Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 1/The Hon. J. B. Peile, C.S., C.S.I.
TWENTY-FOURTH CONVOCATION.
(By The Honorable J. B. Peile, C.S., C.S.I.)
Gentlemen of the Senate,—When I succeeded to the office of Vice- Chancellor on the departure of my friend Mr. West, I did not anticipate that I should so soon be called upon to undertake the duty of addressing you in this place at the Annual Convocation of our University. I should have accepted with more pleasure a responsibility so honourable, if I did not deeply regret, as you also must regret, and it is a feeling which the Chancellor has begged me to say that he entirely reciprocates, the absence from the Chancellor's seat at the last Convocation which falls within his term of office, of a Governor of Bombay who is so steadfast and liberal a friend of education, so cordial in recognizing private educational enterprise, and so unwearied in encouraging our scholars by his kindly presence at school anniversaries, as is Sir James Fergusson.
The Registrar has read to you portions of the report of the proceedings of the University since the last Convocation, and the full report will shortly be placed in your hands. You will find therein the results of the University Examination, of which let it suffice to say that they are generally satisfactory, and prove by the increasing number of successful students in nearly all branches of study that the demand for higher education is still extending. The unprecedented number of 2,036 candidates presented themselves for Matriculation. As three-fifths of these candidates were unsuccessful, I note, without disparagement of others almost equally meritorious, the New English School at Poona and the Native State Schools of Bhavanagar and Junagad as distinguished by passing all or nearly all the candidates they sent up. Of the successful candidates, 22 were female students. I have been asked to observe that for the first time two members of the community of Beni-Israel have received University degrees to-day. There has been an addition to endowments in the shape of a medical prize and indeed I do not know that any year has passed without adding something to the endowments of this University.
But beyond the ordinary statistics of business, there is much in the record of events Spread of Education. which give a special significance and importance to the history of the past year. The spontaneous energy in education which is manifesting itself in our large towns may perhaps owe some of its vigour to the invitation held out by the Government to private enterprize, but chiefly it marks the fact that forces which have been gathering strength beneath the surface of society are beginning to show their vitality in a practical way. From much on which I might dwell, including the remarkable movement in the cause of higher female education at Poona^ and the acceptance of the management of primary schools by our Municipalities, I select for remark the foundation of the independent Arts College in the capital of the Deccan to which we have recently granted recognition. In the narrative of the origin and purpose of this college it is stated that it is designed as a private arts college which might become in time to come a source of continuous supply of graduates and under-graduates ready to carry education for a small remuneration into the remotest parts of the Deccan, and thus to cover, if possible, the whole country with a network of private schools under the direction and control of a central educational organization. There is a modest strength of purpose about this forecast, which commands our sympathy and respect. A noble example. It recalls to me what I have recently read of the work of the Christian Brothers in France set on foot at the close of the sixteenth century By John Baptist de la Salle, who abandoned his prospects of advancement and devoted his life to the humble task of organising and spreading elementary education. He founded an institute, the members of which after a careful training for the office of school-masters, were to devote their lives to the work of primary education. The Brotherhood extended its labours over France, it survived the Revolution of the Commune and carried its operations into other countries, and although the present Government has unhappily withdrawn from it all countenance and support, yet in Paris alone it has 60,000 scholars and is largely aided by the private benevolence of all classes, both the rich and the poor. Here is a noble and encouraging example for the infant institution in the Deccan, and if its spirit is equally pure and disinterested, I doubt not that its success will not be less remarkable.
