The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-14 00:00:00

_cm SUl', LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 14, 1864,

The LORD RECTOR (Lord Rassell) spoke as fol-
lows :—Gentlemen, my first duty is one of gratitude
to you for the honour which you have done me in
electing me Rector. (Applause.) I feel indebted to
you for this honour on account of the fame and re-
putation of this University—(applause)—on account
of its ancient distinction—a distinction which has
been enhanced of late years by mathematical hon-
ours gained in an English University—(applause)
—causing the names of your sons to be recorded
in its honoured annals. Gentlemen, in addressing
you to-day, it has occurred to me, thinking of this
matter, that I should ill detain you by attempting
to enlarge upon the beauties of literature or acqui-
sitions of science, which are brought before you in
a way far more exact, far more ample, far more in-
telligently than I could do by such learned profes-
sors as those who are enaged in the teaching of
this University. But, gentlemen, it has seemed to
me that there are questions not so far out of the
usual scope of my labours, in which I am not so in-
competent to advise—(applause)—upon which, at all
events, I can examine with you—problems of the
utmost interest to the human race, and by examining
which we may attain, in future days, and for future
speculations, truths which are of the utmost value
to the welfare of the human race. (Applause.) Those
upon which I propose to speak to you are the two
questions—first, is there any law or general rule by
which the decline of States is governed ; and se-
condly, what is the general aspect of the world at
present, and doth it teach us to hope or despond ?
(Applause.) Now, gentlemen, I think it has too often
been assumed without much inquiry, that there was
a sort of destiny—a kind of fate which ruled the fall
of States—which caused some to rise and others to
fall, and without any valid reasons such as in the
moral as well as in the physical world usually des
termine events. But I think, howsoever little we
es amine, we shall find there are causes sufficient
—causes which are known to us and which operate
in our case, and which equally determine the final
condition and fall of States. I will not stop to cons
sider those questions which relate to nations so small
in size, so insignificant in arms that, although they
have by the exertion of great talent and virtue sud-
denly risen to great prosperity—and, indeed, may
have kept that prosperity for a long time—yet have
in the end been overpowered by States more consi-
derable, more potent in arms than themselves. This
is in some degree applicable to Holland, which was
a great and flourishing State, but could hardly
maintain against the force of the Republic of France
its former condition. Such was the case with the
State of Venice, which lasted for a number of cen-
turies, and was governed with great wisdom, but
was not able to contend when Austria and France
appeared determined to crush the republic. But I
am about to speak to you of,the great States of the
world, and first, of that great State of Rome which
rose by so much wisdom, by so much valour in arms,
by such exceeding sagacity in its choice of the means
of government, such power in carrjing its conquest
of other countries to the very height of power, which
you ail know and on which I need not dwell. How
came it, then, that that great power, so extensive
hitherto and eo wise, declined, and at length fell to
the ground ? I think you will find the defects re-
garding the state of government, defects regarding
the state of morals, defects relating partly to liters-
tur and arts, but, more than that, to the state of
religion, caused the fall of that great empire.
(Applause.) To speak in the first place of the Go-
vernment of Rome, there was a time, in the course
of the second Punic war, when it might have been
possible to have had a representative Government
for the whole of Italy, and that representative Go-
vernment might have been a Government capable
of conducting for centuries in Italy itself a free and
happy Government. But that was not the case.
That mode did not approve itself to the Romans. It
was not chosen, and the State of Rome became in
point of government the sink of the greatest vice
—of the most notorious corruption, with regard to
all its offices, which were openly sold to the highest
bidders—with regard to its judicial functions, and
with regard to every part of the State. There is a
story which I will not repeat to you literally or cor-
rectly, but, as it so happens, it has a pleasantry
equally good in English and in Latin, I may refer
to it. After Cicero had pleaded most eloquently in
behalf of n client, the opposite party, who had suc-
ceeded, told him the next day " Well, it appears
after all that the majority did not pay any attend
tion to your fine words, Cicero," and he said, "Yes,
not the majority, but the minority at all events paid
credit to my words, but the majority paid no credit
to you, for they made you pay ready money."
