Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 1/Mr. Justice Birdwood, C.S., M.A., LL.D. (Thirtieth Convocation)
THIRTIETH CONVOCATION.
{By The Hon. Mr. Justice Birdwood, C.S., M.A., LL.D.)
Gentlemen of the Senate,—We have now brought to a close the practical part of the business of the thirtieth Annual Convocation of this University by conferring 178 degrees on the candidates who have satisfied the examiners in the prescribed subjects of examination in the several Faculties. The Results. And it will perhaps help us to form as rough estimate of the way in which the business of this University has increased if we compare the results of this evening with those of some former Convocations. In the first Convocation, which was held in 1862, only 8 degrees were conferred. Eight years afterwards, that is to say at the Convocation of 1870, the number rose to 33. In 1880 it was 98; and in 1890, 182; so that in the current year, which shows a slight advance on the figures of 1890, we are conferring nearly twice as many degrees as we did eleven years ago. It is as well, I think, that we should take note of these figures before we pass on, in accordance with the practice on these occasions, to review our present position and to forecast the future so far as that may be possible. The past year has been eminently one of change. Changes in the staff of office-bearers. There have been notable changes in the staff of office-bearers and important changes also have been in process of development in connection with the courses of study for the degrees in Arts and Law. Some changes have been proposed also in the course of study for the degree of Bachelor of Science and grave defects have been brought to notice in regard to the Matriculation Examination, which must be cured if that examination is any longer to be conducted by the University. To some of these matters I will, with your permission, refer, and I will do so very briefly. Our Act of Incorporation shows very clearly the intention of the Government to identify itself very closely with our interests. The Indian Universities are not indeed departments of Government. The Act never intended that they should be so. In the discharge of their special functions under bye-laws sanctioned by the Government they are practically independent. They have, however, depended largely in the past on substantial aid from Government in the form of annual subsidies. Without such aid it would have been impossible for us to undertake the duties contemplated in the Act. And it was necessary also at the outset, that the members of the Senate should be nominees of the Government. The Vice-Chancellor is also appointed by the Government; but what is more, the highest office in the University, that of Chancellor, must by law be held by the head of the local Government. And so it is that whenever the Governor's tenure of office expires^ we have the misfortune also to lose our Chancellor at the same time. It was thus that during the past year Lord Reay ceased to be our Chancellor. In him we lost a Chancellor who had already, before he came to India, acquired a wide reputation as an educationist. You will all remember the eloquent tribute paid a year ago by our Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Mackichan, in this place, to his zealous efforts in the cause of education in this Presidency during his five years' tenure of office. Lord Reay has been succeeded by Lord Harris. And I know that you all share in my regret at His Excellency's absence from our midst this evening. With the recollection fresh in our minds of the appreciative and sympathetic address delivered by Lord Harris to the Senate a few weeks ago, it is impossible for us not to be sensible of our loss. But we may be sure of this, — that it is not from any lack of interest in the University or the important functions it discharges that Lord Harris is not present this evening. He values every opportunity which presents itself of meeting the Senate. His absence is due only, if I may be allowed to explain it, to a kind and generous desire that the privilege of presiding on this occasion should be enjoyed by the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor. Again, under the operation of the provision of law which makes the office of Vice-Chancellor a biennial one, we were deprived during the past year of the services of Dr. Mackichan, who brought to the discharge of his duties a thorough knowledge of the practical working of our educational system, great capacity for business and burning zeal for the honour of the University. It must be the earnest desire of us all that his retirement from office may be for a time only. He was succeeded by the eminent Principal of Elphinstone College, in whose honour we were so lately assembled within these walls to testify to our sense of his great merit, and to pay to him a parting tribute of respect. Of Dr. Wordsworth we may truly say that, though he was so many years in our midst, yet, at the last, he left before his time. We can never be unmindful of his influence and example. Other changes there have been, too,among the Deans of Faculties and members of the Syndicate ;but perhaps it is not necessary that I should refer to these in detail. We have lost, too, some members of our Senate who were not office-bearers; some have left India for their own native laud, among whom are Dr. Burgess, Mr. Scorgie, and Majop-General White; and some have been