Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras/Part 2/J. Bruce Norton, Esq., B.A.
SIXTH CONVOCATION.
(By J. Bruce Norton, Esq., B.A.)
Gentlemen,—You have this day finished your general education. The University to which you belong has stamped you with the seal of her approval, and sends you forth into the world valued and accredited with the honor of her degrees. But you would fall into a grievous error if you should suppose, and into a still greater if you acted upon that supposition, that you have now completed your education, and that henceforth you have only to discharge the duties of such offices as you may chance to occupy. Life is one long school, and the education of every man only closes with his dying day.
Objects of general education. The objects of your general education have, I trust, been attained; that is to say, that you have become the masters of no inconsiderable mass of substantive information; that you have acquired habits of labour, order, and reflexion; that your minds have become practised instruments for judging accurately and dispassionately on such subjects as may hereafter be submitted to you; and, above all, that you are imbued with sound principles of honourable and moral conduct.
So far from your education being finished, your special education now begins; and remember that hitherto you have had careful, anxious, painstaking, conscientious masters to watch over, to guide, to instruct, and to correct you; but that you are henceforth your own teachers, and self-education has become to each of you his sacred task and duty.
You may, if so disposed, carry your studies, even with reference to this University, to a far higher reach; for it is open to you to seek the degrees of Masters in Arts or Laws. The higher honor is not with us a mere form, but marks a very considerable progress in, and a much deeper knowledge of, the subject-matters in which you have this day taken your several degrees.
Self-education. But it is rather with reference to your self-education, unconnected with the University, that I would now address you. And I would pray you to be on your guard against the insidious approaches of vanity, self-sufficiency, arrogance; charges of which have, I know, been heretofore freely laid against the young educated Native. I will not say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing; for all knowledge is in itself good: but I would ask you to mark carefully the great difference between the pride of knowledge and the humility of wisdom. The more you learn, the more you will discover you have to learn; the more you will fathom your own ignorance; the more illimitable you will find the regions of knowledge; the more you will become diffident and modest; the greater forbearance and deference you will exercise and pay towards your fellows; the more you will be conscious of your own insignificance and the vanity of all human affairs; the more you will marvel at the greatness and goodness of that universal Providence which ordereth all things for good, even when to our finite vision events may present the appearance and the semblance of evil.
Labour, it has often been remarked, makes the difference between man and man: Improve your leisure.and there is no doubt that honest regular plodding does almost invariably lead to a certain success in life. But as Lord Bacon says: "The most active or busy man that hath been, or can be, hath no question many vacant times of leisure, while he expecteth the tides and the returns of business (except he be either tedious and of no dispatch, or lightly and unworthily ambitious to meddle in things that may be better done by others) and then the question is, but how these spaces and times of leisure shall be filled and spent: whether on pleasure or in studies": and I believe that ultimate and real success of a nature worth the having, and the formation of a truly great and estimable character depend chiefly upon the way in which those interstices of leisure are employed. Mental relaxation, bodily exercise are necessary to all men; they are essential to the cheerful and efficient performance of our daily duties: but let me caution you not to throw away these opportunities of leisure, the only ones you will have left, in idleness or folly, for I will not stoop to add, vice. It is by inculcating the habit of improving your leisure, that you will promote your self- education: and this is all the more indispensable; because all special occupations have a tendency to narrow, however they may sharpen, the intellect. If we are ever poring over the same page, the sphere of vision is bounded by the four corners of our book; if we will never lift our eyes, we may shut out even the glories of Nature and the light of Heaven, until we come insensibly to forget them. It is absolutely necessary therefore for every man immersed in business, to keep his mind open and enlarged, if he would escape the reproach of having sunk into a mere drudge; if he hopes to hold his place in cultivated society; if he aspires to achieve aught for his own fame, for the benefit of his own countrymen, or of mankind at large. Thus Results of self-education.it is, that you will be ever advancing on the path of self-education, making yourselves practically more useful in your professions, more agreeable members of the society in which you move; better citizens of the State you serve; and at the same time be laying up for the autumn and winter of old age, a store of pleasing recollections and associations, which will form one of your best solaces, when the body becomes too enfeebled for further work, and the mind too dull for fresh exercitation and adventure.
As you will thus educate yourselves, so we expect you to be mindful of your duty Further the education of others.in forwarding the education of others. You may not be able to do much; some may have it in their power to do more than others; but if you are well satisfied of the pleasures and the profits of knowledge in your own case, you ought to seek to impart the same benefits to your fellows. Every educated man who like you has been stamped by the University, may become the centre of a fresh circle of educational activity and action. The scholar who studies merely for himself, pursues but a selfish aim, scarcely worthy even of praise or of approval: nay, it may be that he is but unconsciously wasting his invaluable, irrevocable time in another form of laborious idleness. He is like a fountain, the waters of which fall back unproductive into the basin of its own reservoir; while the scholar who labours for his fellow-men is like an abounding river, which gladdens and fertilizes the country through which it runs. The one at best is but as a star upon a cloudy night: it shines, but in privacy; and so far as this world is concerned, with ineffectual fire; the other is as the universal Sun, seen and felt through the clear atmosphere at midday, giving out light and warmth to all mankind.
