truth and knowledge be not dangerous to them." With us the days have long since passed away when mankind were kept in subordination merely by sealing up the book of knowledge from their view, and when they were taught to venerate their chief as a sort of earthly divinity, whose fiats were entitled to the most implicit obedience. Α wiser and a happier system has succeeded. Education has diffused its benignant influence over the whole face of society, and even the lowest and most degraded have been "ennobled into men." But, though much has been thus accomplished, some of the rankest weeds of ignorance still remain to be annihilated, and the field of general improvement is yet abundantly extensive. Many a clown who stands in dumb and seemingly stupid gaze at the majesty of a full moon ris of violence and civil discord-as by impressing them with the belief that they have inherently certain rights and privileges, and franchises, which are greedily withheld from them by their superiors in rank. Of these privileges they are as tenacious as of their existence, and even in their tumults they flatter themselves with the idea that they have embarked in a cause equally honourable and patriotic. In what they really consist, they have a very imperfect conception, so that they readily obey the signals of their leader to the commission of every act, how outrageous soever in its character. But this great evil would be speedily dissipated by more extensive information, and by a little clearer insight into the mechanism of society. They would learn what in reason they had a right to expect, they would learn that the doctrine of equality is incompatible with existing through a hazy horizon in an evenence, and that, even in the wildest dreams of the theorist, there has still been a class to perform the meaner work of the community. This simple process would have a far more powerful and salutary effect in preventing national commotion, than the costly and always dangerous system of standing armies,for "they who are convinced by the sword are suspicious converts," or the useless severity of Draconic laws, which only multiply the crimes they were intended to repress. It has been sometimes argued, indeed, that the people ought to be kept in ignorance even of the rights that really belong to them, and that this is the only way to make them obedient subjects to their government— an argument much too absurd to require any exposition. For there must be something viciously defective in the principle and details of that government which requires the aid of ignorance to its support, and the sooner it can be reformed so much the better for those who have the misfortune to be connected with it. "I do not wish to inflame the public mind," says Mr Fox in one of his energetic addresses to the Electors of Westminster, "but I wish the public to be informed; and it is the business of men in power to take care that So says Robert Southey, Esq. an excellent authority on such a subject. VOL. VIII. ing of autumn-or at the forked lightning's flash-or at the fantastic shapes of a transient cloud edged with gold by the gleams of a descending sunwho listens with ignorant, but keen attention, to the rolling of the thunder through the stupendous vault of the " overhanging firmament,"-or whistles as he returns from his daily task in sympathy with the minstrels of the grove,-would, had he the benefit of education to brighten the rough diamond, and give scope to the genial current of the soul," shine forth a WELLINGTON in arms, a Fox in the cabinet, a SHERIDAN in the senate, or a JEFFREY at the bar. MRJEFFREY'S INSTALLATION AS LORD IT is with the highest satisfaction that we extract the following notice from The Scotsman newspaper for Saturday the 6th of the present month. Mr Jeffrey, most of our readers must know, was lately elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, by a very great majority of its members, each of whom has an equal right of suffrage, in preference to Mr Finlay, the Lord Rector of the preceding year. Nothing could be more amicable, or honourable to all parties, than the close of this proceeding, and we feel assured that the wise, temperate, and elevated sentiments, so admirably H expressed in Mr Jeffrey's inaugural speech, must have the happiest and most lasting influence on the discipline, the manners, and the literary ambition of the youthful part of the seminary over which he has the honour to preside. "On Thursday se'nnight, Mr Jeffrey was installed Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. The ceremony excited an unusual degree of interest; and in a few minutes after the doors were thrown open, the Hall was crowded to excess. At three o'clock Mr Jeffrey entered, and was received with the loudest shouts of applause, and with every demonstration of respect and attachment. Mr Jeffrey was accompanied by Mr Camp. bell of Blythswood, M. P. Dean of Faculty, the Principal and Professors of the University, Mr K. Finlay, (late Rector,) and by Messrs Thomson, Cockburn, and J. A. Murray, advocates, Professor Pillans, and several other gentlemen, who had gone with Mr Jeffrey from Edinburgh.After the installation Mr Jeffrey addressed the audience in a speech which called forth reiterated shouts of applause, and of which we are now fortunately enabled to gratify our readers with a much more accurate report than any that has hitherto been published. "Ir will easily be understood that this is to me a moment of great pride and gratification. But I feel that it is also a moment of no little emotion