YIII 

 UOTVEESITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL 



[1874] 



Elected by the suffrages of your four Nations 

 Eector of the ancient University of which you are 

 scholars, I take the earliest opportunity which has 

 presented itself since my restoration to health, of 

 delivering the Address which, by long custom, is 

 expected of the holder of my office. < 



My iirst duty in opening that Address, is to 



offer you my most hearty thanks for the signal 



honour you have conferred upon me — an honour 



of which, as a man unconnected with you by 



personal or by national ties, devoid of political 



distinction, and a plebian who stands by his order, 



I could not have dreamed. And it was the more 



surprising to me, as the five-and-twenty years 



which have passed over my head since I reached 



intellectual manhood, have been largely spent in 



no half-hearted advocacy of doctrines which have 



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