From the contemplation of this college of poor scholars—if I may so call it—let us turn to the college in Kathiawar, newly founded; and to be endowed from the revenues of Bhavanagar, by the ruler of that State, Sir Takhtsinggi, in memory of a faithful minister. This college is also a sheaf of the harvest returned by the education which we foster, for it is to the good principles grafted by liberal and judicious teaching in the Rajkumar College on an open and generous nature, that we must trace the public character of a prince distinguished above his peers for loyal affection to the Government which guided his youth, and wise munificence in contributing from his revenues to every good work of the time, for instance although this Chief is establishing an arts college in his capital at his sole cost, he has also by a donation of a large sum of Rs.20,000 aided the Committee of the Guzerat College in making up their endowment fund to a sum sufficient to meet a liberal offer of Government for the reconstitution and expansion of that college, which we may hope to see carried into effect in the course of the present year.
Above all our University and the Presidency are to be congratulated on this, that with all the colleges newly established in our provinces, and the Native States at Poona, at Ahmedabad, at Kolhapur and Bhavanagar and Baroda, our older colleges are not depleted of their students, nor are the means of collegiate education found to be in excess of the demands. On the contrary, the Elphinstone and Deccan Colleges hail the affiliation of the new institutions as a timely relief to their overcrowded lecture rooms and to classes which are so overgrown as to have passed beyond the grasp of their professors.
And now, as I have taken for the key-note of my remarks the springing forth of spontaneous and independent educational enterprise, as a practical end and object on which the growing power and activity of thought of which our educated classes are conscious, may satisfy their craving for expression and action, my train of reflection leads me to the motive of the first exercise by this University of the power of granting an honorary degree under the Act of 1884. That ceremony is too fresh in your memories, and was too fully illustrated by the eloquence and enthusiasm which it evoked, to require many words from me. It seems to me that the strong emotions which then broke through the normal calm of oriental life are attributable to this coincidence, that at a time when the social forces created by the educational work of our Governments and Universities during the last 30 odd years had begun to seek a voice and recognition. Lord Ripon met and gratified these aspirations when he reasserted with the point and the emphasis of intense personal conviction, the principles of policy which have long guided England in its splendid duty of raising the people of this empire to a higher place among civilised men.
You have been reminded by a passage in the report just read that we have to condole with the sister University on the death of the Principal whose value we can well estimate by the quality of the services which he rendered to this University. Sir Alexander Grant brought to our infant University in Bombay the high academic tone of Oxford and the mark of his spirit and touch of his hand are perceptible in every part of our system. It has been said that by the devotion of his best years to India he sacrificed something of the reputation which he might have achieved in England. However that may be, those years in India were expended on noble work, and his memory is green among us as one of the foremost founders and guides of Indian academic life. Next, let me say a word of another Vice-Chancellor who has gone from among us, and whose loss, as more recent, may be more sensibly felt by those to whom I am speaking. I refer to Mr. West, to whose last eloquent words in this office you listened in this hall hardly more than a month ago. He has gone to aid a country which is sorely in need of the reign of law under which our University prospers, and what is your loss is Egypt's gain. I do not doubt, however, that these young students and lawyers here present will miss the tonic of his frank and blunt but never unkindly counsel. But the example of his life will remain with us and I would remind the young graduates around me that Mr. West was known as a patient and industrious student from the first day to the last of his career in India, and that by these unremitting labours, not less than by his high natural abilities, did he achieve one of the noblest positions which can be held by a servant of the Crown, the position of a sound and learned Judge who commands the confidence of all who come before him.
