-
sively encouraged by the ceurteous chivalry of the Earl
of Ee-linten—(c)ese,)—and the mild n helm') of my Lord
St. Gernmos—v;rtus Scipiadm et mitis sapiciitia lreli.
Besides these high names, there is one other which I
should nut like to pass over in total silence on my ad-
dressing a mettieg which has connection with the
Queen's Cellege in Irelauii. Those who know most of
the early history and bright straggles of this institu-
tion will know best how much they were indebted to
the exertions of our present min ster at Athens, Mr.
Wyse. When I was last with him we explored together
the site of the ancient acaderay—that hill of Colonus of
which Sophocles sung, and that olive grove where P ato
reasoned. I wish that he could now be at my side, to
hail with joyous hope the future prowess and expanded
triumphs of his living countrymen. (Cheers.) As your
Vice-Chancellor has reminded you, the late period of my
arrival in Ireland has only as yet enabled me to visit one
of the Queen's Colleges—that in Cork—although I trust
that my acquaintance with the others will nor be long
delayed. In the college at Cork I was very glad to per-
ceive—although so cursory a visit as I was enabled to
pay hardly warrants me in speaking further of that degree
of progress and prosperity which it has, I am happy to
say, so undoubtedly attained—but I was glad, as far as
what the eye was concerned with, to see that most suitable
and comely architecture has been called in to assist iu the
accommodation of those kindred arts and sciencesto which
architecture lends so much, and from which it borrows
so much of mutual grace and support. Very pleasant,
too, it is to find in our honoured elder sister university
of this capital that this happy union is now receiving
snob splendid illustrations. (Hear, hear, and loud
cheers.) All that I have been enabled to gather of the
working of these associated sites of learning induces me
to believe that they have adopted the fortunate medium
of combining those branches of study which have hitherto
threcentlyhtt
to
oo formednsiconsider
always accompanied civilisation, nurtured the intellect,
and embellished the tastes of mankind with those Oe
branches of study which the discoveries of more*ndustry
re-
cent times and the development of
which, allow me to add, the probable and enterprise render of such daily prahuemtlicaanl luse, and
adoption of the test of merit upon
eingcrueeaesel
emphasisVice-C Vice-Chan-
cellor cellor has remarked with so much just
hear.) It has
make still more indispensable.
been, as he informed you,
Enssy yet been open to MO
endeavour(lie, within the
in all the appointment
tnoararodwherleimtiots
errt:
rmch hc:,:vwtleei
will
turn
et to eventt
Ireland. For the few moments longer that
allow
Colleges in
that have beennd mernaidle,enitn
e very
mnn connectionwn o
nav
conspicuous a
can be allowedthwmislein,
the Beard of Ex
I
of the numerous Auditory which
tion which cenceutrates most your interest and hope—l
men who ore this mean the young occasion have received
their degreee, their diploines, and their distinctions of
honour. Will you, my friends,Yueng
accept from me
my Cordial congratulations on what
and my earnest exhortations to you to persevere in that
brilliant path which you have entered upon. Believe me
that the condition of the world in which we live is be-
coming every day mole and more such as to make the
posseseioe of knowledge and the mastery of tae mind
the condition of success and the avenue of greatness.
Believe rue, also, that the exercise and proper direction
of the powers of the intellect, the to te, and the fancy
brings with them pleasure and resources intrinsic in
themselves, and wholly indepeedent of success and of
the worldly results. (Hear ) But when I talk to you
of pleasure, and also when I talk of success, I feel that
lam using too low a phrase. Pleasure, as I trust every
one of you will be delighted to admit with me, cannot
be considered as the real business or aim of life ; arid_ "
to success, although it has many lofty and ennobling
qualiV and
es when it is the reward of honest diligence, ,
altho
the test of fine powers conscientiously used—re
p,uge
_Ds
of
am this moment exhorting you in your future la
life to emulate that success, yet I would have you re.
member at the same time that success itself is compati-
ble with base principles, with vulgar feelings, and with
vicious habits. Under it may be ranked those who
f 11 can
show no claim to the love
f their
Let y ourse ow-man, or to
more high be a
the favour of their God. _
and a more real ambition. itt who you are, but
really signifies. Situations you may
what you are, that
though they should be -
fill in life, and even
soaring drea
as lofty and
splendid as your mos
afte ll • ms could imagine,
might leave you ra, in the end, mean, un-
yet they. „„,
honoured, and uniovea. tuheers.) Those situations,
and desery
do what you may, e as you may, are not
•
within your control , but the characters you may make
for yourselves, and humble dependence on the blessing
from above, those are at your command, and those can
never disappoint and never fail you. Every act in
obedience to a virtuous self-denial—the active exercise of
Christian love—the life-long obedience to faith—these
are the things which will secure for yon, not such tran-
sient distinctions alone as we have this day accorded to
you, but the supreme blessing and immortal crown-
(A.pplanse.)
The mesnably ties soparated.