taken from us by the hand of death. Among these we have to mourn the loss of the late Sir Mungaldas Nathoobhoy, who was one of the oldest of our benefactors; of the late Presidency Magistrate,Mr. P. Ryan ; and of Mr. Makund Ramchandra, under whose superintendence so many of the public buildings in Bombay were erected, including, I believe, the University Hall and Library. We have lost also the late Mr. Mancherji Banaji, and within the last few days Mr. Steel, Principal of the Veterinary College and Hospital, whom we shall always remember as one possessing in a remarkable degree the gift of presenting in most attractive form the results of his researches in that branch of the science to which he had devoted his life. He prosecuted those researches laboriously and conscientiously, and his early death will be deplored by men of science and by all lovers of dumb animals in this Presidency. No less than fifteen vacancies have been caused in the Senate by casualties,—that is, by the retirement and death of members,—during the past year. The Government Gazette which has just been published, shows that the Senate has this year been strengthened by the appointment of twenty-one new Fellows. A Lady Member of the Senate. That Gazette is a remarkable one and must always be so regarded on account of the new departure which it inaugurates. For the first time in the history of this or any other University, so far as I am aware, a lady has been appointed to be a member of the Senate. We know that, for more than six centuries, ladies have held office, from time to time, as professors of law or medicine or philosophy or mathematics in the ancient University of Bologna, and when we have professors of our own, I trust we may be worthy to follow that example. But never, so far as I know, have ladies been admitted to share in the responsibility of the administration of a great University. The Senate will certainly recognize the appointment of Mrs. Pechey Phipson as in every way a right and proper one, and will, with all cordiality, hold out the right hand of fellowship to one who, in the days when a degree was denied her by her own University on the ground that she was a woman, bravely fought the woman's cause, which is the man's cause also, in the face of much opposition and obloquy. By her whole subsequent career she has vindicated the right of women to minister to women in sickness and proved that the possession and exercise of the gifts of healing are not the prerogative of one sex only.
I will now refer to the changes in progress in the courses of study pursued by our students in Arts and Law. Changes in the Curriculum. Both these courses have, as you are aware, been the subject of very anxious enquiry by Committees in their report a little more than two years ago, Their report was considered in t]|e Faculty of Arts and by the Syndicate, and, with certain modifications, was adopted by the Senate in April 1890. The principal feature of the scheme is the extension of the B.A. Course of study from three years to four years, the object being to afford opportunities for a somewhat wider culture than is enforced at present, which will give, in the words of the Committee, more time for digesting and assimilating the positive knowledge acquired at college, and keep our undergraduates twelve months longer under the influence of academical associations and surroundings. Though the University does not itself enter upon the practical work of education—though it has no professors or teachers, yet, by prescribing the subjects for examination for degrees, it necessarily controls all liberal education in the Presidency. By thoroughly recasting the scheme for the B.A. Examination, it has instituted a radical change in the course of studies pursued in the Arts Colleges by candidates for that degree. Hereafter, the B.A. degree will be one certifying to its possessor's general culture and not his special progress in special subjects. It will be strictly an intermediate degree. It will be the common basis for the special development of culture which are tested by the M.A. Examination. I will not enter into the details of the new scheme; but only remind you that one of its principal features is the removal of History and Political Economy from the list of optional to that of compulsory subjects, and a slight reduction in the amount of compulsory mathematics, and that the Committee which proposed these changes saw ground to hope that the adoption of the new scheme would have the result of teaching our students to think with clearness and accuracy, to appreciate evidence, to apply general principles to practical affairs; a hope of which we must all cordially desire the realization. Well, though, the general scheme was adopted so long ago as in April 1890, still some details had to be worked out before it could be brought into operation. These were referred again to a Committee, which has during the past year settled the details so far as the Previous Examination is concerned. The detailed scheme for the Previous Examination has been approved by the Government and is now in force; so that the first Previous Examination according to the new scheme will be held in the current year, and the students preparing for it will have the full advantage of the new four years' course of study—a result on which the University and the affiliated colleges and all interested in the progress of the country may rightly be congratulated.