(Laughter and applause.) That which wes in fact,
on the part of Cicero, a source of ridicule, pervaded
Rome so generally, that it was impossible a Go-
vernment so corrupt should continue in a course of
success. With regard to morals they were almost
in a still worse condition... There was no rank of life
that was respected. The sons, when the days of the
proscriptions came, betrayed their fathers for the
sake of the plunder of their riches. In every rela.
tion of life there was the greatest perfidy, the most
shameless vices. Now, with regard to literature I
might be told, as it has been often said, that the
age of Augustus was the most flourishing age of
Roman literature, but, if you come to examine this
and some other instances, you will find it was the
previous struggle, it was the previous liberty which
for a time, in the midst of security, enabled those
great writers to flourish, who made Roman literati
ture famous through all time. (Applause.) It is
somewhat as if any one could suppose that the ripe
juice of the grape is entirely owing to the fall of
autumn, without recollecting that the spring and
summer have prepared these juices, have strength-
ened those fruits which we find so rich and strong
at the close of the summer. (Applause.) And that
autumn, during which those fruits are produced—
in which we find the grape so luxuriant and the
olive so abundant—leave
preceded the winter dur-
ing which all these fruits wither and disappear.
(Applause.) That I believe to have been the casein
Rome. That from the time that the Government
was destroyed sod despotism established, there was
a commencement of decline, and those great talents
which had astonished the world became fewer and
fewer, and in time ceased to appear. In commence-
ment of the annals of Tacitus there is an allusion to
the historians, most of them now lost, who were
known during the time of the Republic, and he
thus puts the phrase. In the sense, though not in
the same words, he says •.—" Many of us have re-
lated the events of 820 years, from the building of
the city of Rome and while the Roman Republic
endured. These events were related with equal
talent and freedom after the battle of Actium.
When it became necessary, for the sake of peace,
that power should be placed in one person these
great talents disappeared." Here, then, we have
two or three of the causes of the decline of Rome—
that the Government had become utterly corrupt,
that the morals were entirely v 1310118) that litera.
lure, which had fl)nrished for a time, could no
longer show the same vigour, or flourish with the
same power, when despotism had completely over.
whelmed it. (Applause.) But the Romans had,
according to Polybius, a great attachment to their
religion, and, considering that this was so far under
the power and superintendence of the gods, they
did not venture to break their faith, or to swerve
from the rule of right, while they had entire belief
in that religion. It was a part of that ignorance

which God winked at, and when there were certain
signs in the moral world, as well as certain pheno-
mena in the physical world, which clear y :howed
the being of a God. (Applause.) Indeed, Salhut,
a rhetorical historian certainly, but one who would
not depart far from what he believed to be the case,
represented that in the Senate of Rome, when it
came to be a question of the punishment of Cetiline,
Caesar and the greater part of the senators proposed
that he should be put to death, &iffiest describes
Caesar as talking very smoothly of the punishment
of death, and saying that, in feat, instead of giving
them a continuance of care, you give them repose
and rest, which is one of the greatest boons that
they can have. In answer to the opinion he repree
sents Cato as saying :
" Berle et composite Callas Caesar paulo ante in
hoc ordine de vit 5. et morte dissernit, credo false
existimans ea quse de inferis narrantur divers()
itinere males a bonis loca tetra, inculta, feeds, atque
formidolosahabere."—Salustii Catilina. That shows
that in that time, when the Government had
become corrupt, and when all bonds and ties of so-
ciety were beecming loosed, in that same time, the
fears that men had on account of their religious be•
lief, these fears were likewise vanishing, and disap-
pearing. (Applause.) In the same spirit we find
Virgil envying the cold impiety of Lucretius ;
"Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causes,
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari."
In the same spirit we find Lucan describes Cato as
speaking when he was brought to the Temple of
Jupiter, and advised to consult the oracle; he said
there is no need of a Deity speaking in the temple;
and he says you may come to others, but do not come
to me asking me to consult the oracle—
" Sortilegis egeant dubii semperque futuris
Casibus ancipites, me non oracula certum
Sed more certa facit, pavido fortique cadendum est
Hoc satis est disisse Jovem."—Luccos.