and disturbance; and on an occasion where Burke is reported to have faltered, and Adam Smith to have remained silent, it may probably be thought that I should have best consulted both my fame and my comfort if I had followed the latter example. It is impossible, however, not to feel, that in the case of that eminent person, and of many others who have since conducted themselves in the same manner, the honour they conferred on the University nearly compensated that which they had received from it -and they might not, therefore, feel any very strong call to express their sense of an obligation which was almost repaid by its acceptance. On the present occasion, no one can feel more intimately-no one, indeed, so intimately as I do, that the obligation is all on one side, and that the whole of the honour is that which is done to me. I cannot help feeling, therefore, as if I should be chargeable with ingratitude, if I were to leave to be inferred from my silence those sentiments to which I am abundantly aware I shall do little justice by my words. "In endeavouring, however, to express the sense I have of the very great and unexpected distinction that has been conferred on me, I must be permitted to say, that it has in it every thing that could render any honour or distinction precious in my eyes. It is accompanied, I thank God, with no emolument-it is attended, I am happy to understand, with not many or very difficult duties it is chiefly of a literary and intellectual character-and it has been bestowed, without any stir or solicitation of mine, by something that approaches very nearly to a popular suffrage. These considerations would certainly be sufficient to render any similar distinction in any other seminary of learning peculiarly grateful and flattering. But I must say, that' what chiefly exalts and endears this appointment to me is, that it has been bestowed by the University of Glasgow. It was here that, now more than thirty years ago, I received the earliest and by far the most valuable part of my academical educationand first imbibed that relish and veneration for letters which has cheered and directed the whole course of my after life-and to which, amidst all the distractions of rather too busy an existence, I have never failed to recur with fresh and unabated enjoyment. Nor is it merely by those distant and pleasing recollections-by the touching retrospect of those scenes of guiltless ambition and youthful delight, when every thing around and before me was bright with novelty and hope, that this place and all the images it recalls are at this moment endeared to my heart. Though I have been able, I fear, to do but little to honour this early Nurse of my studies, since I was first separated from her bosom, I will yet presume to say, that I have been, during all that interval, an affectionate and not an inattentive son. For the whole of that period, I have watched over her progress, and gloried in her fame and at your Literary Olympics, where your prizes are distributed, and the mature swarm annually cast off to ply its busy task in the wider circuit of the world, I have generally been found a fond and eager spectator of that youthful prowess in which I had ceased to be a sharer, and a delighted chronicler of that excellence which never ceased to be supplied. And thus, the tie which originally bound me to the place was never allowed to be broken; and when called to the high office which I this day assume, I felt that I could not be considered as a stranger, even by the youngest portion of the society over which I was to preside. "It has not been unusual, I believe, on occasions like the present, to say something of the fame of the University, and of the illustrious men who have from time to time contributed to extend it. I shall not now, however, enter upon such a theme. But on finding myself, after so long an interval, once more restored to this society, and reassumed as one of its members, it is impossible for me not to cast back one glance of melancholy remembrance and veneration to the distinguished individuals by whom it was then a dorned, and from whom my first impressions of intellectual excellence were derived. Among these it is now amatter of pride and gratification that I can still recollect the celebrated Dr Reid-then verging indeed to his decline-but still in full possession of his powerful understanding, and, though retired from the regular business of teaching, still superintending with interest the labours of his ingenious successor, and hallowing, with the sanctity of his venerable age, and the primitive simplicity of his character, the scene over which his genius has thrown so imperishable a lustre. "Another potent spirit was then, though, alas! for too short a time, in the height and vigour of his strong and undaunted understanding-I mean the late Mr Millar, whom it has always appeared to me to be peculiarly the duty of those who had the happiness of knowing him, to remember and commemorate on all fit occasions, because, unlike the great philosopher to whom I have just alluded, no adequate memorial of his extraordinary talents is to be found in those works by which his name must be chiefly known to posterity. In them there is indeed embodied a part-though, perhaps, not the best or most striking part of his singular sagacity, exten sive learning, and liberal and penetrating judgment. But they reveal nothing of that magical vivacity, which made his conversation and his lectures still more full of delight than of instruction ;-of that frankness and