The new scheme for the Law Course was also devised in 1888 by a most competent Committee appointed by the Faculty of Law, The Law Course. and was finally adopted by the Senate in 1889. It came into practical operation from November last. Its main feature is that it insists on a properly graduated course of study extending over three years, two of which are to be undergone after the law student has taken the intermediate degree or B.A. or B.Sc. His progress is to be tested by two examinations, and provision is also made for an examination in Honours. Closely connected with the reform of the Law Course is the reform of the Law School. Indeed, the Committee which proposed the new scheme for the Law Course made proposals also for putting the Government Law School on a proper footing. Effect has not yet been given to these proposals, and we are not informed as to the cause of the delay. As the Government receives fees from the scholars who attend the lectures of the law professors, and as the maintenance of the professorships cannot, therefore, impose any serious burden on the taxpayer, a circumstance which was made very clear in the Committee's report, it is greatly to be desired that this question may be dealt with soon by the Government. A satisfactory solution of the question might perhaps be arrived at by the transfer of the management of the school to the University. The matter is one which affects not merely the education of our law students, but the interest of the people of the whole Presidency. It is from the ranks of our successful law students that the ranks of our Judicial Service are largely recruited. I had occasion lately, in this place, when speaking of the influence exercised by Dr.Wordsworth on pupils who afterwards rose to positions of trust and influence in remote towns and districts, to bear testimony to the wonderful improvement which was noticeable in the whole tone of the Judicial administration during the past twenty years. We are still, however, far from perfection; and we must now rely to a great extent on the improved legal training of candidates for the Judicial service for a part of the improvement which is desired.
Besides the changes in progress in connection with the administration of this University, Matriculation, a gigantic failure. there are other changes also in prospect which concern us deeply.We are all deeply interested in the Matriculation Examination, which looms so largely in the view of every schoolboy, whether he intends to enter a college and to read for a degree, or whether he wishes only to qualify for employment in the Government service. Well there can be no question that this examination which every year assumes larger proportions, and every year presents increasing difficulties for those of us who have to carry it out is, in the judgment of many who are well able to form a sound opinion on the point, a gigantic failure. Schoolboys who have passed the Matriculation in order to enter a college not infrequently find themselves unable to understand the lectures which they attend. The Matriculation Examination, in short, furnishes a very insufficient test of a knowledge of English, and again the examination hall is crowded with many candidates who come up for examination long before they are properly prepared, and who thus add to the perplexities of examiners. These results are, of course, most unsatisfactory. The examination, as at present conducted, fulfils most imperfectly the one function for which it exists. I am not expressing my own opinion merely, but that of experienced professors and principals of colleges, who are much better able to advise the Senate in such a matter than I can ever hope to do. And it has been seriously proposed by men of the highest authority that we should abolish the Matriculation Examination as an institution of this University, and leave it to the Colleges themselves, as is done in Oxford and Cambridge, to hold their own Matriculations. I will not now attempt to enter upon a discussion of the merits of the controversy which has thus been raised. I refer to the question only as one which concerns us all, and I ought to inform you that, as weighty representations have been addressed to the Syndicate on the subject, the whole question was referred only last week to a Committee.
I should now like to refer to a matter of still greater importance, The reconstitution of the University. if possible, and that is the Bill for the reconstitution of the University, which occupied so much of our attention in the reigns of 1888. That Bill, as we all know, was the outcome of discussions suggested by a former Vice-Chancellor, who, since the day when he first became associated with us, has never ceased to take the keenest interest in the growth and expansion of this University. The University can never forget what it owes to Sir Raymond West; but it will, I think, always reckon among his chief gifts the measure of self-government which it is the object of the Bill to secure. The Bill, as it was finally agreed to by the Senate and sent to the Government, was not such a Bill as to command his entire assent. But such as it was, it has come back to us with the candid criticisms of the Bombay Government and the Government of India, and we are now asked by the Government of India to reconsider its terms in consultation with the Bombay Government. The Committee appointed by the Senate is prepared to suggest a few modifications, which, it is hoped, will be assented to by both the Government and the Senate. If that desirable end is attained, we may hope that the Bill will become law before the end of the year.