What, then, in that state of Rome, with everything
which could sway men and prevent them giving
entire reins to their passions, with every power
which could restrain their evil courses taken away
—what remained bat that a Dictator, by means of
arms, by means of the abilities with which he di-
rected those arms, should supplant the whole powers
of the Government, and erect that tyranny on the
basis of the free state of Rome—that state of Rome
which had flourished, and which had risen, which
had flourished, which had subsisted entirely on ac-
count of its freedom, and which, having lost that
freedom, though it might endure, as it did endure
for centuries in is decayed state, had no longer that
life or spirit which would lead it to fresh victories
and glory ? It was supposed by some men that the
whole evil of this state of things consisted in the
usurpation of Ceesar,whereasCce 3ar was but the arm,
the instrument to carry into effect the punishment—
punishment justly due to those who had forgotten
all their virtues, and sunk into the abyss. In this
state of the world Brutus and Cassius, with some
30 other persons, guided by Roman traditions,
thought to deliver the Republic, to vindicate liberty,
and to ease the world by the murder of Caesar.
They accomplished so much of their design as mice
ceesfully to kill Caesar ; but they neither served the
Republic nor liberty, nor the world. For the evil
was not in the person of Cwsar, but in the mastery
of a licentious soldiery and a corrupt people, so that
more cruelty, more ferocity, servitude more aban-
doned, and despotism more fixed, were the natural
and certain consequences of the murder of Cwsar—
a murder which was not less perfidious, nor less
bloody, than any other murder. I have said this
because the assassination of Cm 3ar was perpetrated
by the dagger of Brutus the patriot, and has been
approved by the pen of the poet; but it is not in
this way that freedom can be restored. When the
spirit of liberty has been overpowered by a lawless
soldiery, and sunk in the vices of a corrupt people,
it cannot be restored by the dagger. Octavius and
Antony, by their prescriptions, Effaced the clemency
of Cm:ar, but maintaiued the tyrannical power he
had usurped. What was required was not the death
of a man, but the regeneration of a people. This
Brutus and Cassius could not effect, but they gave
the authority with which the murderers of William
I the Silent and Henry IV. of France afterwards
took advantage. The authority, be it observed,
was assumed by Brutus, and who shall refuse it to
Revaillac ? By the sentence of an unknown and
secret tribunal, deciding without open trial, and
executing their sentence by treachery, fell Julius
Cewar ; by such a tribunal and by such an execu-
tion also fell William of Orange and Henry IV. of
France. (Applause.) So that nothing can be more
unsafe for mankind than to leave it to any fanatical
assassin to commit a murder upon him whom he
thinks a tyrant, because that tyrant may be as
William of Orange seeking to deliver a people
from the chains of tyranny, or like Henry IV. of
France opening the ways of peace and prosperity
to a great people. (Applause.) And now having
thus spoken to you—l hope not too much at
length—on the causes of the fall of Rome, I pro-
ceed at once to another and far distant period of
history. But before Ido this let me say that it has
been observed—and I am inclined to think observed
with truth—that the long decline, the painful decay
of the empire of Rome gave occasion, gave the op-
portunity for Christiaa converts to spread the
Christian religion (applause) ; to spread that religion
not only among the Roman subjcets, but among
the barbarians who were to succeed in overpowering
them, and thus laid the foundations at once of better
states of society, and of a pure instead of a corrupt
religion. (Great applause.) I will now, then, carte
at once to a far different time, to a time at the be-
ginning of the 16th century, when the Reformation
was about to break out, The Christian religion had
then been established in Rome ; but it had been
established in a corrupt shape, and those who were
the men of letters of Italy, who were the chief
ornaments of Italy, had studied more Platonic philo-
sophy than the Christian religion—a time of what
Machiavelli calls " a noble idleness," without regard
to any religion or any Government. It was at this
time that a German monk, really in earnest, sought
to find out what was really the meaning of the re-
ligion that had been delivered by God to mankind ;
and in so doing he rescued the nations of Europe
from the contaminating and low observances which,
under the name of the Christian religion, some had
indulged in. (Applause.) But, be it observed, I am
speaking now not of the Roman Catholic religion as
it was maintained; I am speaking of the state of
things in the dark ages, and I hold that the revival
of letters in the 16th century was a revival of letters
not only for Protestants but for Catholics. Men
then began to study the meaning of their religion,
and if they did not arrive at the same conclusions,
if they arrived indeed at very differeht conclusions,
they had at least in their hearts and minds a true
wish to follow the doctrines of Christ. (Applause.)
