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

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and the public, who are not generally are& ,'
circumstances, are disposed to judge of the rifle Jey there- '''c''
'
exceptions, but the true view will only be obtained by`l s -
looking closely to the results as a whole.
"In arguing the eitiestion many might be disposed to
admit that if 75 or 80 per cent. of those who are released
on order of license do well for themselves there would be
no great cause for alarm. As far as present experience
goes there is reason to hope that a much more favourable
result will be realised, and I confess I shall be dime,.
pointed if i 'fie otherwise."
I see no reason to change the opinion expressed at
that time, and when it is considered that the ensued
average of re-committed prisoners to common gaols is
between 30 and 40 per cent,, and in some prisons in a
much higher ratio, I think it may be fairly stated that
the corrective discipline and industrial training of the
(
convict prisons has been attended with marked success.
It would be too much to expect of human nature or
of human institutions designed for effecting reformation
that any great proportion of the convicts are reformed
in the strict and religious acceptation of the term. It
will be enough that they be fairly judged by the stan-
dard applied to others.
ad I not already trespassed upon your space at far
greater length than I intended, I would have entered
into some explanations on the course of discipline to
which the convicts are subjected ; but I must refer any
who are interested in the subject to my printed reports,
in which every detail appears,
A consideration of the system or an inspection of the
prisons would, I think, lead any one to the conclusion
that years of patient, persevering industry, of regularity,
citanliness, and obedience, daily attendance at chapel,
and the zealous efforts of the governors, chaplains, and
ether officers of the different lie i,eins, coupled with just
and considerate treatment, cannot Jail to have some
good effect on the habits and feelings of the great body
of men who have been subjected to it.
I will add, in coecinsion, that the experience of all
who have the best opeortunities of judging will, I am
satisfied, coincide with the opinion of the Committee of
the House of Commons, 1850, ae expressed in one of
their resolutions :
, _

That the committee concurs with some of the most
experienced witnesses they have examined in the opit ion
that a great maji,rity of convicted prisoners are open to
the same good motives and good impulses which in-
fluence other human beings."

THE QUEEN'S UNIVEI?SITY , IRELAND.

-
A meeting of the above university, for the purpose of
conferring degrees and distributing honours, was 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 ceremonial, and the
appearance of his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant wax
the signal for warm applause. Accompanying his Ex-
cellency were the Right Hon. the Lord Chancellor, Vice-
Chancellor of the Uuiver,ity ; Mr. F. Howard, Private
Secretary ; and Lieutenant• Colonel Udney, 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 procession, wearing
heir academics, 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
called in the following order. They were introduced to
his Excellency and 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
s close,_

The Loan CHANCELLOR addressed the assembly as
follows: May it please your Excellency,—Having
reached the cicse 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
done 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-Chanceller and gentlemen, I
receive with pleasure and gratitude the compliment so
obligingly proposed by you and conferred up .n me by
you on behalf of the senate. I can assure every one of
the roost learned and distinguished assembly now con-
vened here that it has been no common satisfaction to
me—and must be to all, I should imagine—to see noble
and princely hail, like that ie which you are now assem-
bled, and which are ordinarily set apart, ler lighter pur-
poses, and for the mere festivities of state, made thus
ancillary to the highest ends of science, art, and litera-
ture. (Cheers.) Aft, r the similar functions which
have been discharged here in previous years, and espe-
dally after the very full and lucid expo. ition ehich on
this as well es on former occasions have been delivered
by the lean ed Vice-Chancellor of this University, I
should feel it worse them superfluous fir me to dwell
11"
lee one moment on the nature and of of the insti-
-1 ution with which we are now concerned, or on what
I may term the eta i,tics of learning and instruction
connected with it. I wish, indeed, that our meeting of
this afternoon c rubd have been graced by the presence of
my noble friend and colleague the Earl of Clarendon, the
Chancellor of the Univtrsity—(hear, and cheers) -- to
whose fostering and enlightened care it owes already so
much ; bat as we know the war is pressing upon his
atteirtion, we cannot wonder, however we may grieve at
his absence. Since the foundation of the University
under his auspices, its new-born uses have been succes-
sively encouraged by the courteous chivalry of the Earl
of Eglinton—(cbeers)—and the mild wisdom of my Lord
St. Germans—virtue Scipiadce et mitis sapientia lceli.
Besides these high names, there is one other which I
should not like to pass over in total silence on my ad-
dressing a meeting which has connection with the
Queen's College in Ireland. Those who know most of
the early history and bright struggles of this institu-
tion will know best how much they were indebted to
the exertions of our present minister at Athens, Mr.
Wyse. When I was last with him we explored together
the site of the ancient academy—that hill of Colonus of
which Sophocles sung, and that olive grove where Plato
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 not be long
delayed. lo 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
nay, 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 in the
1 accommodation of those kindred arts and sciences to 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
such 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
always accompanied civilisation, nurtured the intellect,
and embellished the tastes of mankind with those n o
branches of study which the discoveries of Toiruestry
re-
cent times and the development of human
and enterprise render of such daily practical
increased
adoption which, allow me to add, the prohahle i
Vice- adoption of the test of merit upon youremphasis will
Chan-
cellor has remarked with so inueriju-t
hear.) It has
make still more indispensable. (Hear,ndeavour Nr thin the
been, as he informed you,
my
e been open ta me
narrow limits which have
i as
yetall the appointments
to adhere to this principle in
connection with the Queen's
lenger that
that have been made in
Colleges in
Ireland. For the few moments
, let me turn to %%hat even those very
can be all'ed andeminent men who have recently formed
cen • pi elotle art.
.s,
will
Examiners . yet allow rue to consider
the /.1. ard of E
of the numerous rn.itory which I erliiress, as Veit por-
tion which aniceiltrates most sour interest and hope—l
mean the piingmen who ort this occasion have received
their degr their diplomas• and their distinctions of
ees,
honour. Will you, my Young friends, accept from me
my cordial congratulations on what you have achieved,
and
my earnest exhortetions to
ou to persevere in that
brilliant path which Yell have enytered upon. Believe me
that the condition of the world in which we live is be-
coming every day m ire and more such as to make the
possession of knowledge and the mastery of the mind
the condition of success and the avenue of greatness.
Believe me, also, that the exercise and proper direction
of the powers of the intellect, the taste, and the fancy
brings with them pleasure and resources intrinsic in
themselves, and wholly independent 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 trust every
one of you will be delighted to admit with me, cannot
be considered as the real business or aim of life ; and as
to success, although it has many lofty and ennobling
qualities when it is the reward of honest diligence, _ and
the test of fine powers conscientiously used—although o
h if
am this moment exhorting you in your future plans
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,dthose
who can
vicious habits. Under it may. be
rankedshow no claim to the love of their f ell ow.ena; or to
the favour of their God. Let yours be a more high
.
not who
and a more real ambition. .Itis s
~i you are, but
what you are, that really signifies. Situations you may
though they should be lofty and
fill in life, and even
as
(nein
splendid as our most s . g,
''' dreams could imagine,
sp
might leave you after all, in the end, mean, un-
yet they l
ved• (Ch
honoured, and un on _ d eere.) Those situations,
do what you may, dbdeserve as you may, are not
within your control , ut the characters you may make
yourselves, and humble
for dependence on the blessing
from above, those are at your command, and those can
never disappoint and never fail Every act
you. in
obedience to a virtuous self-denial—the active exercise of
1 Christian love—the life-long obedience to faith—these
are the things which will secure for you, not such tran-
sient distinctionS alone as we have this day accorded to
you, but_ the supreme blessing and immortal crown.
(Applivae.)
The numbly tin miartal.
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