In conclusion, gentlemen, I would wish to say a very few words about our benefactions. Benefactions. Those which have been accepted during the past year amount to Rs. 26,895 those which have been offered for our acceptance and are still under consideration amount to Rs. 23,500; and I have this day had the pleasure to receive a letter from Mr.M. M. Bhownuggree in which he communicates the offer by Mr. Lallubhai Samaldas of Rs. 5,000 for the benefit of female medical students. Our benefactions mostly take the form of scholarships endowed in the names of individuals. I would, however, myself wish to see the stream of benevolence diverted into fresh channels. The wants of the University. There are objects besides the provision of scholarships for deserving students which are worthy the attention of philanthropists. We want, for instance, fellowships on the English principle, like the Manguldas Nathoobhoy Fellowship, to enable students to prosecute their studies after they have taken their degrees. Again we want money to make our library a good working library, where every member of the University may find the book he seeks, and receive that aid from books which the present library does not afford. Again, we want professorships; but, most of all, we want a University chest for the general purposes of the University, we want to be lifted out of a position of financial dependence and to become a self-supporting institution. At this very moment we have no funds of our own to pay for the lighting of the clock in our beautiful Rajaba Tower, we have no proper railings to protect our garden, and we depend on the Government entirely for the maintenance of the garden. The end in view can be attained partly by fresh benefactions devoted to such special purposes, and partly perhaps by a revision of fees for examinations. However unpopular any project for raising fees may be, it must be faced, if we are to compete with the Universities of Calcutta and Madras, which are both self-supporting institutions. In this western capital we cannot afford to lag behind in such a race.
THIRTY-FIRST CONVOCATION.
(By The Hon. Mr. Justice Birdwood, M.A., LL.D., C.S.)
Gentlemen of the Senate,—You will all share in my regret that it has not been possible for His Excellency the Governor to preside, in his capacity as Chancellor of the University, at this Convocation for conferring degrees. We all know that it would have given Lord Harris sincere satisfaction to perform the duty.At the same time we can readily understand that there have been difficulties in the way, at a period of grave public anxiety, when it has been necessary, as it has been within the last few weeks, for Lord Harris to visit in person the districts in the southern part of this Presidency which are threatened with famine and when, since his return to the Presidency town, the demands on his time, in connection with the varied duties of his high office, have been urgent and perpetual—so as to leave him no opportunity for such leisurely consideration of the affairs of the University as he would desire before meeting the Senate on such an occasion. Gentlemen, when I had the honour of addressing you, in Convocation, a year ago, I drew your attention to certain figures which enabled us to form a rough estimate of the way ,in which the business of the University had increased since the year 1862, when the first Convocation for conferring degrees was held. Results of examinations. With your permission, I will revert to the subject again this evening, as it is one that we shall do well to bear in mind: for there can be no question that, if our annual reports show a steady increase from year to year in the number of candidates who present themselves at the several examinations, and an increase also in the number who pass those examinations, then such a fact is not only satisfactory evidence of the growing usefulness of the University, but a good indication also of the spread of the higher education in the Presidency. The figures that I will now lay before you are those showing the number of candidates for Matriculation and the number of successful candidates, and also the number of degrees conferred at the commencement of each of the three decades which we have passed through since 1862, and also the corresponding figures for the current year 1891-92, which is the first year of a new decade. Now in 1862, there were 86 candidates for Matriculation, of whom 39, or 45 per cent, of the total number of candidates, passed the examination. In 1872, the corresponding figures were 840 and 227, the percentage of passed candidates thus being 27. Ten years later the figures rose to 1,374 and 388, the percentage of passed candidates being 28; and in the current year there have been 3,030 candidates, of whom 916, or 30 per cent.,have satisfied the examiners. We see then that the number of students who have annually qualified themselves for admission to colleges affiliated to the University has risen from 39 in 1862 to 916 in 1891-92. That is to say, in 31 years, the number has increased more than 23 times; while in the current year, for every candidate for Matriculation who has satisfied the examiners, there are at least two others who have prepared themselves for the examination and have therefore received such advantage as is implied by such preparation in the upper forms of a high school. It is more important, however, to consider how far the students of our affiliated colleges have been able to satisfy the several tests prescribed by the University for degrees. We find then that, whereas, in 1862, t the University conferred only 8 degrees, the number has trebled in 10 years; for in 1872, it rose to 