But the result of the revolution in religion was, es
you all know, not only great dissensions, but civil
wars of the utmost atrocity spreading through
Europe. It is not for us to say what are the
intentions of the Almighty Being in permitting
those civil wars to exist, bat this we know that
in His eyes a thousand years are but as a day,
and we may think that it was for the purpose of
purifying religion, that it was for the purpose of
the discussion—or the criticism—of the reading of
the Scriptures that these civil wars were permitted,
and that at length light was to come out of the
darkness of the time. (Applause.) I may now s:eak
to you of the Government of that time. And here
again you will sec that the Reformation of religion
was the source not only of right, but of vigour and
of a flourishing state of opinion in many countries
of Europe where there were some things done with
regard to government which had a tendency in the
opposite direction. Philip de Comines, a most ex-
cellent and valuable historian, tells us that Charles
VIII. of France loaded his soul very heavily, be-
cause he put an end to the Stares-General of France
and destroyed liberty in that country, The effects
were not immediate. France grew and flourished
to a great
amongheigh the
t o f
oh : cf E p
a u greatro e_h heightut a t
of power
length the time came that the destruction of liberty
which Charles VIII. had caused fell upon his suc-
cessors. A terrible vengeance
u
horrible scenes of the French eßnesvoeltti oann the
_d t h a t
great volcano which tore up and desolated the
ground of France, which caused so much blood-
shed, which caused so many wars, were in fact the effect of

those causes, that instead of continuing the ancient free go-
vernment of France, established a despotio government and
opinion and liberty of every kind rose against that despot
tism, and on its attempts to improve and reform the Go-
vernment of France such horrible crimes were committed.
(Cheers.) At the same time—not a very distant time from
Charles TIM of France—another Sovereign, Charles V.,
had likewise destroyed all the traces of free government
which he could find. In Italy he destroyed that wonderful
and admirable Republic of Florence, which had produced so
many men of genius, which had produced Dante and Pe-
trarch and Michael Angelo, men in science and art of the
greatest genius. (Cheers.) That republic, that species of free
government, was'destroyed ; and although they had, during
that time, to boast of the genius and discoveries of Galileo,
yet literature no longer flourished as it had, and that beau-
tiful and famous republic fell into a state of apathy and
disgrace. (Hear.) There was another country in which
Charles V. and his preceptors destroyed an ancient free
constitution, a constitution greatly resembling our own—l
mean the constitution of Spain. (Cheers.) You have all
heard of the fierce spirit that reigned in Arragon when the
representative of the Commons told the King, " We will
obey you if you observe the laws ; and, if not, not." (Re-
newed cheers.) You have all heard of the way in which the
towns of Castile received the orders of the King when they
considered them illegal, when they said that they should be
obeyed, but not fualed—when they said that when those
orders were illegal, although they would pay them respect
as the orders of the sovereign, but they never would put them
into effect—they would never fulfil those orders which were
against their rights and privileges. (Cheers.) This free
constitution Charles Y. destroyed, and never again did that
Assembly of the Cortes meet till near our own day, nor was
any voice of freedom heard among that people. (Cheers.)
And what was the consequence? The Spaniards had been
rising, rising rapidly, to a great height of fame ; the re-
nown of their arms in the Old World, even when they were
fighting in a bad cause, their courage and their discipline
were the most remarkable in Europe ; and you have all
heard of the conquests they have made in the New World ;
but from the time the Spanish people were given up to poli-
tical despotism and religious inquisition, from that time the
spirit of the people drooped—from that time Spain began to
decline ; and you have all heard Spain spoken of as being
at the beginning of this century a country that was is the
utmost state of fall and degradation. (Cheers.) Then,
with regard to the causes which influence the rise and fall
of nations, it is no matter of indifference that a people
should enjoy a free Constitution—that a people should have
free liberty of expression—what in our modern days is
called liberty of the press, but was then called liberty of
thought and of expression ; it is no matter of indifference
that a people should enjoy religious liberty and freedom to
search the truth, for it is by these things that a State be-
comes great and flourishing--it is by these things that it
can keep that greatness. (Cheers.) It is not to be doubted
that it may be proved, if you look through centuries, that a
Sovereign, by getting hold of the supreme power of the
State, by quenching all liberty, by forbidding all expression
of opinion, may for a time conduct a flourishing State ; but
we have seen the catastrophes which follow the assumption
of such power. We have seen the catastrophe of France in
her great and memorable and dreadful Revolution—we have
seen the catastrophe of Spain in that state of utter apathy,
that utter nullity into which she fell owing to the depriva-
tion of her liberty and of all freedom of thought and ex-
pression. (Cheers.) Now, having spoken of these histori-
cal examples, I will proceed to some more perilous ground,
because hitherto, at all events, we had the footsteps of
history be follow, and we knew of the events which had
befallen, although we might not interpret them aright.