And now it remains for me to say a few words of exhortation and encouragement to those young men who have to-day received their University Degrees, and are about to go forth with the good seed of education in their hands, to sow and reap. My time of preparation for this duty has been so short that my words will be plain and brief. I shall not follow my learned predecessor in dwelling on the delights of learning pursued for its own sake and for the good it can do, in disregard of earthly honours and ambitions. That prospect is all-sufficing for a selected few and my earnest hope is that is may attract and enchain more and more of our students as the academic life is more highly esteemed. But no more in an Eastern than in a Western University can any but a small proportion of students devote themselves to a life of philosophic research. And in truth it is evident that the material progress of India demands ever more imperatively that those whose minds have been strengthened and cultured in our Universities should apply their powers to practical life as teachers and workers. But if I direct you rather to the active than the contemplative life, I shall of course avoid any contact with the strife of political parties above which as the Chancellor pointed out last year, the University dwells serene. I propose only to suggest the answers to this question. What out look has the Indian graduate in active life Various opportunities for usefulness and distinction. and to what purposes can he apply his acquirements? First, then let me say that, with the great and urgent needs of your country, intellectual, moral and material, your career should be one of life-long and devoted labour, if it is to be worthy of your University and fulfill the expectations of your Government. You have won nothing as yet but the means of usefulness, the weapons of your warfare, and you will do well not to look for a premature reward in some inglorious stipend or rest content with a cheaply earned, unproved and unfruitful reputation for ability. You can act more worthily by entering into the competition of the learned professions, law, medicine and civil engineering, which are open to all according to their capacity and in which field the Indian graduate has already established his place. Then there is the public service of the country—a most legitimate object of aspiration. And although impatience is often expressed at barriers and restrictions in the official career, yet when I see natives of this country in the Legislative Councils, on the Benches of the High Courts, in the Magistracy, the Civil Service and in nearly every department of State, I cannot admit that the obstacles to the higher offices are such as need depress or discourage. I would remind you that under your Government barriers are temporary and are surmountable by the force of proved merit and worth. And no victory over difficulties is of much ethical value which is achieved without serious effort. The great field of local public business has been made your own to occupy and possess. And I hold that whatever limitations must in this day be imposed on access to higher office, the selection of men to conduct local affairs should be subject to no other conditions than the selection of men to serve the public in the liberal professions. The man who is best fitted by education and character to perform the services which the public requires should be the man who is employed. But besides all these there is a boundless field of useful activity open to those who have acquired in this University the habit of research, and will apply it to investigations useful to Government and their country. Reflect, for instance, on the imminent problem connected with the growth of population under the Roman peace of this empire. How shall these multiplying millions be sustained? By what resources of agricultural science may the land through higher cultivation be enabled to support a larger number? What products can be grown for export which will bring wealth in return from other lands? What alternative industries can be set on foot for the employment of the surplus population? These are a few of the economic questions to the solution of which natives of the country trained in scientific knowledge and to accurate habits of thought should be able to contribute. With all these interesting subjects and pursuits opening and expanding before us and with freedom of speech and thought, one is disposed to envy the young scholar of India, his free and various opportunities for usefulness and activity in civil and political life.
Let me in conclusion, along with the promise of your future present a few words of caution Words of caution and advice. to you graduates Words of 1884 and to all those before you, who in the long procession or years, have received the degrees of this University and gone out hence to encounter the struggle of life. You are living in a dawn of much promise of which no man can yet foresee the perfect day. Then realise how much in the future of your country depends upon yourselves and the character you have formed under the discipline of your colleges. If you are called on hereafter, as you may and will be, to think and speak and write on public affairs, let your participation therein be in the spirit of the great authors whom you have studied,—thoughtful, scrupulous, liberal and free from prejudice. Let me draw your attention to the words uttered lately at Poona by one whose great historical attainments entitle him to speak with high authority of the lessons of history—I mean the learned Principal of the Elphinstone College, who told you that you as an educated minority among illiterate masses are exposed to special temptations and dangers from which you can be protected only by habits of mental discipline and patient self-denial. Keep your minds free from exaggerated ideas and pretensions. Do not mar and nullify the great power and privilege of a free press by petulant and inaccurate criticism of public affairs. Let honest work in some of the fields of action which I have briefly indicated, and the patriot's singleness of purpose for the public good, abstract your minds from any craving for the personal notoriety which is so often mistaken for fame. Thus may you obey the charge which I have addressed to you, that ever in your life and conversation, you shew yourselves worthy of the degrees conferred upon you by this University—a University founded in a year of war and tumult, by a Government which revolution was impotent to divert from completing the beneficent work of which you enjoy the inheritance.