24. In the next 10 years it has more than trebled, for, in 1882, it rose to 76. In the past ten years, the rate of increase has not been so high, but the actual advance is very great, for the number of candidates who have actually qualified themselves for admission to degrees to-day, the greater part of whom have probably just presented themselves for admission, is 208. This number includes one candidate who qualified for the B.A. degree some years ago and wishes to be admitted to it to-day in absentia. It shows an advance of 132 on the corresponding number for 1882 and an advance of 19 on the results of 1891, when 184 candidates qualified themselves for degrees, of whom 178 were admitted. Of the candidates who have qualified themselves for admission to degrees to-day, 130 are Bachelors of Arts, 6 are Masters of Arts, and one is a Bachelor of Science, 34 are Bachelors of Laws, 22 are Licentiates of Medicine and Surgery, one is a Doctor of Medicine, and 2 are Licentiates of Engineering. To sum up, 137 candidates have qualified themselves for degrees in Arts, 34 in Law, 23 in Medicine, and one in Engineering. These figures show that the affiliated colleges and institutions are annually sending out into the world, in increasing numbers, a body of men who have been making full use of the opportunities they have had for preparing themselves for the public service and the liberal professions. Such a process cannot be without its effect on the community at large. It means, or it ought to mean, a steady and progressive improvement in the conduct of all kinds of public and private business for which educated men are wanted. I say it ought to mean this, because this University has never been content that its degrees should imply only that the holders of them have reached a certain standard of intellectual fitness and nothing more. It is not in the power of this or any other University to guarantee that its graduates, on whatever careers they may enter, shall be good citizens from whom steady and faithful work may be expected. But as far as it lies in us, we have always endeavoured, while discharging the duties imposed on us as a Board of Examiners, to perform also some of the higher functions of a University by refusing our degrees to any candidates, however intellectually qualified they may be, who have not been subject, for regulated periods, to the wholesome influences of college life. We have hoped that, in this way, by coming into intimate association, in their daily walk, with men of learning and of character, they would grow in knowledge and in wisdom also. Considerations of this kind certainly had weight with us when we lately extended the course of study for the B.A. Degree from 3 years to 4 years. It was thought to be a distinct advantage, to be set against any additional expense that might fall on undergraduates or any other possible inconvenience, that they should remain for the lengthened period of 4 years under the influence of academical associations and surroundings. So far as in us lies, therefore, we endeavour to minimize any possible defects of our system, and to fit our graduates as efficiently as may be for the work that may be before them. The parting word of the University. Such being our resolute endeavour, the "charge" which is addressed from this chair to every graduate on whom a degree is conferred, that he should in his life and conversation show himself worthy of the same, is no idle, meaningless formula. It is an earnest, anxious exhortation, delivered under a sense of the solemnity of the occasion. It is the parting word of the University to the youth who has equipped himself for the battle of life under her guidance. It tells him to be a "hero in the strife," and never, by idle word or corrupt conduct, to bring dishonour on himself and his country. If we wish to set forth the teaching of this charge more fully, we might well borrow the language, used 1800 years ago by one of the greatest teachers of mankind,and say to our graduates:—"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue or any praise think of those things." The graduate who bravely and in all humility responds to such an exhortation is not likely in his life and conversation to show himself unworthy of his degree. Changes in the Curriculum. Taking this view then of the importance of our degrees, we may congratulate ourselves that in the past year we were able to give final effect to our deliberations regarding the course of study for the B.A. Degree by adopting formal regulations for the intermediate Examination and the Final Examination for that degree. These regulations have now received the sanction of Government; and it remains for us now to watch and supervise the working of them. I, for my part, have no doubt that our action in this matter will be shown by the results to have been wise. We may hope for a similar justification also of our new scheme for the Law Course, which is now in full operation. As soon as we became conscious of the defects in the system which has been superseded, we took measures for correcting them. We determined to give the LL.B. Degree, which is a qualification for admission to the Judicial service, only to students who had undergone a properly graduated course of study, extending over 3 years, two of which are to be undergone after they have taken the Degree of B.A. or B.Sc. By such improved legal training, carried out under the supervision of capable teachers, we may reasonably hope that our graduates in Law will be, not good lawyers only, but educated gentlemen as well. During the past year, we have altered the Regulations for the diploma in Agriculture so far as they relate to the