But let us now consider what is the present state of
Europe and of the world—(cheers)—and regard those
great problems of Government, of the maintenance and fall
of States, of literature, and even of religion. I will keep you
but a short time on these matters, because, as I have said, it
is a perilous ground to walk upon, and there are ashes but a
short waybeneath the surface which I might find to be burn-
ing under my foot, (Laughter.) In the first place, however,
I think we may say pretty surely that that calamity which
overwhelmed the Roman Empire—an irruption of barbarous
races putting an end to the smooth, polished, and civilised
state of society, is not a catastrophe to be dreaded at the pre-
sent time. I think you will find if you look over the history
of the world for two or three centuries back, and especially
at the present timc,that barbarian races are constantly giving
way before the civilised races, or becoming portions of the
same people, though generally in an inferior capacity, as the
Indians of Mexico now are, or else what is frequent, and, at
the same time, is lamentable, these barbarian races sink and
disappear and perish altogether before the inroad of civilised
man. We may see something of events like these going on
in several places; one a colony of our own, others in parts
of foreign empires. But, at all events, you may see that
where there is a struggle between the civilised and the savage
man, the savage man always yields ; and therefore we may
expect, unless something totally unusual, something totally
out of the course of what we have seen happen before, tha
civilised man will bear the sway over the globe. (Applause,)
So far, at least, ee e may di pose of the question of another
irruption of barbarians. But there is another thing, I think
which all recent events for a century have shown—viz., that
civilised men of the European races—of the races of Europe
or of those who have been transferred to America—are
superior even to highly civilised men of the Asiatic race—
(applause)—l think we cannot doubt that, whether we
speak of India or of China, that superiority of the Euro-
pean race is uncontested and uncontestable. (Applause.)
Let us proceed to inquire whether, with regard to Europe,
any improvements have been made in the Government. I
need not speak of our own country, because our own
country has now for many years enjoyed in its perfection,
or nearly in its perfection, that which I believe to be the
best of the imperfect forms of Government which man can
attain to. (Cheers.) I do not believe it is possible for
men to invent a better form of Government than free re-
presentative Government. (Applause.) And I do not
believe any nation in the world has so perfected that form
of Government as we have ourselves. (Cheers.) But I
beg you to observe that in no very lung time a represen-
tative Government, more or less imperfect, has sprung
up in various parts of Europe. And when I say more or
less imperfect, I think we are apt to be too critical in our
observations on foreign countries; and although we have,
as I have just stated, arrived at a perfect form of this Go-
vernment, yet recollect that from the accession of James I.
to the accession of George I. there was a perpetual struggle
going on between the powers of the sovereign authority on
the one hand—l will not call it despotism, for that was not
the attempt—and popular privilege on the other. (Cheers.)
It was not till that century of struggle was over that we
could have said that we were safe in the harbour of con-
stitutional representative monarchy. (Applause.) While
making these observations therefore as to struggles that
may be still going on in foreign countries, as they formerly
went on in ours, I bsg you to °teem that in France, in
Austria, in Spain, in Portugal, and in some other countries
we have forms of representative monarchy. But what I
confess I rejoice in especially is that Italy, which was so
long dead, that Italy which for so many centuries lay in the
torpor to which she had been condemned by those arms of
Charles V. of which I have spoken—has roused herself,
and has risen again ; and as she flourished once as the re-
public of a single city, spreading its arts and arms every-
where—as she flourished again as a number of disunited
republics, each distinguished by its arts, by its vigour in
carrying on war and contest against the others—so I hope
now there may be a third shape of freedom and happiness
to Italy, and that as a constitutional monarchy she will
shine again among the powers and states of Europe. (Loud
cheers.) Nor can I without emotion contemplate the efforts
that are making by-the single state of Greece, when I see
that state struggling to get through its factions and its diffi-
culties of every kind, when I recollect that from that coun-
try appeared poets, historians, mathematicians, and philo-
sophers, men of every kind of genius, who, in a very short
period of the existence of the ancient states of Greece, and
within that small compass of land, produced more genius,
did more for the arts and civilisation of mankind, did more
for the example of letters, did more to teach you in this
University of Aberdeen the first beginnings and the know-
ledge of civilisation than the thousands of millions who in
China and in India, and in the vast regions of the East and
West, have followed their generations through the world.