fearlessness, which led him to engage, without preparation, in every fair contention, and neither to dread nor disdain the powers of any opponent,— and still less, perhaps, of that remarkable and unique talent, by which he was enabled to clothe, in concise and familiar expressions, the most profound and original views of the most complicated questions; and thus to render the knowledge which he communicated so manageable and unostentatious, as to turn out his pupils from the sequestered retreats of a college, in a condition immediately to apply their acquisitions to the business and affairs of the world. "In indulging in these recollections, I am afraid I am but imperfectly intelligible to the younger part of my hearers, to whom the eminent individuals I have mentioned can be known only as historical or traditionary persons: But there is one other departed light of the same remote period, in referring to whom, I believe, I may reckon upon the sympathy of every one who now hears me, and over whose recent and sudden extinction all will be equally ready to lament. It is melancholy-and monitory, I trust, to us all,-to reflect, that, in the short space which has elapsed since my election to this of fice, this seminary has been deprived of one of the oldest and most distinguished of the teachers by whom it has ever been adorned; and it is no small detraction from the pleasure which I promised myself in appearing here to-day, that I cannot be welcomed by the indulgent smile of that amiable and eminent individual. I had the happiness of receiving a very kind message from him, dictated, I believe, the very day before his death, and when I was far, indeed, from suspecting that it was to be the last act of our intercourse on earth. I need not say that I have been alluding to the late excellent Mr Young,-a man whose whole heart was to the last in the arduous and honourable task to which his days were devoted, and who added to the great stores of learning, the quick sagacity and discriminating taste by which he was so much distinguished, an unextinguishable ardour and genuine enthusiasm for the studies in which he was engaged, that made the acquisition of knowledge, and the communication of it, equally a delight, and who, with habits and attainments that seemed only compatible with the character of a recluse scholar, combined, not merely the most social and friendly dispositions, but such a prompt, lively, and generous admiration of every species of excellence, as made bis whole life one scene of enjoyment, and gave to the moral lessons which it daily held out to his friends and disciples, a value not inferior to that of his more formal instructions. "I have permitted myself to say thus much of the dead. Of the living, however, unwillingly, I believe I must now forbear to say any thing. Yet I cannot resist congratulating myself, and all this assembly, that I still see beside me one surviving instructor of my early youth, the most revered the most justly valued of all my instructors;-the individual of whom I must be allowed to say here, what I have never omitted to say in every other place, that it is to him, and his most judicious instructions, that I owe my taste for letters, and any little literary distinction I may since have been enabled to attain. It is no small part of the gratification of this day, to find him here, proceeding, with unabated vigour and ardour, in the eminently useful career to which his life has been dedicated ;-and I hope and trust that he will yet communicate to many generations of pupils, those inestimable benefits to which many may easily do greater honour, but for which no one can be more sincerely grateful than the humble individual who now addresses you. "But I must not indulge myself farther on themes like these; and ought here, perhaps, indeed, to close this long address. There is one topic, however, which I feel it would be unsatisfactory, and am sure that it would be unnatural, to pass over in absolute silence. Every one that bears me is aware, that in the pride and the pleasure of this day there are, or rather were, some grains of alloy. My election was not unanimous :-and I had not the support of those reverend and learned persons, of the value of Professor Jardine. whose good opinion I trust I am fully aware. To some it may appear that it would have been wiser and more decorous to have omitted all mention of this circumstance. My impressions, I confess, are different. It suits but ill at any time with my temper and habits, to have that in my heart which my lips are forbidden to utter; and, on the present occasion, I have the less scruple to obey the impulse that is natural to me, because I have great pleasure in stating, that I have been received with so much indulgence and cordiality by the far greater part of those who could not concur in my election, as to have entirely effaced any uncomfortable feeling that might otherwise have remained on my mind. I think it right also thus publicly to state, that, in the circumstances in which they were placed, I am satisfied that those reverend and learned persons could not with propriety or honour have acted otherwise than they did;-and I feel it equally my duty to say farther, that, from the inquiries I have recently made, I am persuaded that the prejudices which I have understood to have prevailed against my excellent friend and predecessor Mr Finlay-and to which it is very probable that I owe my present situation,-proceeded in a great degree, if not altogether, from misapprehension. (Some symptoms of dissatisfaction having been here manifested among the younger students, Mr J. proceeded.) In what manner what I have now stated is received by any part of my auditors, is to me a matter of indifference. I have not come here either to court or to receive applause ; but to say what my station and my sense of duty appear to me to require; and I repeat, that, if those who may now view things in a different light, will take the trouble to repeat the inquiries I have made, I am persuaded they will ultimately concur in my opinion; and I confidently hope, that, before I can have an opportunity of visiting you here again, Mr Finlay will be restored to all that popularity which he once possessed, and which I am myself satisfied he has never ceased to deserve.