examination in Veterinary Science. Perhaps it is sufficient to remark with reference to this alteration, which has not yet been sanctioned by the Government, that it was considered necessary by a Committee of experts, and was recommended by so high an authority as the late Mr, Steel, Principal of the Veterinary College and Hospital. Revised scheme for the Matriculation. Though we may find solid ground of satisfaction in respect of such measures as I have now adverted to, we must not in our retrospect overlook such events as have brought us disappointment in the past year. There are at least two such events. Perhaps the failure of the Syndicate to induce the Senate to adopt a revised scheme for the Matriculation Examination may have caused little distress to the Senate; but it was certainly a disappointment to the Syndicate, for the scheme was the result of the deliberations of a very strong Committee of Educationists whose proposals it was impossible for the Syndicate to disregard. The Committee contained 4 representatives of the Syndicate:—Mr.Justice Telang, the Rev. F. Drecknian, Brigade-Surgeon Wellington Gray, and Mr.Starling. Two of these gentlemen represented also the colleges, which were further represented by the Rev. Dr. Mackichan and Mr. Oxenham. The High Schools were represented by Mr.Modak and Mr. D. N. Wadia. Now I am not going to refer at all to the merits of the scheme proposed by the Committee. This is not the right time for me to do so. The whole question excited unusual interest and was very vigorously discussed both in the Senate and in the public journals. The final discussion took place at the meeting of the Senate, held in December last. That meeting was, by a vote of the Senate, dissolved and the subject, therefore, in the language of our Bye-laws, was "dropped"; and we are still watching over its prostrate form, in the full consciousness that the existing scheme of the Matriculation Examination is considered to be defective, not only by the Educationists whom I have just named, but was pronounced by our late Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Wordsworth, to be an examination which "fulfils, by general consent, most imperfectly the one function for which it exists." I can only myself express the fervent hope that the question of remodelling it will again be brought before the University by the heads of colleges, to whom it must be a matter of vital importance that their undergraduates should come to them with such training as fits them to understand and to derive benefit from college lectures. The University Bill. There can be no question that the decision of the Government of India, with reference to the University Bill, has caused very general and profound disappointment to the members of the Senate, A year ago, we were very hopeful as to the effect of a unanimous representation of our views in regard to the Bill; and we have, at all events, been so far fortunate that we have now secured the substantial adherence of the Bombay Government to our views. But the Government of India has unmistakeably told us that it is not yet prepared to legislate in the sense desired by us. It does not appear that any further representation we could make would be of any avail, for all the reasons why we desire the Bill are already before the Government of India. As those reasons are strong and weighty, we must hope that in time they will prevail; perhaps also, after a time, we may ourselves see our way to moving again in this matter. But till then we can at least take advantage of the offer of the Government to give the privilege of electing two Fellows annually to a constituency composed of Masters of Arts and the holders of equivalent degrees. Such a privilege is enjoyed by the Calcutta University, and though it falls grievously short of our wishes and hopes, it is not quite without value. List of Fellows. In the current year, it will enable the new constituency which the Government will constitute to supplement the recently Gazetted list of Fellows, which is a shorter list than was Gazetted either in 1889 or 1890, and a much shorter list, unhappily, than that of casualties by death and retirement which we have had to deplore during the past year. About 11 or 12 of our European Fellows have left India, the greater part of them probably with no intention of returning. Among these we find the names of Brigade-Surgeon Lyon, Mr.Justice Scott, and the Rev.R.A.Squires. The list of casualties by death is larger still, and includes the honoured names of Mr.Shantaram Narayen, who died while holding office as Syndic in Law, Rao Saheb Mahipatram Rupram, Mr. Raghunath Narayen Khote, Mr. Serjeant Atkinson, Mr. J. Flynn, Sir Henry Morland, who died while holding office as a member of the Board of Accounts, Mr. Rehatsek, the Rev. Dr. Narayen Sheshadri, Dr. Temperley Gray, Raja Sir Tanjore Madhavrao, the Rev. F. X. Fibus, Rao Bahadur Mahadev Wasudev Brave, and Mr. Ganesh Ramachandra Birloskar, who became a member of the Senate only two years ago. The mere recital of these names reminds us most sorrowfully of the services rendered to the University in the past, and in some cases up to within a few weeks ago, by friends who have now passed away, to our abiding loss. The finances of the University. Before I bring this address to a close I should like to refer, and I will do so very briefly, to a matter which is becoming daily of increasing importance. It is the subject of the finances of the University. You are well aware that we have never yet been able to carry on the work of the University without the aid of a subsidy from the Government. The fees which we take from candidates at the several examinations do