TWENTY-FIFTH CONVOCATION.
(The Honorable J. B. Peile, C.S., M.A., C.S.I.)
Gentlemen of the Senate,—In a second year the duty has fallen to me of addressing you in this place at the Convocation for conferring degrees. I had hoped that this chair would be otherwise and more worthily filled to-day. You, I am sure, hoped that also. If you are denied an intellectual pleasure on which you had counted, it will still be easily understood that the claims and interests of education in this empire, the aim and grasp, the tendencies and influences of the University and of public and private instruction, are many-sided and complex, such as are not to be learnt from books or the conversation of those who have been in India; and the mastery of them in all lights, political, social, material, literary, requires some time. Next year, if I am present, I shall be glad to take a lower place, and to listen while our educational performances are passed through the crucible by the refined intelligence of Lord Reay.
Now, I will advert here to an unpleasant subject which I am bound to notice, Desist from unworthy habits. but from which I shall be glad to pass on. I speak of the unhappy event which marred the Matriculation Examination of 1885, and which, though its shadow lies only on the threshold of the University precincts, is so abhorrent to the clear air of elevated studies, that it may well fill all friends of learning with dismay. If there was a breach of trust, latent it may be, in a carelessness which is not defensible, or even corruption somewhere, the reproach of which rests on us—the Executive of the University—how much more grievous was the breach of trust committed by the young men who were not true to themselves at a time of life when all the worth of the future character is staked on a rigid conscientiousness about the work in hand? What can be the value or quality of a youth's studies at college who gains his title of entrance to the higher course by an acted lie? Carlyle, addressing the students of Edinburgh, said of even the minor offences of shallow pretentiousness and cramming:—"Avoid all that is entirely unworthy of an honourable habit Morality as regards study is, as in all other things, the primary consideration, and overrides all others. A dishonest man cannot do anything real. This is a very old doctrine, but a very true one; and you will find it confirmed by all the thinking men that have ever lived in this long series of generations of which we are the latest." The new benefactions of this year are from the province of Gujarat. The most interesting is that of a Fellow of last year—the Thakore Saheb of Gondal—who has presented Rs.6,000 to form a collection of ancient records of the literature of India to be placed in the University Library, The second is the endowment of a scholarship in memory of the late Majumdar Manishankar of Kathiawar. The third is an endowment of two scholarships by Mr. Haridas Veharidas Desai, of Nadiad, and Divan of Junagad, a filial tribute to the memory of his respected father. It is worthy of record that one female student passed the First Examination in Medicine, and eleven female students passed the Matriculation Examination. Of the latter, three are Parsi young ladies, and I am informed that all of them will carry their studies further, one in the Grant College and the other two in a college of Arts. Examination results show, in Matriculation, 2,262 candidates, of whom 837 finally passed. Last year the numbers were 2,036 and 840. There is a decrease in the number of candidates who passed the Previous Examination, and in those who have qualified for the degree of B.A. The successful candidates for the degree of B.Sc. numbered only three. There is an increase in the new graduates in Law and Medicine; a decrease in those in Civil Engineering. There are no doctors in Medicine this year, and a fall from 9 to 3 in Masters of Arts. Looking back some fifteen years to the time when I was more specially connected with the administration of public instruction, I observe that the yearly average of men who Matriculated was then under 200. The B.A.'s were about 12 to 18 yearly. The average of the past three years is over 70. The M.A.'s were very much as they are now. The number this year represents the average since 1865. Some thoughts are suggested by these numerical results reviewed side by side with the means of teaching. We have four Arts Colleges of old standing, with a College of Medicine, a College of Science, and a School of Law, all recognized between 1860 and 1869—chiefly about 1860. Then comes the younger generation—the Gujarat, Kolhapur, Baroda, and Bhavnagar Colleges, and the Fergusson College at Poona, all recognized in the last five or