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London, England, 1859-12-24 00:00:00

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PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD•

warn you against over-hasty interferences, against
generalisations founded on insufficient induction—
against the excessive reaction in sentiment and
opinion, to which contrasts so startling, and moral
and social paradoxes so unexpected as those to which
I have been referring, are not unlikely to lead. It
may be well—it is well—that by the events that arc
passing around us we should be reminded of the
fact that there are springs of human action
which lie beyond the reach of mere ealcula-_
tions of utility and profit, and that we may
not expect to penetrate all the mysteries
of God's providence by the aid of a philosophy which
looks only to secondary causes, and takes no cogni-
sance of a First. (Cheers.) But we shall err, if, in
our impatience and precipitancy, we lose confidence
in the tee-c principles of social and economical
science, or blind ourselves to the manifest tendency
—a tendency constantly operating, though subject
to occasional checks and hindrances—the manifest
tendency of such discoveries as those fo which
Adam Smith, and Black, and Watt, contributed—
to promote happiness and goodwill among men.
(Cheers.) An eloquent writer has said that human
intelligence is always advancing, but advancing in
a spiral line ; and this observation, as it appears to
me, is still more emphatically true of social pro-
gress. Bear in mind that the power of discriminat-
ing between the accidental and the necessary, be-
tween the occasional and the constant, the 'tempo-
rary and the permanent, the exception and the
rule, is the quality which ought especially to dis-
tinguish the educated man. If you would be enti
tied to the reputation of honesty, it is not enough
that you should be able to show that you are not
consciously deceivers of your fellow-men. You
must also have it in your power to prove that you
have omitted no precaution which untiring vigi-
lance and constant exercise of self-control could

