Alexander Grant

“ We may terrace and adorn the hill sides, we may trim the vine slopes and plant the olive and orange; but there is a power which, though unseen and often unobserved by us, is ever working with a silent energy of which we can have no conception to raise or depress whole nations. ”

“ But whatever we may attribute to individual agency or may hope for from individual exertion, there is ever present to our minds in this and in every other great work in this country a prevailing sense of an over-ruling power in comparison with whose agency the mightiest works of man are dwarfed to insignificance. ”

“ I have ever felt most strongly the importance of those truths which you have so well expressed in your address that any loss of dignity or independence in the University involves also a loss of the highest kind of efficiency. ”

“ It has been the object of this Government to draw to the Senate of this University all the independent thought and educated ability which is within our reach, and we firmly believe that no man worthy to be a Fellow of this University would consent to serve as a mere nominee of Government, bound in any way to prefer the behests of that Government to the dictates of his own conscience or independent convictions. It is a noteworthy circumstance that this University stands almost alone among the great institutions of this country, as managed by the unbought exertions of those who direct its action ”

“ Generous trust and forbearance on both sides are needed to insure life and growth in the joint work. You have alluded to the jealousy which centralizing and absolute Governments naturally feel as regards any independent institutions, the main object of which is the cultivation of free thought. I would say a very few words on the reasons why we believe that the Government of British India need entertain no such fear. ”

“ That that great power may bless and prosper the great work that you have in hand and make it fruitful in good results, of which we can have now no clear conception is my fervent hope, and in that hope I now bid you Sir, and this Convocation, farewell. ”

“ We have a strong conviction that here, as in every part of the world, men will serve their fellowmen truly and laboriously for honour, for love, and for conscience sake, and we thank you for teaching this among other truths that great service may be done the State though it be not paid for in money. Trust and forbearance. ”

“ However firmly England may resolve that no force shall wrest from her the Empire of India, the root of that resolve has always been a deep conviction that to surrender that Empire would be to betray a high trust. England desires to administer India as she would administer her own colonies with a single eye to the benefit of the dependency and with a strong assurance that whatever is truly good for the dependency must benefit the Empire at large. University "a most valuable auxiliary" to Government. ”

“ Few things will give me greater pleasure in other lands than to know that I have contributed to carry out any great work begun by one who was loved and lamented like Lord Elphinstone, a work which was foreseen and hoped for by his great namesake and predecessor, and for your purpose in connecting my name with theirs I heartily thank you. ”

“ I am convinced that what has thus been lost in rapidity of growth has been gained in soundness and permanence of result, and it is this rigour of selection which has justified the Government in recognizing the University Degrees as a mark of social rank and official qualification. Benefactors. It has every year been a pleasing duty of the University to acknowledge the munificence of its benefactors. The benefactors have been hitherto almost exclusively citizens of Bombay ”

“ From Sind and from Canara, from Kattyawar and Guzerat, and from the furthest parts of the Deccan, I have the concurrent evidence that, wherever progress, whether intellectual or material, is observable, there the natives who have received a good English education are among the most active in the good cause. And it is to be remarked that this is not observable of Government servants only. It is a healthy result of extended education that it has contributed to cause a diminution of that craving for Government employ which in former days was almost universal. ”

“ For, the mission of a University in a country like this, is nothing The mission of the University. else than to create an intellectual and vital soul among the people; and there can be no question whether this mission is likely best to be fulfilled by persons feeling themselves nominated merely to carry out the views of a Government, or by the free and enthusiastic action of men feeling responsible to themselves for the good or bad success of the University. ”

“ While leaving our Examination standards, as an academical matter, to be settled academically, your Excellency has never failed in your political capacity to give high recognition to the Recognition of University men. value of all the Degrees and honours conferred by the University. By bestowing many personal distinctions on our graduates, by opening to them generally appointments in the Revenue Service, and by assigning to them rank with the Sirdars of the Presidency, your Excellency's Government has held out the most efficacious encouragement to perseverance in academical studies. ”

“ On the contrary, you have again and again approved our course, and have seemed fully to share our belief, that our work if slowly advancing, has a solid foundation; and that it is of more importance to create a high standard of scholarship in this country, than to multiply, ever so much, the number of persons possessing nominal distinctions at the hands of a University. ”

“ No close observer can fail to have been struck by the increasing popularity of independent employment of every kind. But I do not find that this has been accompanied by any increase of what we in England would call Radicalism. The loyalty of the Native Press On the contrary, I find among the educated natives, who are independent of Government service, the strongest appreciation of the benefits of British rule. It is not among the best educated natives that we generally find the warm admirers of native misrule or those who sigh for the restoration of effete dynasties. ”

“ Individual rulers may be criticized severely, perhaps unjustly, but as regards the Government at large the prevailing tone of the native press is at least as respectful as in England, and its criticism is often expressed with remarkable ability. ”

“ While acknowledging the benefits of the lively interest which your Excellency, as our academical head, has thus shown in our welfare, we beg also to thank you for the equally valuable forbearance which, as head of the Political Government, you h.ave exhibited towards us.
A University like ours occupies necessarily a delicate position. The delicate position of the University. Its members are all appointed by the Government; it derives all its current resources from the Imperial Treasury; and its acts are all subject to veto from the local administration. ”

“ It is under jealous and centralizing administrations, Liberal sentiments of the Chancellor. that a University like ours tends to lose its liberty. But your Excellency's administration has ever been characterized by the most large and liberal sentiments. And these sentiments you have especially manifested towards us. You have increased our academical body by the admission to it of persons from almost all sections of the community. ”

“ You have accorded personal sympathy and public sanction to our acts. You have encouraged us to settle in our own assemblies all questions falling within our province.
For this faith and trust in us, we beg. Sir, especially to thank you. High standard of scholarship. ”

“ Knowing the interest you have felt in our welfare and success, we can well imagine the possibility of doubts arising in your Excellency's mind as to that policy of strict and severe examinations which we have always adhered to, and by which we have kept down the number of our Matriculations and Degrees to a small fraction of those exhibited by the sister Universities of Calcutta and Madras. ”

“ Philosophers tell us of the evidence which is afforded by the shores of. some of the fairest regions of the earth that some great subterranean force is already at work gradually upheaving or submerging the whole continent. ”