The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-03 00:00:00

GLASGOW UNIVERSITY.

INSTALLATION OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE
EARL OF EGLINTON.
GLASGOW, Nov. 30.
- •

This afternoon his Excellency the Earl of Eglinton,
who was recently elected Lord Rector of the University,
was duly installed into office in the Common-hall of the
college. The building was crowded in every part, the
galleries being appropriated to ladies, among whom was
the Countess of Eglinton, who was received with several
rounds of the heartiest applause. His Excellency was
accompanied to the Common-hall by the Principal and
the Professors of the University, and by Sir Archibald
Alison (the late Lord Rector), Sir Michael Shaw
Stewart, and other distinguished persona.
After the formal proceedings had been disposed of,
His Excellency the LORD RECTOR rose, and was re-
ceived with the most enthusiastic applause. He said—
Very Rev. Principal, Professors, Students, and Gentle-
men,—There are occasions when it is no easy matter
to express the feelings with which we are animated,
and the present is one of those when it is most
peculiarly difficult for me adequately to express my
sense of the kindness which you have shown me. (Loud
cheers.) It is, indeed, most gratifying to me, or to
any man, to be singled out by any large body of my
fellow-countrymen as an object of esteem and approba-
tion ; but there is something which comes more especially
home to the heart, and which warms the feelings—to be
singled out and welcomed by the youth of one's country
—to be singled out by those whose happy countenances
and joyous looks bring one back to years long gone by,
and which also point to future energy and usefulness.
(Continued cheers.) It is, indeed, most gratifying to me
to be singled out by the members of this University, by
the educated youth of the west of Scotland, and by those
learned and pious men who direct their studies, to fill
a chair hallowed by the recollections of antiquity and
by the memories of those great men who have occupied
it—that wonderful list of men who have occupied this
chair, from the bold and patriotic Andrew Melville, of
the th century, to your own Sheriff Alison, of the
19th. (Loud cheers.) The mighty orator who has en-
chained millions by the intense power of his eloquence,
the statesman who has swayed the destinies of empires,
the poet who has enthralled the passions, the philo-
sopher who has roamed into endless space or pointed
out the hidden treasures of the earth—the skilful
lawyer, the eminent divine, the truthful historian,
have all filled this chair ; and each, in his turn,
has addressed the students in words of power, and
in the fulness of his intellect. (Renewed cheer-
ing.) I cannot claim to myself the eloquence of
a Stanley or a Macaulay—(cheers)---the ripe states-
manship of a Peel or a Lansdowne, the varied genius
of Brougham, the brilliant acquirements of a Jeffrey or
a Cockburn, the learning of a Mure, or the pen of an
Alison ; but I will yield to none of my predecessors in
my appreciation of the kindness which has been shown
me in my earnest determination to uphold the sacred
cause of education, or in my desire to promote the in-
terests of those who have thus conferred on me the
greatest honour in their power to bestow. (Cheers.)
Believe me, that honour, though unsolicited, has been
earnestly desired, and I have long looked to it as a
worthy, but perhaps unattainable, object of my ambi-
tion. I trust I have no more vanity than. other men,
but if anything could at such a time be a_ d
the gratification which I feel,
my part, as well
it is that I should have
been opposed, however unwillingly
as on his, to a nobleman whom I esteem man-d
admire so
et
cheering)—one
much as the Duke of Argyll—.
who, though young in years,. is already rich in
ne who has elo-
quence, in learning, and in wisdom
al-
ready earned for himself a niche in the temple of fame,
and a high place in the estimation of his fellow-coun-
trymen—who who has never prostituted his great ta-
lentsitt to factious purposes or selfish ends—unblemished
character as he is unsullied in hereditary descent--a,
worthy representative of perhaps the greatest family
among the nobles of Scotland. He is worthy of the
encomium which Tbomson bestowed on his greatesi
ancestor—

" From thy rich tongue
Persuasion flows, and wins the high debate ;
While mixed in thee combine the charms of youth,
The force of manhood, and the depth of age !"
(Cheers.) I should have cheerfully submitted to defeat
in such a contest, and hailed him with pleasure as your
Lord Rector, in the well-known words of Cicero. I
trust I shall be pardoned for alluding to one circum-
stance connected with my election, which has, among
the rest, given me the most sincere pleasure. It is that
I have received the almost unanimous support of the
Irish students of this university. (Cheers.) May I not
claim it as a proof that I have not forfeited the good
opinion of those whose interests are for a time committed
, to my charge—that I have not sullied the dignity of the