The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-12 00:00:00

GLASGOW COLLEGE.

(From the Glasgow Free Press.)
The installation of Henry Cockburn, Esq., the Lord
Rector, took place yesterday, in the Common-hall of the
University, in presence of the Professors, Students, and a

great concourse of spectators.
The Solicitor-General, accompanied by the Principal
and Professors, the Lord Provost, Dean of Guild, Sheriff
Robinson, and a number of gentlemen, entered the Hall
at two o'clock, and was received with enthusiastic cheer-

ing. Atter prayer by the Reverend Principal 31‘Forlan,
and the usual oaths had been administered,

The LORD RECTOR rose and delivered a splendid speech,
of which the following is but a very imperfect outline :
Principal Macfarlan and Gentlemen—l return you my
sincerest thanks for the right which has this day been
conferred upon me, of addressing you from this place.
I owe it entirely to unmerited and unsolicited kindness,
and the honour conferred has certainly every thing to
recommend it. I have an old, perhaps a❑ illiberal pre-

possession in favour of the Scottish system of education,
both in our schools and colleges, and if my vanity had
ever permitted me to dream of such an honour as has
now been conferred on me, it would certainly have
chosen a Scottish College—and of all the Colleges, this
one—first, from the celebrity of its name in Europe, and
from the election being in the hands of a greater number
than in any University in this part of the kingdom
And when he mentioned the number of electors, he did
not refer to the arithmetical number only, but to that

system which had been adopted during the last twelve
years, and which bad given a conclusive answer to those
who doubted if such a privilege could be safely lodged in
the hands of those whom he addressed. He regretted that
the election had been preceded by a contest in which he
was opposed by two gentlemen, great in public estimation.
From the moment, however, that the election was con-

eluded, their opposition had ceased, and there had not been
one of his opponents but who received him as a friend, and
with the liberality of gentlemen—the result is, that the
memory of the contest is now gone, and we are here all
met in one connection. My first and last hope is, that all
of us, in our respective stations, will perform the various
duties we owe to this great national establishment—an
establishment which has every thing within it to induce us
to promote its interest—placed in a dignified situation, like
a beacon in the centre of a great sea, saving all those who
view it. Its celerity, instead of whispering repose, would
only inspire us with a most anxious desire to rival the in-
dividual exertions of other establishments. As we are
all knit in one great object—the greatest extension and
amount of mental attainments, he trusted every individual
would be impressed with the seriousness of the responsi-
bility of their respective situations. For us in authority
he hoped they would remember riot only to do their duty
as members of the Institution, but that every teacher
would be impelled, by increased cultivation, to keep his
own mind, if not in the van, at least a-breast in the pro-
gression of the knowledge of the age—teaching as well as
learning, accompanied by all those acts of personal kind.
ness and private affretion. He was aware of the saying,
that all patronage of the young was dangerous, and that
strong talent wrought its own way, in spite of all opposi-
tion. Unjust patronage certainly destroys itself, and in-
creases dependence, and although genuine talent might
work its way, there was a description of genius which,
though not strong, could easily be made so by care and
proper cultivation. There were talents too sensitive for
the rudeness of the worid—honest enquirers entering into
paths of difficulty, and imaginations darkened by clouds
of their own formation—imaginations in danger of be-
coming mentally morbid, though not irrecoverable. In
all these cases of malady of the mind, the presence of a
skilful monitor operated on them like the visit of a heal-
ing angel in a lazar-house. The teachers, he hoped, would
never despair of the youth under their charge, but would re-
member that their sole reputation lived only in the lives of
their illustrious pupils. After some other appropriate ob-
servatiuns in the same strain, the Learned Gentleman re-
marked that it would be all vain for the husbandman to sow
the seed it not thrown into congenial ground. Everything
depended on themselves. Although he might entertain them
with a more extended theme, he could not but take that op-
portunity of communing with them in their present situa-
tion. They had reached an age at which it may be said the fri-
volities of childhood are gone—its pleasures all vanished
never again to return, except as a subject of surprise to
their memory. On the other hand they had not yet
become entangled with the world, but were just within the
hum of the great city through which they had all to pass
either in profligacy or virtue, and in which all honour or
morality was to be gained or irrecoverably lost. By cus-
tom and the usage of European society, they were allowed
a little pause of preparation before entering—a pause which
was now rushing past—and in which every thing they
hoped for or depended on, rested entirely on the use which
they made of the present period. It required but few re-
mark.' in such a presence to inculcate, that their sinking or
saving depended entirely on the line of conduct which they
now intended to adopt. The question then was, what
shall we then do ? It would ill become him, he said, to
speak in detail on such a subject in such a presence ; but,
perhaps,
the
scene, they would
who d excuseid sot onetalk whowi had
th the passedauthority
through
horityota
teacher, but as a practical friend, to tell them in general,
that that vital question received its true answer from that
inward voice which is never listened to without leading
on the mind to the highest achievements. There is no
young man but who is at times struck with the contrast
between what he is and what he yet may het if his ion of