(Applause.) There is a quarter of the world to but a small
part of which any light of civilisation has penetrated, and
which is still in a state not only of barbarism, but where
the most horrible atrocities are practised. lam now allud-
ing to the continent of Africa—l am alluding to the
state of a great portion of the globe, which, however, has
not been stagnant, because that portion of the globe has in
many of its coasts got rid of that detestable crime, the slave
trade, and where the knowle Ige of Christianity, the know-
ledge of cultivation, the knowledge of agriculture are be-
ginning to make some way. With regard to this continent
Dr Livingstone—(loud applause)—told an anecdote not long
ago, that when he was making his praiseworthy explora-
tions the art and policy of substituting cultivation and
Christianity for the evils of the slave trade were known by
the name of the Palmerston policy. (Applause.) But many
persons have said that the case his hopeless ; they have said
that the people of Africa are utterly barbarous, It is some-
thing that there are those who have another belief, and who
believe that the people may yet be civilised, that all our
pains will not be thrown away, that all those lives which we
have unfortunately lost in the task of civilising Africa will
not be a useless sacrifice, but that light is still to shine in
that quarter of the world. (Applause.) Of that faith was a
man who was never named in society but with honour—
Capt. Speke, the traveller of Africa. (Applause.) I asked
him if he thought Africa at some future time was to play a
great part among the civilised nations of the world, and ho
told me that he firmly believed that that would be the case.
No doubt it will appear desperate, but I remember hearing
that a person who always mingled something striking with
the lessons of his es isclom—l mean Sydney Smith—happened
to be inthe Political Economy Club when a gentleman, a dis-
tinguished men of science, member of that club, said in the
course of a speech that he believed the Africans would never
be capable of being civilised. " Well," Sydney Smith said
afterwards, " well, you made an excellent speech, but it was
just such a speech as a senator of Rome would have made
in the Senate of Rome to prove that it was quite hopeless to
civilise the Britons." (Loud applause.) Such, then, are
my views. Progress is very slow ; but on questions such as
I am treating to-day we must perpetually recollect that
which I have mentioned before, that in the eyes of the
Almighty a thousand years are but as one day, and if in

a thousand years a great change has been made on Africa,
no doubt the gain to the civilisation of the human race
must be great. (Applause.) There is another portion of the
globe where we still have to lament the scenes of bloodshed
which are to be witnessed—where we still have to lament
that the bloody arbitrament of war has not been brought to
a close ; and, if there is any bright spot in that dark scene,
it is for the African race. (Applause.) Bat I cannot but
believe that the civil war in America, whichever way it may
end, whether the States may again unite, or whether there
is to be a final separation—l cannot but believe that out of
these events the African race aro to receive their freedom.
I am sure I need not speak to you of abhorrence of slavery,
because we must all have that abhorrence as strong as we
have had, but there is one thing which makes it quite im-
possible that the master and the slave should over live in
harmony together. With regard to other kinds of property
—to which the slave masters assimilate them—with regard
to horses, dogs, and other animals, it is the interest of the
master to keep them well ted, happy, and contented. He is
quite sure that these animals have no plot and conspiracy
against:hina. But with regard to slaves—to the human being
—every slave master knows that the Almighty has planted
a spark of freedom in the breast of every man, and he always
suspects and always fears that the day may come when the
slaves may conspire together against his interest and against
his master. (Applause.) For this reason, then, among
many others, we may all wish, among future benefits that
are to be conferred upon mankind, that that kind of African
slavery at all events will reach its termination. But now
with regard to what I have said as to the progress of reli-
gion. I may cite to you the opinion of a man of great mo-
deration and of great learning—l mean Dr. Milman, Dean

of St Paul's. I have a long quotation, but as it enters upon
controversial matters I shall only give a few words :
" Christianity may yet have to exercise a far holier, even if
more silent and untraceable influence, through its primary,
all-penetrating, all-pervading influences on the civilization
of mankin'." That I believe to be true—that whatever we
may do as to government, as to manners, as to religion, it
will be accompanied and guided by a greater influence, by
a wider influence than has ever been known—that of Chris-
tianity on the civilization of the world. But we must be.
ware, lest in the discussions that are going on, although we
may rejoice in seeing the utmost earnestness, we must take
care that we do not part with any portion of our charter.