supply to prevent you from being self-deceived.
John Stuart Mill, in his last work, argues in favour
of entire freedom of thought and discussion, on the
ground that even if the opinion which is opposed
to the received opinion, and which, therefore, there
may be soma desire or disposition to suppress—
does not contain the whole truth, or ever a portion
of the truth, yet, nevertheless, its ventilation is ex-
pedient, as a means of preventing the truth to
which it is opposed from crystallising into a preju-
dice, or evaporating into an empty formula. Of
such paramount importance, then, in the judgment
cf this great thinker, is vigilance in the cause of
truth, that he seems to hold the somewhat para-
doxical opinion that the citadel of truth is never so
secure as when the enemy is actually at the gate.
It is recorded of Watt that in looking over the spe-
cifications of inventions for which patent rights
were obtained, but which .proved, nevertheless,
when brought to the test of practice and trial, to
be insufficient or worthless, he found many which
were but the embodiment of ideas that had
suggested themselves to his own mind, but which,
when he had subjected them to that process of ri-
gorous scrutiny and examination through which he
required the products of his brain to pass, he had
found to be insufficient, and consequently had re-
jected. It appears to me that this anecdote conveys
a truth we would do Well to lay. to heart. It illus-
trates in a striking manner the intimate connexion
subsisting between moral self-control and intellec-
tual superiority. If we would be true to ourselves
and to others, we must use the same severity which
Watt employed in testing the claims to acceptance
of our favourite speculations, not in physics only,
but in :ethics, politics, and social science, and all
other departments of human thought. (Applause.)
But to pass from these reflections, which are sug-
gested by a general consideration of the signs and
circumstances of the present time, permit me to ob-
serve that this time is also a time of special interest
to all of us who are connected with the Scottish
universities, because we are now about to apply,
and dtvelope in practice, those changes in their
constitution which recent legislation has introduced.
(Applause.) Perhaps I may be permitted to watch
the operation of those changes with even more than
ordinary solicitude, because at a very early period,
and before it became general, I was associated with
those who took a lead in the movement in favour of
university reform. (Cheers.) I joined in this move-
ment under the conviction that, in the working of
our university system, there were points—some of
importance, and some of detail—which cilled ur-
gently for amendment, and that the best interests
of all classes in our population required that tliele
amendments should be effected without delay-
-that, looking to the progress which education in
the highest departments was making in England
and elsewhere, our Scottish universities could not
remain stationary without forfeiting the honourable
position at one time assigned to them. But I felt
then—as indeed—if I may be permitted to refer
to a circumstance so trifling—l stated publicly in
this city at the time, that this work of amendment
was one which ought to be undertaken in a reve-
rential spirit ; that our universities had a dis-
tinctive character of their own, which it would he
worse than folly to sacrifice in the pursuit of an
ideal derived from other bodies. (Cheers.) After
some remarks on this point, and upon the import-
ance and necessity of diligent study, the noble earl
proceeded. It is impossible to address you from
this place—from this great centre of commercial
activity—without being reminded of the fact that
these ilritish isles aril the heart of an empire some
fifty times more extensive than themselves—(ap-
plause)—and without being tempted to ask—What
new lines of duty, what opportunities of usefulness,
what avenues of distinction are opened up to the
educated youth of this country by this vast exten-
sion of dominion ? (Applause.) To some of you—
to many of you, perhaps—this inquiry, on such an
occasion as the present, may seem to be irrelevant
• and superfluous. 'Your native land is the field upon
which, as you fondly anticipate, your energies will
be employed, and where. you will reap the fruit of,
your exertions. You look forward to laborious'
days, but to laborious days spent within the reach
of the influences of our refined and highly civilised
society, in the fellowship of those with whom you
arc even now, on friendly rivalry or heartiest sym-
pathy, associated in the acquisition of academical
distinction. It was so with myself at that period
of my life when I was engaged in the same plea-
surable and elevating pursuits in which you are
now occupied, and when I indulged the hope with
which many of your bosoms are now heaving. But
such expectations may be disappointed. It may be
the, lot of some 'of you to lead a pilgrim's life, a life
Ofexile in distant parts of the empire. More of you,
therefore, than you are now aware of may perhaps
be interested in the ,inquiry which I have now
made. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, in endea-
vouring to answer that question, not sufficiently
and fully, but to answer it as satisfactorily as I can
in the brief space' which is still at my disposal, I do
not intend to insist particularly upon the oppor-
tunities which are afforded to the class of persons to
which I am referring, by the liberal principles
which have been of late adopted in the distribution
of the patronage of the crown. (Applause.) Still
less, although I have been two years in China, and
ought to know something about it—(cheers)—still
less do I intend now to discuss the merits or defects
—the advantages or the disadvantages—of compe-
tition as a means of admission to the public service.
Whether or not the able men who are engaged in
perfecting and developing that system will succeed
devising a scheme of examination which shall
prove an adequate test of the relative fitness of can-
didates for situations and for a career that leads to
situations of responsibility and trust, and to posi-
tions where administrative capacity is the first and
most important requisite—whether they will suc-
ceed or not in that object experience alone will tell ;
but two things are, I think, alreadyeertain ; in the
first place, that the adoption of the system is in
itself a satisfactory proof of the disinterestedness
• and public spirit of the statesmen otfholitirit d day (tax;
plausc) ; and in the second place,
( to
mboakunedtehne
edutyeeessoafryouprrecvdisuicetititsnteti institutionsenable
etheyouth
of this country to obtain their full share in these
Advantages. (Applause.) Nor do I intend to make
more than a passing reference to such openings as
those which have been provided by the labours and
the zeal, and the indomitable patience and perseve-
rance, and Christian devotedness of our great hero
and apostle, Dr. Livingstone. (Applause.) The ap-
peal which he has made, and which is so modestly
and so touchingly conveyed in that passage from the
' preface to his narrative, where he says, "This book
\vitt speak less of what has been done than of what
remains to do, before. it can be said that the Gos-
pel has been preached to all nations"—Shat appeal
has already been nobly responded to by Oxford awl
Cambridge ; and I doubt not that among the youth
educated at our Scottish universities there will be
fouud to be many who are willing and desirous to
follow that example. (Applause.) What 1 wish
more particularly to impress upon you at the pre-
sent moment is the fact that, independently of op-
portunities which may seem to be to a certain ex-
' tent adventitious and exceptional, the vast depend-
encies of this empire in the course of their natural
growth and development affiard a constantly widen-
ing and expanding and increasing outlet, in which
the educated intelligence of this country may
find scope and ,room and verge for profitable
exercise. I venture to affirm, as the result of

