NATIVE ARISTOCRACY.

11

have undoubtedly their limits, periods and terms,-from their durability, we are accustomed to consider immensities, and infinities, and eternities-then shall you learn your own comparative significance; your true station upon this globe, and in this universe and be filled with loyalty not only to your rulers, but to every one of your fellow men. Then shall you feel that humility and self-distrust which are the true distinguishing marks of wisdom; as arrogance and vain glory are the characteristics of mere knowledge, be it more or less.

Then only will education have fully performed its work: and you, one and all, be prepared cheerfully to perform your duty in that station of life to which it shall please God to call you.

Your old Aristocracy has perished: whether we have destroyed it, or it has crumbled away from its own weakness, I care not now to inquire. It has passed away, and this is probably a good; for it was an Aristocracy which had no principle of vitality in it, no seed productive of regeneration. It will be for you the field is open-to raise up for yourselves a nobler Aristocracy than one either of birth or wealth, the Aristocracy of cultivated intellect-in other words of Education.

I feel that I may be chargeable with having spoken somewhat above the understanding of a large portion of my audience: I care not. I speak on this occasion as much to the Public as to you here present. I have, I own, been carried somewhat out of myself. I have said much that I did not intend to say; and omitted somewhat of what I did intend—but if I have spoken too loftily for my audience, it is a fault on the right side-it is better than speaking down to or below their level; for the very effort of the young mind to stretch itself up to that which it does not fully comprehend, is in itself a good and you, boys, if you continue honestly and diligently to pursue the course which the examinations

12

APOLOGY FOR LOFTY SPEECH.

prove you to have pursued hitherto, you will come to understand and appreciate what I have said

ever there
depend upon this-how far it has been

may be of good or value in

that is to say, what

it—and that must

spoken in all sin

cerity of purpose, in honesty of conviction, and in the great name and for the sacred cause of Truth,

ADDRESS on the Eleventh Anniversary of Patcheappah's Institution: 1854.

MR. PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES.-It affords me great gratification to meet you again on this the eleventh Anniversary of PATCHEAPPAH's noble Institution. On the last occasion our meeting was somewhat over-shadowed by gloom cast upon it by the recent departure of that staunch supporter of Education in general, and this Institution in particular, my name-sake, the late Advocate General, your former Patron; and also by the death of several of the Trustees who had been forward in running the good race, and to supply whose loss we then thought would be a work of no slight difficulty and embarrassment. I congratulate you however now on the manner in which you have been able to supply those vacancies in your own body, because you have selected such gentlemen from the Native community, as will afford a guarantee for the permanent stability of this Institution : I allude particularly to RUNGANADUM SHASTRY and POROSHOTUM MOODELLY, who, having themselves experienced all the delights and profits incident to a liberal Education, are only anxious to extend to others the same opportunities which they have enjoyed themselves; and I am quite sure that they will never relax in the efforts which they have so laudably exerted in the great cause of Native Education.

There is another topic connected with this subject, which I should not be doing my duty to the Native public were I to pass over entirely in silence. I allude to those steps which you have taken, with a view to obtain the accession to your body of CONNIAH CHETTY, who either is or shortly will become one of your Trustees. There is another gentleman, also, who will, I trust, ere long join you heartily in making He has been lately the subject of much ani

common cause.

14

DISSENSIONS IN NATIVE SOCIETY.

madversion and much mis-representation; but both the sacrifices he has made in his purse, and the labor and fatigue he has voluntarily undertaken in person, testify most forcibly to the practical interest which he takes in the welfare of his fellow-countrymen. I speak of LUCHMENARASU CHETTY. (a) (great clapping of hands.)

:

I cannot but be aware that there has existed much doubt, difficulty, distrust, disunion, among two classes of the Native. community for some years past and I warn you, that union is strength; and that you are not strong enough to afford to be divided; whatever your differences, you must be prepared to cease from your bickerings; mutually to forgive and to forget; and to join heart and hand in your co-operation, by which alone you can forcibly press upon your Rulers those claims and rights which you have to increased facilities and extended means of education; and I trust that this day may be marked as an epoch in the annuals of Native Society.

One of the principal causes of dissension has been this very Institution. Rumours and reports have been from time to time spread abroad, though latterly growing fainter and fainter, that the funds of this Charity are mis-appropriated or non-appropriated. I can only say that, so far as I have had an opportunity of looking into them, so far as several of the fresh Trustees have looked into them, and they have subjected them to a very searching inquiry; so far as the late Advocate General, whose official duty it was to supervise them year by year; and so far as the present · Advocate General, who has favored us with his presence today, is aware; nothing can be farther from the truth; there is not a foundation for the report; and you, Mr. President, have, I think, this day given a most proper and satisfactory reason for the non-performance of two of the

(a) Now the Honorable Lutchmenarasu Chetty, Member of the Legislative Council of Madras.

PATCHEAPPAH'S HALL ITS USES.

15

most important Charities about which objections have been raised, those of Chedumbarum and Triplicane; namely, the impossibility of their performance.

There has existed, too, great difference of opinion about the wisdom of appropriating so large a portion of your current funds to the particular purpose of erecting this edifice: but, however opinions might have differed about that originally, I think that there can be but one opinion in respect of the utility of this Hall, now that it is erected. I believe that there is a growing feeling in its favor, both among the European and Native Society of the place. When you remember that during the few past years, Europeans have been glad to ask you for the use of this Hall, for public purposes for which they had no suitable erection of their own, I think it must be a proud satisfaction to you to have conferred the favor upon them, and accommodated them with a building raised solely by Native funds, and to which no European had contributed a single fraction. During the past year too, independently of its uses for the purposes of the Institution itself, you have been able to let those young men, who have finished their school education, but are still laudably persevering in self-improvement, have this Hall periodically for the purpose of lectures delivered to them by Missionaries and other European gentlemen interested in the spread of wholesome information.

From the very spot whereon we now stand, kind and wise instruction has, month by month almost, been afforded to the young of your own community. The very display made to-day is a strong argument in favor of the utility of the Hall because it is by bringing together, as to a common centre, all the Native Educational Institutions of Madras, and teaching them to look up to PATCHEAPPAH's as their guide and friend, that you make public to the Europeans, who would otherwise never know of their existence, and