Page:Convocation Addresses of the Universities of Bombay and Madras.djvu/283

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University of Bombay.

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