not suffice for the adequate remuneration of the examiners and our other expenses. We are at present receiving from the Government an annual grant of Rs.15,000, for our general expenses, and a special grant, in the Public Works Department, of Rs.2,000, for the maintenance of the Garden. Now I am sure that it is your earnest desire that this University should be a self-supporting institution, just as the Universities at Calcutta and Madras are self-supporting. The most obvious way of securing that end is to revise the scale of examination fees and to levy a small annual tax on members of the Senate. Both these methods of increasing our income have indeed been proposed by a special Committee appointed by the Syndicate, during the past year. The Committee has presented a report which deals thoroughly and in detail with the subject. But the Syndicate has not yet made any recommendations to the Senate, as the subject is one of those in respect of which proposals may be expected from Mr. Phirozesha Mehta's Committee, which was appointed some time ago for the purpose of dealing with the present system of appointing examiners and conducting examinations, and it was thought advisable by the Syndicate to await the proposals of that Committee before submitting any recommendations of its own. The question is one which must be dealt with in the current year, for we have no assurance that the Government grant will be continued to us much longer. We ought, without much more delay, to devise ways and means for placing the general fee fund of the University, established under the Act of Incorporation, on a proper footing. The task before us will be lightened if men of wealth, who wish to help the cause of education in this Presidency, will only remember that at the present moment an Endowment Fund, for meeting the general expenses of the University, is likely to be more useful than any addition to the endowment list of scholarships and prizes.
THIRD SPECIAL CONVOCATION.
On the evening of 24th March 1892, when the members of the University assembled to show their appreciation of the long and distinguished public services of the Hon. Sir Raymond West, C.S., M.A,, LL.D., F.R.A.G.S., K.C.I.E., by conferring on him the Honorary Degree of Doctor in the Faculty of Law,
The Hon. Mr. Justice Birdwood said:—
My Lord Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—The duty imposed upon me this evening is one which gives me much satisfaction to discharge. We are met together to give effect to the recommendation of the Syndicate, which has been supported by the unanimous vote of the Senate, and confirmed by your Excellency, that the Honorary Degree of Doctor in the Faculty of Law be conferred by the University on Sir Raymond West—on the ground that he is by reason of his eminent position and attainments a fit and proper person to receive such a degree. The power to confer honorary degrees given us by Act I of 1884 has only twice been exercised by us. In December 1884, an eminent Statesman, the Marquis of Ripon, became associated with us by admission to this degree on his retirement from the Viceroyalty of India. After an interval of six years we conferred it on Dr. William Wordsworth—who though he had never sought great things for himself, and never attained to high official honours, had yet by force of character and conspicuous merits as a scholar and educationist, attained, by universal consent, to that eminence of position which is contemplated by the Legislature as one of the grounds which may justify the degree. To-day we wish to bestow this degree, to which we attach such rare value on one who holds high office as a member of the Bombay Government. But it is not on that account that we wish to honor him. His official rank is but an accident of his real position. In a few weeks it will pass away; but when it is gone, he will still retain that eminence which entitles him to recognition by the University as a fit recipient of the honorary degree; for it is an eminence which he has reached by a life-time's devotion to public duty, in the interests of the people of this Presidency and especially of the cause of education as represented by the work of the University. As your Excellency will presently address the Senate, it is not necessary that I should take up your time with any elaborate attempt to set forth the history of Sir Raymond West's public services. Still I should wish, on such an occasion, to refer to some of the considerations which weighed with the Syndicate when it brought before the Senate the recommendation which has met with such early approval. The distinguished services of Sir R. West. In the first place then, it was impossible for the Syndicate or the Senate or indeed for the people of this City and of the Presidency, to be insensible to the powerful and pervading influence which was exercised by Sir Raymond West throughout the long period of fifteen years during which he occupied the position of a Judge of the High Court. It was felt by all classes of the community that he was not merely a strong and sagacious Judge who brought a profound knowledge of legal principles and a cultured mind to the disposal of the judicial business of the country—he was more than that. He was a true friend of the people who sought their welfare and their advancement; and lost no opportunity of improving by all possible means, the general administration of justice throughout the Presidency, whether by careful supervision of the procedure of all Subordinate Courts, or by devising effective methods for securing a due supply of competent Judges of all grades for the Mofussil Bench, or by raising the status of the learned body of Pleaders