And now a word to those who have failed in obtaining their degrees. Disappointment is natural and unavoidable; but there is no reason why any unsuccessful candidate should give way to despondency. The very effort to attain success has necessarily been productive of good to him: and so far from discouraging or blaming those who have failed, we sympathize with them; and the Examiners will, no doubt, readily admit that the great majority of candidates who have failed, are nevertheless entitled to no mean praise. We bid you press on and repeat the fight; seek to strengthen the weak places, and to supply the deficiencies which the results of your examination have pointed out, and renew another year, with fresh hope, and more enlarged knowledge, the struggle for a degree.
To those who have been unsuccessful candidates for a degree in Law, we admit that the presence at the Mofussil Bar of even such candidates as have failed this year, would effect an improvement in the order of Pleaders. We do not under-estimate the great importance of throwing practitioners with more legal acquirements and more general education into the ranks of our Provincial Pleaders; but as Examiners and members of the Senate, we have felt that even that object ought to be sacrificed to the paramount expediency of not lowering the standard or the value of the degree of Bachelor of Law.
The Bachelors of Law must remember that they have taken upon themselves heavy responsibilities. The Advocate not only holds himself out as of ability to Responsibilities of Lawyers.protect his client's interests by advice and advocacy, but it is in no small degree to the Advocates who are Bachelors of Laws, that the State and the Profession must look for the elevation of the character of the Native Bar, and that better administration of public justice, which is one of the most important consequences of such an elevation.
Let every Advocate set his face against, strive with all his might and main against, the hydra-headed crime of perjury.
I am far from imputing to every individual Native a want of truthfulness in all Why Perjury has grown.his ordinary dealings with his fellow-men. We know too little of Native society to justify any so sweeping conclusion; and indeed, society could not hold together under such conditions. Truth, as Bentham has well remarked, is easier and more natural to man than falsehood.
I believe that the success that attended perjury before the East India Company's Courts of Justice has fostered its growth, and there is not wanting plenty of high reliable English authority for asserting, that the simplicity and truthfulness of Native character has degenerated in consequence of the introduction of our tribunals and institutions. But whatever the cause, the fact remains, that the records of our Courts of Justice contain little better than one long catalogue of forgery and perjury.
It is to education that we must look for the final eradication of these crimes: but in the meanwhile much may be done by strengthening the Judicial Bench; by insisting on its occupants being qualified by previous methodical legal training, to grapple with the enormous difficulties which systematic perjury undoubtedly throws in their path; by taking care that the detection of the crime shall be invariably and rapidly followed by adequate punishment; and last not least, by the resolution of the Provincial Bar, never to tolerate in their clients any recourse to such vile acts as forgery, perjury, subornation of perjury, for. obtaining a favourable decree.
Most earnestly we invite and call upon all Bachelors of Law to ponder well upon the duties of an Advocate. Entitled as the Advocate is to a fair remuneration for Duties of an Advocate.his services, he should never let the acquisition of wealth be the main end or object of his actions. He should seek to compose and to restrain, not to foment and foster, the evil passions of those who consult him. His first duty to his client is, if possible, to save him from litigation. If that be impossible, then to stand fearlessly and faithfully by him from first to last. In order that he may conscientiously discharge his duty, the Advocate must know what the substantive law is, and what its shifting forms require; and hence he can never safely relax his course of legal studies. His eagerness for his client's cause must never lead him into any measure that is dishonest or dishonorable: should a client venture to suggest such measures, the Advocate may justly spurn him from his door. He is never to seek to mislead or to puzzle the Court. He is there to aid, not to embarrass the Judge; he must never mis-state a fact; and always base his arguments upon and confine them to the facts as they stand proved by the evidence. The relations between Judge and Counsel in a properly constituted Court, should be those of mutual reliance and esteem. There should neither be arrogance on the one hand, nor subservience on the other. The observation of a due deference to the Bench is perfectly compatible with the vindication of entire freedom of speech by the Bar; and while the Advocate pays all proper respect to the Bench, he should never forget, nor suffer to be forgotten, the respect that is due to himself. He is the champion of political liberty; he may be the martyr of political power; let him take heed that he never degenerates into the demagogue leader of democratic licence. Remember that he who aspires to the honors of the profession, and advancement by the State, must rest his claims at least as much on the worth of his moral character, as on the brilliancy of his reputation for intellectual achievements.
And may you all, of whatsoever degree and in whatsoever faculty, never forget this; that the University has Committed her honor to the keeping of each and every one of you. No one individual can be guilty of a mean or ignoble action without in some measure casting a tarnish on the lustre of his University; and it may be that hereafter, if ever you should be tempted to swerve from the broad straight path of honor and truth and duty, the recollection of this fact, even if you had no higher or better angel to turn to, may save you from peril in the hour of temptation. Temptations you must all have; that you may not fail nor quail before them is our earnest hope. The University which has accredited you with her degrees, will affectionately but scrutinously watch over your careers, now that she sends you forth from the calm halls of academic learning into the fierce struggle of the real battle of life. Her interest in you does not now cease; it has only commenced: for your association with the University dates from this day: she will hear, from time to time, with pride and pleasure of your success; and she bids you, through me, one and all, ride on in honor and prosperity.