six years. But these are elementary colleges, teaching the less advanced part of the Arts course; they are all concerned with the Arts course; they are also scantily provided with European Professors. Three of these are supported by Native States. The other two, though partly supported by subscriptions or endowments, make a demand on our public taxation fund. So also will the college to be established in Sind. It would seem, then, that the increase of the higher teaching power—by which I mean the fresh accession of Professors of high attainment from Europe—has not been in proportion to that of the numbers seeking to be taught. The subject presents itself in this light that, if there are narrow limits to the increase of the professorial body maintained by the State, as I am afraid that we must admit that there are, it is better to apply some sifting process to the students than to allow the teaching power to be over tasked by numbers. The Previous Examination of this year has certainly acted as a sifting process, 345 candidates having been rejected out of 487. Half of all the candidates failed in English, and cannot have been competent to profit by lectures given in that language. But notwithstanding this check, the numbers who pass the preliminary barrier, and the numbers who reach the B.A. degree, show a remarkable increase in the last two or three years. This is no doubt attributable to the enlargement of the means of secondary education, but the question suggests itself—What is the object of this great body of students marching chiefly on one and the same line, and would any just expectations be thwarted by the adoption of stricter methods for the exclusion of the unfit? Certainly no public object is gained by increasing the number of our graduates in Arts at the expense of their quality. In regard to the best way of using a higher teaching power which cannot be much augmented, the military principle commends itself, that, when a force is small in proportion to its field of occupation, it is more effective when collected at a centre than when its strength is dissipated by sub-division. Lower down in the educational system, there are financial reasons, but others also, why the Government should cease, at a certain point, to multiply Grammar Schools and elementary Arts Colleges. I do not mean that general education should be starved. Every boy should have within his reach the means of education appropriate to his position. But it would seem that the appetite for secondary education may soon be trusted to supply for itself what more is needed of these institutions, whether designed to supply the particular wants of a locality, or leading up to the University course in languages, history, literature, political economy, or moral philosophy. It may be observed that the course in Arts or letters is much more commonly selected by students than the courses in natural philosophy. That which is most popular is also most capable of self-support. The upholding hand of the State may properly transfer itself from that side of national education where it has planted both a demand for teaching and the knowledge how to supply it, to help in its turn another side where at present there is little either of knowledge or demand. That side is technical education, which is a good deal discussed in these days. The foundation of a Technical Institute, in memory of the Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, has brought the subject forward in the past year. Madras has anticipated us by the publication under authority of a comprehensive scheme of examinations in Science, Arts, and Industries, supplemented by grants-in-aid and scholarships, the Government at the same time preparing to enlarge its own institutions for scientific and technical instruction. Now what is it that is wanting? If we look to the University, we find, besides the science course which comprehends most of the branches of natural science, the more special programme of studies and degree in Civil Engineering, and the affiliated College of Science where technical education is given of the kind suited to the higher and middle class of professional men. I do not say that either the College of Science or the allied institution for teaching decorative art and design is as complete or potent as it should be, and we are preparing to strengthen both of them. But where is the sub-structure of which a Polytechnic College is the upper story? The answer is that it does not exist. Our elementary and middle school course has no regard to technical instruction, nor is it linked with a system of special technical and art schools for handicraftsmen or for foremen and manager of works. Drawing is restricted to our high schools.
