trospect. sary, but for a time wanting, was your own in your official capacity. I, as Chancellor, have good reason to be grateful that in the end the retiring modesty, which has won you the love of all who have known you, was eventually overborne by a unanimity of feeling from both outside and inside this University which you could not resist, for nothing short of an amending Act could have met the resistance of a Vice-Chancellor to an honorary degree being conferred on himself. Dr. Wordsworth, your career here and a period which I think is strikingly marked by a notable advance in education in Western India, are so nearly synchronous that it is difficult to look back on the one without finding the other included in the same field. This University, although incorporated four years before you arrived in Bombay, did not receive its full liberty until 1860, and as a matter of fact, its first Fellows were not appointed until after you had taken post as Head-master of the High School, and I believe that you, as Principal of the Deccan College, were ex-officio one of them. This occasion is not unsuitable for a rapid retrospect of the changes you have seen; and A rapid Re. first as regards institutions. In 1862 there were two Government Arts Colleges, one Aided Arts College (now Wilson College), one Government Law School, and one Medical College; total five. There are now nine Arts Colleges, besides the College of Science, two Law Schools, and the Medical College; total thirteen. In 1862-63, twelve High Schools sent up for Matriculation 147 candidates, of whom 56 passed. In 1888-89, 89 High Schools sent up for Matriculation 1,559 candidates, of whom 620 passed. You have seen the after-life of the youths who come up year by year; you see now your pupils occupying posts of eminence in the High Court, as Ministers in several native states, and as Professors in the Educational Department, but for whom indeed the expansion of aided enterprise would have been scarcely possible; they are to be found in every grade of judicial offices and they almost monopolise the executive appointments subordinate to the Deputy Collector's grade; or if I were to take another test that of fees which is indicative, but being complicated does not form a conclusive basis for argument, you have seen the total fee receipts advanced from Rs. 1,06,000 in 1865 to Rs. 12,16,000 in 1888-89, or, taking numbers of scholars, there were in public colleges and schools in 1865, 60,000. There are now 524,000. You have seen the institution and the increase of independent colleges, you recognized their value, but you did not fear their rivalry with Government institutions, and that your confidence was justified is proved by the Elphinstone College attracting twice as many students for the University M.A., as all the other colleges of the Presidency. You have seen the Deccan College blossom into the important institution it now is, and take over the handsome and spacious building it now occupies and you have seen the old building of the Elphinstone College taken over by a school of industry, and the college itself take up quarters, thanks to generous benefactors, nearer to the University. You have seen the demand for education diverted into other channels than the art course, through the media of the College of Science, the School of Art, the Victoria Jubilee Institute, and Industrial Schools; and above all you have seen this University recognizing its position of trust, taking the lead in directing education and advancing from time to time its standards to meet the progressive demands of the public service. Dr. Wordsworth, it is my misfortune not my fault, that our acquaintance, our friendship if I may so term it, dates from so recent a period that I am unable of my own knowledge to recapitulate the services you have rendered to the cause of Education in India; but, Sir, could I have done so, that portraiture would have been but the photograph of outlines, telling nothing of the traits of character, of the facility and luxuriance of exposition, of the force of example, of the kindliness of disposition, of "That best portion of a good man's life, his little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love," which, if undetailed in a record of services, nevertheless meet with ready recognition amongst your friends at a of a Teacher. moment like this. Dr. Wordsworth, the reward The Rewards of an instructor of youth lies far less in public honors, and the recognition of ability and virtue than in the characters and careers of those whom he has instructed, and if the honor which this University has conferred on you had been withheld, if expressions of public and private regard had been grudged you, you could have still retired after an honourable career, knowing that you had deserved well of the State in training for it men who by the honourable positions they are attaining to are bringing honour to you, their preceptor, and who by the uprightness of their conduct, bear generous witness to the bright example you have set them. Dr. Wordsworth, we may hope that as we can look back with gratitude to your all but thirty years of life here, so you can look back with conscious satisfaction that they have been well spent, and a feeling that they have been happy ones. I should suppose that there must have been moments of disappointment at being misunderstood. You have distinguished yourself amongst your fellows and there is no man who has reached high eminence but must have now and again found himself opposed in feeling either to the smooth but steady current of official authority, or to the agitated wave of public caprice. No man of character and position, but must have had to face such moments. But if you have to look back on such you can now permit them to be effaced by the assurance that it is recognized on all sides that you have pursued an upright and undeviating course from that which you thought right, and that having the power to train the minds, to bend the inclination of your pupils which way you willed, it is now, when the effect of your training is made apparent, acknowledged that your tuition has been fruitful in raising up loyal citizens for the service of the State. But, Sir, if authority has good reason to be grateful to you, not less so must those be who, coming to you to be shown how to live and how to learn, have found a master living a moral and a virtuous life, a student loving his books : "And books we know "Are a substantial world, both pure and good Loving his books, not to strain and distort their meaning for purposes of argument, but for the power they give him of making more interesting, more fruitful of illustration, more easy of recollection, the tuition which was his profession, not only the master, not only the student, but above all a friend. Sir, I venture to say that the unanimity which the public has indicated in approving of the conferment of this degree on you to-day has been won by the large-hearted and open sympathy, not given to the insular reserve of all your countrymen to display, but which you have bestowed in overflowing measure on the resident nationalities of this country. Dr. Wordsworth, if amongst those who have effected the reforms I have outlined, you of your modesty would not say 'quorum pars magna fui, nevertheless your friends must feel that in the Councils that have initiated them yours was indeed a weighty opinion; and gauging them fairly, and bearing in mind the influence you have had in Council, in literary education, and in training up public servants, I think I am justified in saying that you are a worthy recipient of the honours of this degree, not only as a representative of learning, but also as one who has given eminent public services to the State. Dr. Wordsworth, you are about to leave us, we trust for your good and your greater comfort, but we hope that the separation is not to be complete, and that now and again whispers may reach us over the resounding sea, expressions of the thoughts aroused by the contemplation of the mountains and lakes of that northern country so inseparably connected with the name you bear, or the classic scenes which an "Excursion in Italy" may disclose to you. Be that how it may, there is memory still, and that must bind you in thought to the land that has seen your life's service. Be certain that Bombay will not cease to remember you, to be grateful to you, and that she assures you as her last farewell that to the last day of your life there may remain to you "A consciousness that you have left Of memory, images and precious thoughts 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. And it will perhaps help us to form as rough estimate of the The Results. 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. 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 Changes in the staff of officebearers. 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 |