Justice Gibbs

“ Gentlemen Graduates, not only the necessity of bearing in mind the charge given you on receiving your degrees,—namely, that you ever in your lives and conversation show yourselves worthy of the same—but that you bear in mind that when you can place after your names the letters of your degree your education is not finished—in truth, it has but just begun. ”

“ In the first place, such a view of the value of High Education is insulting to it—it would lower, nay, prostitute the highest instrument of civilisation. Learning, Science, Art, all or any, must be courted for their own sakes. But I may also add that if Government were willing to take a view which is too common, they could not possibly find employment for a tithe of the Graduates this University has passed. ”

“ Avoid, above all things, Advice to students. being satisfied with a smattering of many subjects—make up your mind to take up one profession or one branch of a profession and stick to it, and become thorough scholars in the subjects of your choice; and while striving for the mastery over a foreign language, without which success in your profession is impossible, do not forget that you have a vernacular of your own, through which you must mainly look at to spread abroad to others the benefits you have gained in your own course of education. ”

“ If Oxford and Cambridge, after the great advances they have made during the last half century, still find they must further increase their borders and reform their systems, to meet the requirements of the times, we must not think our infant University can remain as it is. So fully alive is the Syndicate to this fact, that it has appointed a Committee of its most experienced members to consider and report on these subjects, and I doubt not but the results of their deliberations will be highly beneficial, not only to the University, but to the cause of education generally in the Presidency. ”

“ But the increasing perception of the vast benefits which science can, if we give her room, offer to India, and the desirability of giving full and unfettered scope to those among our students who are attracted towards her by the bent of their own mind or the hope of doing service to their country, combine to form a loud call to the University to institute new and exclusive courses of study in science and to grant new scientific degrees. ”

“ Is it too much to expect that the friendly rivalry between the Arts and Sciences which is making itself heard within our walls may soon take the form of one or more scientific lectureships. The list of benefactions shows no increase. And we may perhaps admit that in the Bombay of our day the University can hardly look for such benefactions from private individuals as the four lacs to which we owe the adjoining magnificent building. ”

“ Has the University answered the great end for which it was founded, viz., "the encouragement of Her Majesty's subjects of all classes and denominations within this Presidency in the pursuit of a regular and liberal course of education"?—have those who have won its laurels proved themselves true children of their Alma Mater?—has the University established its reputation by providing men fit to be teachers of its students?—has it proved, as Sir Bartle Frere hoped it would prove, that Oriental intellect is not worn out ”

“ To follow such men without a feeling of diffidence at the thought that I should be judged by the high standard to which they had accustomed the public mind, would have argued presumption on my part; but I was encouraged to think that the principles they had laid down would prove a sure foundation on which to raise the superstructure, while a pretty long experience in the public service would, I ventured to hope, give me some special qualification for the duty. ”

“ Study you must if you wish to become men. Let me commend, to your careful perusal the speech of the new Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh, so full of sound advice to all students, and in which there is one caution which seems to me so peculiarly appropriate to the mass of the educated youth in this country, that I feel I cannot do better than conclude these observations with it. ”

“ I do not go so far as one of the greatest benefactors to educational establishments in this Presidency, who said to me some time ago:—"In this generation you are destroying the bodies to strengthen the minds; in the next generation both mind and body will fail if you press them so hard." ”

“ Speaking as a Member of Government, I may say we have, following indeed in the steps of our predecessors, opened more widely the gates of our service to Graduates, and we are willing to do even more ; but this is not so much to encourage our youth to seek High Education, as to enable Government to benefit by it in obtaining as public servants the men best fitted to fill these posts with loyalty, honesty, and ability.
And now, Gentlemen of the Senate, brother-Fellows of this University, the time has come for me to say farewell. We have worked together for many years ”

“ I have given the matter much thought, not only now but for some time past, and I have arrived at an opinion, which a comparison of the results of the examinations for the past ten years seems to confirm, that the increasing number of failures is in a great measure to be accounted for by the fact that Government make the Matriculation Examination a test for admission into the Government service. Hence numerous youths, on arriving at 16 years of age, who have no intention of entering on a Collegiate education, go up, many very imperfectly prepared, on the chance of passing ”

“ While the B.A. degree has been progressing in a satisfactory manner, the scientific degrees of L.M. & S., M.D., and L.C.E. have increased in a greater proportion. I think this is a fact on which the University may well congratulate itself, as it shows that a large number of the young men of the present generation are educating themselves for the purpose of gaining a professional livelihood. It further shows, from the results of the Matriculation, that the University has maintained that high standard for its entrance which has distinguished it from the beginning from its sister Universities. ”

“ I have been in the habit of noticing the candidates for the Matriculation Examination during the past few years, and I was much struck on the last occasion to see crowding out of the pandal in the Town Hall compound such numbers of thin, pallid and sickly-looking youths. I have also been told by some of the older class of educated natives that they can now easily tire out their sons and other young relations in ordinary walking exercise. ”

“ Let all take example from this distinguished man's career, not the Medical graduate only, but the lawyer and the civil engineer. Looking at the records of old, both writings and buildings, we may indeed say, "there were giants in those days". Let it be the pride and satisfaction of this University to find its graduates not, as was ably pointed out by one of the leading Anglo-Vernacular papers a few months ago, permitting their exclusively English education to lead them to deny the existence of science and art among their ancestors ”