-(Applause.)—In justice to the individuals concerned, I should, at any rate, have stated these things. But, as the head of the Discipline of this seminary, I now feel myself peculiarly called on to make the statement-satisfied that, in thus endeavouring to dissipate any shade of misunderstanding that may have stolen across the face of this society, I was taking the most effectual means to strengthen and restore the best foundation of all discipline-the mutual confidence and cordiality of all the parties concerned in its preservation. "With regard to the younger part of my auditors, to whom I understand I am chiefly indebted for the honour I now assume, I think I may now say, without suspicion of flattery, that, while I am persuaded they are here in the way of receiving a greater mass of useful and substantial information than could be acquired in any other institution in the same time, I have always thought that they had still greater advantages from another practice, peculiar, I believe, to this University, and forming a very remarkable part of the moral and intellectual training it bestows:-I allude to the practice of making the young men act from a very early age as umpires and judges of the perform ances and merits of each other,-and thus not only forming them to early habits of discrimination and vigilant observance, but, what is of infinitely greater importance, teaching them experimentally the value of perfect candour, firmness, and impartiality, setting boundaries to fair emulation, and bringing constantly into view the importance of upright, honourable, and amiable dispositions. By this simple and admirable expedient, the want of a close and familiar intercourse among our school-boys, with which we are sometimes reproached by our neighbours in the South, is effectually supplied; and I am persuaded, that there is not to be found anywhere an assemblage of youth more advanced in this moral and manly discipline than that which is now before me. To have united the suffrages of so many of such a society, is certainly much more flattering to me, than the approbation of persons of such tender years could possibly have been under any other circumstances. "Before entirely leaving this subject, I think it right to observe, that nothing can be more natural and proper, than that the ordinary governors of so great a society as this should generally wish to appoint, as their higher and honorary officers, persons of high rank or great official or political consequence, in order that the important interests which it involves may be more effectually cared for and promoted. In this respect I am afraid I shall prove but a very inefficient servant. But in all that depends on personal zeal and diligence, I think I can pledge myself to the full and faithful discharge of my office, in terms of the solemn path which I have this day taken in your presence. If you have chosen a Rector who can do you but little service, I think I can promise that at least he shall do you no dishonour, and here freely engage to perform all the duties that belong to my place, uninfluenced either by love of popularity or fear of offence, and unseduced even by that habitual indolence, from which I have always been in much greater danger. “And, in concluding, I may perhaps be permitted to say, that, however fitting it is that this place should generally be filled by persons of rank and authority, it may not be altogether without its use, now and then to exalt to it an individual whose only titles to that distinction are his love of letters, and of the establishment which is here dedicated to their honour. An excitement may thus be given to honourable ambition in some bosoms that might have slumbered over an ordinary installation;-and I cannot help fondly imagining that the spectacle of this day may waft a spark to some aspiring and yet unkindled heart, that may hereafter spread a blaze of glory round its owner, and the place of his training. "I have but a word more to say, and that is addressed, perhaps needlessly, to the younger part of my hear ers. It would be absurd to suppose that they had not heard often enough of the dignity of the studies in which they are engaged, and of the infinite importance of improving the time that is now allotted for their cultivation. Such remarks, however, I think I can recollect, are sometimes received with distrust, when they come from those anxious teachers whose authority they may seem intended to increase-and therefore I venture to think, that it may not be altogether useless for me to add my unsuspected testimony in behalf of those great truths; and, while I remind the careless youth around me that the successful pursuit of their present studies is indispensable to the attainment of fame or fortune in after life, also to assure them, from |