Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/377

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University of Madras.

and, accustomed from time immemorial to disregard the laws of health, they attach no importance to sanitation. Now, in cases of this kind you may do much good by pointing out the bearing of these measures on the welfare and progress of the country. As I have alluded to these Acts I will venture to add that whatever objections may be taken to parts of them, they are in principle a vast stride in advance of all previous legislation in this Presidency. By the constitution of these Local Fund Boards, spread like a net-work over the land, the people have been admitted to some share in the administration of their own affairs, and the performance of the duties entrusted to these bodies is the best training that they can have for the right use of a larger measure of political power. But these Acts are, after all, but the skeletons, the dry bones, which the people must infuse with vitality by their public spirit, and if they fail of their due effect the blame will rest, not with the originators of these measures, but with you. Gentlemen, other noble aims and objects will suggest themselves to you which I have not time to discuss. Female education. One of these is Female Education. Beauty of form is fleeting quality, and, when divorced from culture and refinement loses half its charm; and I venture to say that you will never have the faintest conception of the happiness of an English home until the women of this country are so educated as to sympathize in all your pursuits and all your aspirations.

And now let me reiterate a warning which has often fallen from the lips of previous speakers. I trust that you are not all of you looking forward to employment in the Government service, for, if so, many of you are probably doomed to disappointment. Of the Universities in Europe but a small fraction of the graduates are thus employed, and the great majority take to the learned professions, to agriculture, and to commerce. There are many wealthy and respectable merchants in this city and in the provinces, but I fear there are but few who have those enlarged views which follow from a liberal education. I trust that in a few years' time there will be several gentlemen of this class who will take their seats in the Chamber of Commerce and be

listened to with respect by the European members. Gentlemen, I have said but little of the profession to which I have the honour to belong, but I do feel that in the present stage of the progress of this country able men and men devoted to the work are urgently needed. And be sure that, if you enter on this profession in an earnest spirit, not actuated by merely mercenary motives, you will meet your reward. There ai'e, as you know, many of