Nothing that is not quite fragmentary is being done to develop the intelligence Technical and industrial education. of our industrial population as such. There is a dearth of skilled workmen, scientifically educated supervisors of workmen and employers of labour. There is no connecting bond of trained intelligence among the classes interested in skilled industry, no elementary training of workmen in sympathetic alliance with the superior technical knowledge of the directors of work, such as had long existed in many small Continental States. Our science is not wedded to manipulative skill. Now, as experience has shown that the nation which most vigorously promotes the intellectual development of its industrial population takes the lead of nations which disregard it, this is a matter which will not bear neglect. Palaeography, epigraphy and the like are luxuries, but the enlightened employment of the forces and products of nature is a vital need. India has entered into competition with other nations in the market of the world, and competition in the world's market is very keen. The hold of Indian produce on foreign markets is somewhat critical and precarious. India cannot afford to despise any reduction of cost price or improvement in quality which can be made by the substitution of scientific for rough processes and manipulation. Nor should India continue to buy at a great price in silver any commodity which an increase of industrial capacity may enable her people to produce well and cheaply for themselves, again, there is the growth of population liberated in a great measure from the checks of war and famine. We have districts in which a margin of only 5 or 6 per cent, of land is left available for the extension of tillage. Either the land must soon produce more under higher cultivation, or other means of industrial livelihood must be opened out. Undoubtedly there are great difficulties. Industries have to be created, others rehabilitated rather than merely improved by science. An indebted peasant proprietary is not the most capable of utilizing the steam plough or the chemical factory. Yet we see around us signs of a renascence of manufactures. Our mill industry, though now struggling with difficulties, has promise of a great history. Indian silks, muslins, gold and silver brocade, carved work, dyes—all old Indian products —are in evidence in the international exhibitions, and where manufactures touch the province of the Fine Arts, we have the old forms and traditions, which, if now productive in a somewhat mechanical way, are still among us as suggestive guides to excellence. It may be said that to organize technical education is the duty of the Government which provides such educational means and appliances as seem suited to the needs of those whom it rules rather than of the University which confers degrees for proficiency in the use of those means. This must be frankly admitted. The Government must lead the way, and I had it in view when indicating technical education as in my opinion that object to which public expenditure in this department may now be directed with the greatest benefit to the Indian people. Examples in this matter may best be sought on the Continent of Europe. Twice in the last twenty years the English Government has turned for instruction to those examples. In 1867 there was reason to fear that England, though possessed of great advantages in raw material, was being rivalled and surpassed in its own specialities by nations which had developed their manufacturing skill by well-organized technical education. Exhibitions and Royal Commissions revealed the fact that France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland were counterbalancing the initial advantages of England by the scientific education of masters and foremen, and the industrial training of workmen. The report of the Commission of 1884, full of most interesting information as to the comparative progress of industrial teaching on the Continent and in England, shows how much has been done in both under stress of keenest competition and what remains to be done in England. Even now it is confessed that the advocacy of technical teaching as an extended and systematic education up to and including the methods of original research has not entirely prevailed. But it must be remembered that, even with defects of organization, England is rich in the great names of scientific discovery and invention, that national poverty is not the difficulty in England, and that the English workman is second to none in natural energy, intelligence, and inventiveness. In our Indian Empire I need not say that the difficulties are incomparably greater, and their very outworks have still to be attacked. Where taxation is not cheerfully borne, where the workman is apathetic under the superstition of custom, and content with a bare subsistence, where the reach of elementary education is small, where the upper classes are indifferent or inadequately appreciate the needs of their country, a too ambitious scheme put forward by the Government on a European model would certainly be doomed to failure. But it is profitable to observe by what efforts and sacrifices the successes of European nations in industrial progress have been purchased. Both Governments and peoples are animated by the conviction that the prosperity of their industries depends on the cheapness and attractiveness of their products, and these on the high perfection of manual skill combined with artistic culture. Thus, while the State undertakes the cost of the highest general and technical instruction, most of the cost of the secondary and elementary instruction, both in science and in art applied to industrial and decorative purposes, is cheerfully borne by the localities. Moreover, elementary education, which everywhere includes instruction in drawing, is in the most European nations compulsory. Both republics and monarchies have accepted the principle that there is a discipline and restraint which