NEWSPAPEIt
( 4,
w Wit'
* - -
own ol )servation and experrati: 'et
,•
proposition holds true both of those 40017-4,:.;',1
which are i n the exclusive occUpatisll-oToes
race, and alto of those other dependencigin Bch
a British a ainority farms a nucleus and centre
around whic.lL are grouped the masses of an indige-
nous and scm i-barbarous population. What do we
witness' in tht' former of these cases ? A material
progress, surp.7ssing all precedent and example,
the result of the application of the resources of a
vigorous nature, and the application of the power
which, mechanism and chemistry, and the know-
ledge derived from geology and natural history,
has yielded to modern science. As a consequence,
it may be both natural and praiseworthy to
mount with equal rapidity the steps of the ladder
of social progress and refinement, and to repro,-
duce with such fidelity as circumstances will pea--
mit, in regions but lately redeemed from the
wilderness, the institution of the colonists' early
home. In the conflicts- of wits and intelligences
to which such a combination necessarily gives
rise, Who can doubt the advantage which must
accrue to the competitor who enters the lists with
his understanding fortified, his judgment matured,
and his memory stored with the treasures sup-
plied by the education which you receive in this
place ? (Cheers.) But, gentlemen, you must
low me also to say that, in my opinion, oppor-
tunities of civilisation, hardly less attractive, in-
volving the obligations of duty perhaps even more
imperatively, are furnished by the relation in
which, I must renture to say, we arc providen-
tially placed to that class of dependencies which I
have named in the second of the two categories
I hare mentioned. When we reflect on the risk
which we run of misconceiving and misinterpre-
ting the acts and the motives of human beings,
wit whose language we are imperfectly ac-
quainted, whose habits of thought are altogether
strange to us, and the complications and difficul-
ties, and, I must add, sometimes the injustices to
which these misconceptions and misapprehen-
sions may give rise, we may well, I think, con-
template with anxiety and awe the responsibis
lity which the dominion over inferior races im-
poses ,on our country and on ourselves as indivi-
duals. No doubt, gentlemen, the best security
against error in the discharge of the duties inci-
dent to this relation is to be found in the sincere
acceptance of the belief that all branches of the hu-
man family are derived from the same parentage, and
alike interested in that Divine sacrifice which was
offered for the purpose of restoring the image,
everywhere, alas! so sadly defaced, in which man
was originally created. (Cheers.) That thiitbelief,
when sincerely entertained, is hardly compatible
with the systematic oppression and degradation of
any portion of our species by another, may be in-
ferred from the fact that the philosophy and na-
tural history which contradict it have been set up
to quiet uneasy consciences in the only country in-
habited by our race where slavery is permitted to
exist. (Cheers.) Bat although this be our best
security we need not therefore forget that secular
education in its highest development has likewise a
tendency. to liberalise the mind, to enlarge the
sympathies, and to chasten and purify the heart,
and that we ought to learn a lesson of humility
from the history which tells us of our own modest
beginnings, and of the lapse into barbarism of AR-
which had attained a height of civilisation
hardly inferior to that which we have reached,
from the study of the languages and metaphysics
which discovers to us the deep wells of thought
from whence are drawn many of those traditional
beliefs, dear to primitive nations, which the igno-
rant and superficial are wont to spurn as simply
puerile and frivolous, and from modern science
which reveals to us how slight and partial are the
inroads which our boldest and most successful ad-
vances have as yet enabled us to make into the
vast expanse of the unknown by which we are on
every side surrounded. Be assured that if it should
be the lot of any of you to pass a portion of your
lives either in official employment or in pursuits of
commeice, or in missionary labour in this distant
land, or among barbarous tribes that own the sway
of Britain, or are connected with us in international
obligations, you will never have cause to regret the
hours you have devoted to your studies in this place,
but, on the contrary, you will find that you will be
the better fitted for the discharge of the noble task
which Providence seems to have imposed upon us—
a tinik which will hasten the coining of the day
when the light of Christ ian civilisation shall over-
spread thecart 11, by exhibit ins in your persons, and
by the force of your example, the constancy of
Christian patience, and the comprehensiveness of
Christian charity.andthepurity of Christian morals.
(Applause.) Gentlemen, I have only 1g thank you
for the extreme—l cannot help mentioning it—the
extreme kindness with which you have listened to
me, remir.ding me of what was said to me a short
time ago by a French gentleman, who, upon at-
tending a debate: in theliouse of Commons, said he
had found out the secret of eloquence in this coon-
try, and that it consisted in the indomitable patience
of the auditory. (Loud cheers.) 'There is one an-
nouncement which you will allow me to make before
concluding—natnely, that it is my intention to fol-
low the-example of my distinguished predecessor,
and offer some prizes for the competition of the
students. (Applause.) As I have not had time to
consult my learned friends upon the subject you
must allow me to take some other opportunity and
other means of announcing what these prizes are.
(His lordship sat down amid loud and continued
1 cheering.)
After consultation with the principal and several
of the professors,
his LORDSIII r announced that a holiday would
be.eriiven to the students on a day to be afterwards
fixed, an announcement which was received with
the usual demonstrations; and, after the benedic-
tion had been pronounced, the assembly broke up.

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