“ These sciences deal with subjects of an interest inferior to none. Their value as educational instruments has always been recognised in this University. But there have been practical difficulties in the way of giving them that full recognition which we all admit to be desirable. That this University has never been indisposed to concede to science, in the restricted sense of that term, a place among the other instruments of education, is proved from the position the physicial and experimental sciences have all along held in its Matriculation Examination and its scheme for the M.A. Degree. ”

“ The Faculty of Arts has a different and more difficult task to discharge in laying down such course or courses of study as shall best conduce to the special end it has in view, that of securing by more direct means the general cultivation of the mind. In the main principle which guided the deliberations of this Committee,—that of the desirableness of permitting in the later stages of a student's career and after having taken guarantees for a certain basis of general culture—considerable latitude in the courses of study open to him—I cordially concurred. ”

“ The Senate, approving of the measures proposed by the Syndicate, have done away with special examinations for the various scholarships and prizes and have attached them to the general examination—a course which, without lowering the standard required for their acquisition, is from convenience and economy much to be desired; all graduates in law have also been now permitted to compete for honours, and thus a greater impetus has been given for the study of the higher branches of legal science. ”

“ A smattering of many subjects can only be useful when there is one great fixed object of life, round which such scintillations of knowledge may sparkle, and to which they may perhaps add lustre; but a mere smattering of many subjects without such support can only mislead and deceive the possessor, and render him weak if not despicable in the eyes of all true men. ”

“ Here Bombay shows as to numbers at a disadvantage, but it must be borne in mind that we have, from the first, fixed and demanded a higher standard for most of our degrees than have Calcutta or Madras—in fact, they have within the last few years been raising their standard and are still considering the subject, so that any comparison drawn from the proportion of graduates to under-graduates would only be liable to mislead. ”

“ My advice to you is, do not attempt too many things; settle on one definite object for your future study, and strive to perfect yourselves in it as far as possible. I fear, what I see, that the old saying," a little learning is a dangerous thing" is not sufficiently borne in mind. ”

“ As regards the other examinations, it is to be noted that 4 out of 5 of the M.A's were successful, but none acquired a First Class. In law, however, 50 per cent. passed, a percentage not previously attained for the degree of LL.B., although none attained to the First Class. It is still a doubtful question whether a large return of successful students is really a proof that the mass of the pupils are better prepared than in those years when only few pass, or whether they will do as much credit to the University as those who come out in smaller numbers from the final ordeal. ”

“ I mention these doubts as existing, and therefore as being worthy of a careful investigation by teachers, by graduates, and by students. At home most of our best men in all the professions, in Parliament and in the State, are drawn from our Universities; and while we have had our pedants, men from whose vast yet silent labours those training in the great schools at home have derived most important help, yet the leading men in England as a rule have been trained for their future distinguished careers by the Universities. ”

“ As I told the students at the Grant College a few days ago, they do not consider the important fact that their real education only then commences, that unless they are content simply to exist and do not desire to grow, they must ever continue 'apt to learn'! I am told that in some of the examinations in the higher grades the Examiners find men coming up time after time, and failing on each successive occasion more signally than before. Those who enter on the liberal professions and have to earn their bread by their skill, are obliged in some degree to keep pace with the times ”

“ There is no doubt that one of the greatest difficulties the student finds on joining the Colleges is to understand the lectures and the text- books. Whether the University should confine itself to the English test, leaving the other subjects to be dealt with by the Colleges, is a matter for consideration. ”

“ To three subjects we still attach an exceptional degree of importance, inasmuch as without a knowledge of English, one of the languages which we technically call classical, and Mathematics, it is impossible for any student to obtain the Degree of Bachelor of Arts. ”

“ You have always taken so lively an interest in all its operations, and are so thoroughly conversant with all their details that a review of them coming from you must be in all respects more interesting and instructive than any statement of the views of one who will soon cease to possess the means of affording useful support to an institution of which he trusts the importance and influence for good may steadily increase to the full satisfaction of those who, like yourself, are at all times ready to use their best efforts for its welfare. ”

“ I have been told that the native mind, particularly the Hindoo, is so peculiarly constituted that, once set in motion in any one direction, it will work on and on as in a groove and not feel the need of a change, and that in consequence, unless bodily exercise is actually made a part of the educational course,it will not be spontaneously engaged in. If this be true, and I am inclined to think it is, Importance of gymnastic exercise. it behoves those who direct the course of education to provide some sort of gymnastic exercises to be undertaken as part of the system. ”

“ The University now possesses and administers no less than 32 separate endowments, which is more than double the number that existed in 1870. Their aggregate value has risen from Rs. 1,15,000 to Rs. 2,47,000, and the annual income stands at Rs. 11,049 as against Rs. 5,110. It is at once highly creditable to the public spirit oi Bombay, and a good omen for the future, that the decade less prosperous, in a mercantile point of view, which began with 1870 has been as fruitful in these gifts of an enlightened zeal as the decade on which that year closed. ”