VIII 

 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL 



[1874] 



ELECTED by the suffrages of your four Nations 

 Rector 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 first 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 plebeian 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 