We have seen of late years men embrace the most different
forms of Christianity, but all with the greatest earnestness
and with the greatest sincerity. It seems to me that it
would be strange, indeed, that we should impute to such
mene—men who have laboured honestly and earnestly to
arrive at the truth—that we should impute to them as a
crime that they have erred. It is said that men have done
wrong, because they have wished to give any indulgence to
their passions, and because they have wished to indu'ge their
vanity in some new form. That may be the case, but we
should be very slow to indulge these suspicions ; we ought in
charity rather to suppose that men intent upon so great a
problem—iutent upon inquiries so interesting to their own
lives, and to their own happiness, will endeavour, at all
events, to be right. It seems to me there is some likeness
in the case to an event that might happen on your sea shore
on the signs of the beginning of a storm that may scatter
vessels far and wide, and when some vessels seek to get
into a narrow harbour where, in the port itself they would
not be safe, and where others might be carried far out to sea
and lost amid the sands and shoals of some far distant shore.
We might rejoice in our safety if we were not lost like these
men—but, at all events, although we might congratulate
ourselves on that safety, we should never hold language so
barbarous as to impute to any fault of theirs the efforts of
the men who have still sought safety, although they may
have taken an erroneous way of reaching it. (Applause.)
It appears to me, therefore, that as you in the world—as we
all in the world—shall have to encounter many opinions, as
there is likely to be even still more a struggle of various
opinions than there has been, that we should still be mind-
ful of the great precept of the apostle, "Faith, hope, and
charity; but the greatest of these is charity." (Applause.)
You wilt forgive me, I hope, for saying these words on be-
half of fallible men, to whom their brethren ought to show
every forbearance and kindness. I trust that the world
will make its progress in freedom, in fair discussion of
opinion, and in true religion, but I am sure that on all these
subjects we ought to forbear with one another, (Applause.)
I thank you for listening to these opinions, which have
not been all well matured, but, at all events, I have given
them to you such as they are, and I heartily thank you fur
your attention. (Applause.)
Mr HARPER, divinity student, then rose and read and
presented to Earl Russell the following address :
" TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL RUSSELL,
LORD RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.
"My Lord Rector—ln name of the students of Aberdeen
University we beg to express our grateful sense of privilege
which enables us to-day to welcome your lordship as the re-
presentative of eur rights and interests at this :ancient seat
of learning. So far as that office is an honour we have
offered it to your lordship in recognition of your lordship's
career of pre-eminent public usefulness, and in admiration
of the lofty- patriotism and disinterested zeal with which,
for upwards of half a century, you have faithfully and
honourably served your Sovereign and your country.
We have the honour, to be, &)."

The LORD RECTOR, in reply, said—Gentlemen, 1 will
only say that I am deeply grateful to you for this address.
I daresay I have made a great many errors and mistakes ;
but at all events you have the kindness to think that I have
intended to benefit my country, and I have done my best
for that obj ;et, (Applause.)
On the motion of Lx-Provost WEBSTER, three cheers were
then given fir the Lord Rector, and three cheers for Lady
Georgiana Russell, which terminated the proceedings.

THE -MURDEROUS ASSAULT AT CAMBERWELL,-
On the 10th ult. a paragraph appeared in this jour-
nal setting forth that a gentleman named Sheffell was
brutally assaulted and robbed in the vicinity of Camber-
well. The same day Inspector Dann informed the magi-
strate at Lambeth that the paragraph in question was false ;
but our reporter has since made strict inquiries from Mr
Sheffell (who has only just recovered from the attack),
and other persons, and he finds that his report was sub•
stantially correct, and that Mr Dann's statement was erro.
neous. The only inaccuracy was with respect to tho amount
of which Mx Sheffell was robbed. The sum was £2 Ils in-
stead of 10 as reported.

JOURNAL S.