a free people may impose on individual freedom for the attainment of a great public object. If an Indian Presidency need not despair of doing, in a measure, what a Swiss Canton or a small German State succeeds in doing completely and excellently, it is time to lay down the lines of action. The admirable system of technical education in the countries of the Continent had its origin only half a century since with the creation of railways and factories. A similar educational development should follow in India on the extension of railways, the expansion of commerce, and the freer interchange of thought. Municipal law, has also been advanced so far as this, that the new local Government Acts impose on local boards and municipalities the obligation to maintain an adequate system of elementary schools which is indispensable basis of technical education. Most remarkable in the history of technical education on the Continent is the great part taken in its support by communes and municipalities. We also must use these agencies. I venture to think that an institution in memory of the man who stirred in so many million hearts the ambition to share in the duties and responsibilities of Local Government should be content with nothing less than a wide-reaching endeavour to guide those impulses to this practical end, stimulating into action the authorities who now control commercial and municipal expenditure, and imparting knowledge and assistance to all centres of population in Western India, by subsidies, by opening artisans' evening classes and model technical schools, by distributing mechanical appliances and objects of art, by promoting museums and art collections. In 1869 when I was Director of Public Instruction, when the law left it quite optional with municipal bodies to support schools or not, and in fact 1 3/4 millions of towns people was contributing less than Rs. 14,000 yearly for school purposes from municipal funds, I made a proposal to Government for imposing by law a school-rate on municipal towns, and one of my suggestions was that by aid of this rate each town of higher class should support an industrial college or school of instruction in science and art. I said:—"The object would be twofold: first, to teach practically the common trades and turn out skilled masons, carpenters, and smiths; and, secondly, to teach theoretically and practically, the application of science to the work of the builder and mechanician, and to the higher industries with a view to the production of articles of luxury and export; skill being here expended on products special to the country, or for manufacturing which there are special local facilities." I proposed that there should be workshops and schools of science and art teaching, and continued:—"For teachers in these schools, I look to the Poona College for graduates in Civil Engineering and to the Central School of Art in Bombay for certificated teachers of art. I am afraid some of this may appear Utopian. But a beginning must be made in the restoration of Indian industries. In 1862 Mr. Laing said:— With cheap raw material, cheap labour and many classes of the native population, patient, ingenious, and endowed with a fine touch and delicate organization, I see no reason why the interchange between India and Europe should be confined to agricultural produce against manufactures, and why in course of time manufactures of certain descriptions where India has a natural advantage, should not enter largely into her staple exports." I am afraid my scheme did appear Utopian, for nothing was done at that time. But as we have now advanced a little further in the science of municipal government, I hope the project may at last be carried out. Last year Scientific research. I somewhat briefly and imperfectly directed the attention of the students before me to the opportunities open to them of developing the resources of their country by scientific research and the application of science to industries. I say further to-day that this appears to me to be the appropriate direction of the widest current of our public education, because by far the greatest part of Indian students are, like the Englishmen in India, of the class of working men. As the great majority of them have to contribute their labour in some special calling to the public stock, the best they can do is to promote their country's prosperity by directing a skilled intelligence to extract from nature, through science, the services of her means and agents of material progress. It is quite true that the University may direct the use of scientific method to the study of languages and philosophy as well as to the study of the natural sciences. There is room for science of both kinds; but I think that there is more need for the latter, and that specialism in the study of the natural sciences is more useful for the young men of this day than general culture, and wholesome as well as useful. Science and art applied to invention and production pay no regard to distinctions of nationality or clime. They choose as their most honoured agents those who are best educated, whose natural taste and aptitude have been best cultivated for the work to be done. The competition in the world's industrial school gives the prize to those results of labour which derive the highest excellence from enlightened skill and the fine artistic sense, and to the peoples who most assiduously cultivate those faculties. There is no room there for the assertion of an equality which cannot prove itself by facts and achievements. That arena is quite apart from baseless jealousies of class and race, their passions and profitless strife. The competition is waged under conditions likely to promote the modesty which is an element of wisdom and the reverence which Goethe calls the soul of all religion. With these elementary remarks I leave a great subject, of which I am glad to call myself a student, hoping that at next Convocation there may be a record of something done in this matter.