EARL OF ROSEBERY ON SCOTS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1267, 24 October 1911, Page 2

EARL OF ROSEBERY ON SCOTS.

CELEBRATIONS AT ST. ANDREWS TIIE' KKCG'S GBEETINGS. Lord lialfour of Ilurlcigh, Chanccllol' of St. Andrews' University, read on Wednesday, ■September 33, at a meeting in connection with die (|uiiHTnten.iry celebrations of the university the following which he had received, tigned in the King's own hand: I desire to express my regift; (hat I cannot Ik , present at the festival of the Sflllth anniversary of (lie foumlr.tiim of the University of St.'Andrews, J. am deeply vrasible of tho national piunilieaneo of the celebration of this event in Ihe history of the oldest university in Kcotliind, and recognise with pride Die association of my predecessors with St. Andrew", but J desire to assure (lie court, senate, graduates mid students of tho university that I heartily sympathise with this auspicious event in their corporatelife, and Crust that it may conduce in nil ways to tho woll-being and success of the university.—Georfie It. ct I. Tho meeting was held in the north hall of the university for the purpose of receiving congratulatory addresses,- and more than 100 universities and nearly 15 learned societies from nil parts of the globe had swit eminent representatives to St. Andrews bearing messages of congratulations. On behalf of the, New York Stale University, lor instance, came tho Ikni. Whitelaw Heid. Tho l'opo sent' a special representative in Dr, i'raser, of the Scots College in Home. Lord noscbory's Speech, Lord Eosolx-ry was on Thursday (September U) installed Lord Hector of tiio university, and in his rectorial address, which was heard by 3500 persons in tho hall specially constructed for tho celebration of the university's quincentenary, spoke for nu hour ojici a half. Tile difilinguished orator reviewed (ho history of Scotland and of the university since its foundation 500 years back, indulging for (his purpose (he whimsical fancy that tho first Lord Hector belonged to the race of StrultUirugs, created by Dean Swift's imagination—a race doomed to immortality; yet subject (o most of the physical infirmities of the human kind. "This mngnetie spark which appeared, in Fife," he said, referring to (he beginning of the university, had been a souroo of illumination for all the darkness o£ Scotland. Ignoranco was then past belief. Reign of Barbarism. Lot them not forget tlio honest debt they owed to the prelates who founded St. Andrews, though their office had boon, so Jong an offence and stumbling-block to zealous Prefibyierian.s. They could not exaggerate the barbarism of Scotland ;it that time—the reign of naked violence, of unblushing cupidity, of relentless cruelty. Then years before tho foundation of this university, on the very spot where it was inaugurated, tho oldest sou of tho King was torn or allured from tho cuftlo of St. Andrews and carried to Falkland to bo murdered by, it was alleged, a death of agony. Tiveuty-fivo years afterwards tlio King of Scots wae himself assassinated, and at tho very time when the university waf; founded the Xing was a prisoner in (ho Tower of London. The infant university of St Andrews marked tho beginning of Scottish, learning, and the final struggle of Scottish, barbarism. For two centuries after that tho domestic annals of Scotland recorded navage murders and savage vendettas ca almost every page. It was not till the seventeen Hi emiiury Iliat they saw niiy real note of civilisation or any real 'sign, of α-inuliorntion. That was the jjc' of dorkness in which their little jrlow-'wirm of a university displayed iU modest light. Nothing could have been more unpromising; but mark tho result. Their university, to which lie was proud to belong, wn,i (ill that remained of the Scotland of that time, with the possible exception of the Convention of Royal Burghs. (Laughter.) Five Centuries of Progress. Picturing (ho first Lord Ilector of tlio university as au immortal figure, a Struldbrug, who through tho centuries ■ had 'watched tho progress of the university and of tho nation, Lord Kosebory graphically detailed the chief chaugea which ho would have witnessed. This Struldbrug, he said, would rejoice that religious intolerance was no longer practised under tho pretext of the authority of Christianity. The next groat transformation which their ancient friend would contemplate with complacency would bo tho supersession of violence by law. Scotland rose and throve by neglect She prospered more in the century during which she was forgotten and ignored by Parliament than in all the ceuturioa before or since. That was a lesson from which ninny inferences might be drawn. This at least might bo noted: "\Ve at tliLs time seem to bq in danger of becoming a spoon-fed nation. What is in tho spoon is not for me to fay. (Laughter.) The future only can reveal, It may bo nourishment, it may be poison, it may simply bo soino languid and relaxing potion; but whatever it be, noxious or beneficial, let us at least remember that it was not by such means or in this , way that tho Scottish nation was braced and built up. Proceeding on our present, linea wo may produce a nation stronger and more, self-reliant than it has hitherto . bosn, but it was not by such methods that the strong, noble, self-reliant Scottish nation, as wo liavo known it, was ' evolved." (Cheers.) How, then, would our undying Hector sum up ? "Bo of good cheer, 1 think he would Fay. "You have gained enormously in my longer recollection—much, ill freedom, much in prosperity, and in tho . admiration of mankind. "A nation which preserves its faith in God and in itself can never fail and can never come to mi ignoble end." (Loud and prolonged cheers.)