through-out the country, without whose aid, honestly and efficiently rendered, the administration of justice must always be grievously hindered. His efforts in these directions will bear fruit long after he has left these shores; while lasting evidence of his judicial capacity will be found in the volumes, extending over a long series of years which contain the reports of many learned judgments delivered by him with authority from the Bench. But while his time was so occupied with the duties more closely connected with his judicial office, he was able to undertake a work of great magnitude in collaboration with Dr. George Buhler, which will always establish his claim to rank as one of the highest authorities in this land or anywhere on Hindu Law. The merits of that work have been borne ample testimony to by eminent scholars and lawyers. It was the result of years of patient labour and investigation; and if ever the time comes for codifying the Hindu Law, as it now exists, the digest of Sir Raymond West and Dr. Buhler will certainly form the most important basis for such codification. But it is in connection with our own University that we shall most readily appreciate the advantages which have accrued from the residence of Sir Raymond West in our midst, and we can never forget the years when he was identified intimately with us in all our undertakings; whether as an examiner at the higher examinations or as a Syndic in Arts or Law for six years or as a Dean in the Faculty of Arts or as Vice-Chancellor for seven years. During all this lengthened period he was no idle holder of office. He was a living power inspiring and guiding our deliberations and always lending aid when needed in the development of our plans. He imparted strength to our institutions and strove with all his might, to raise this University to a position of independence, and to make it something more than a mere board of examiners. He wished to make it a living, growing organism in vital union with its affiliated colleges and exercising a whole-some influence on the life and conduct of all its members. Though we know that he failed to secure the acceptance by the Senate of all his views, as embodied in the University Bill, which we owe to him—but which is, unhappily at this moment, in a state of suspended animation—still we can never be unmindful of the great love he bore to this University, and of his able, conscientious, and long continued service on her behalf. In now conferring an honorary degree on Sir Raymond, we are recognising merit which has been recognised in a similar way already by two older institutions than our own, and I would confidently express the hope that the honour we are conferring will not be less highly valued by him than the degrees he has received from the University of Edinburgh and the Queen's University in Ireland. It is now my duty, my Lord Chancellor, on behalf of the Senate, to present Sir Raymond West to your Excellency, and to ask you in the presence of this assembly, to meet our wishes by conferring on him the Degree of Doctor in the Faculty of Law on account of his great and distinguished merit.
His Excellency Lord Harris then addressed the Senate in the following terms :—
Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the Senate,—We are assembled for the third time to confer this honorary degree on one of Indians most distinguished public servants, and curiously enough for the third time in your career. Sir Raymond West, you receive the honorary degree of LL.D., and I venture to say that what the University of Edinburgh and the Queen's University of Ireland have thought themselves honored in doing to one who, however connected with those great institutions, has been far more closely connected with Bombay, this University need have no reluctance in repeating. A resume of Sir Raymond West's Indian career. I would that this chair had held some one who from long personal or official acquaintance with you could have now in addressing this assembly, put in those light touches of events and characteristic traits which brighten up any picture of a life well-spent. None could enter upon the pleasurable task more readily than I; but necessarily I must depend on records rather than personal experience. Looking back over the thirty-five years that have elapsed since the day when Ireland supplied to the service of India another of the many brilliant servants of John Company Bahadur whom she has sent, it must seem strange to you to compare the baptism of blood and tumult which so soon followed your entry into the service with the peace and order which you leave behind on your retirement. Although the terrible experience of other parts of India were happily not extended to the Southern Mahratta country there must nevertheless have been need for the utmost care and watchfulness on those—yourself amongst the number—on whom rested the conduct of affairs : and I doubt not that you, much as you may value the Mutiny Medal which you hold, value not less highly the experience which you gained in the confidential work entrusted to you by Mr. Seton Karr, and in the charge of the North Belgaum district which you held. You found India racked with those pains which internal disorder must bring, trade distraught, and the employment of labour paralysed, and you leave Bombay studding the horizon with factory chimneys, sure signs of a long period of rest from intrigue, of confidence in trade, of the investment of capital and of the full employment of labour. But if at first the sword was placed in your hand it was not long before the toga, whether from inclination or the needs of the judicial branch, displaced it, and this change must