Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 191]

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183 motion in the army, and two or more extensions of the elective franchise, and to my mind the best feature of all is that each of the steps which he has induced England to take has been taken without tumult, by peaceful processes following the education of the public mind or the enlightenment of the public conscience. The Home Bule bill may fail to-morrow, or this month, but its principles will prevail. I do not profess to know more than another what results may grow out of this beginning, but 1 can not but believe that it will engraft a new scion upon the English constitution, from which will grow an organic structure not unlike that of the United States of America, in which each fragment of Great Britain and Ireland will have control of its own domestic affairs, while all will be joined in an indissolubly united kingdom, whose imperial parliament will deal with all matters of common interest. When that is accomplished, and many of us may live to see it, several improvements will have been made in the processes of government by legislation which our Americans may wisely borrow. If nothing else, I believe we shall have been shown how to right gigantic wrongs, introduce radical changes into the system of government, and to keep step with the onward march of the civilized legions, without resort to war, destruction, and carnage. For one, I could wish that the hands on the dial which tell the hours of Gladstone's waning life were set backward thirty years. Bender unto God the things which are God's. My young friends, what hath God done for you ? Look out now on this beauteous earth, on this glorious June day, full of throbbing life, and joy, and hope, and mark the surroundings. Behold all nature jubilant under glowing sun and sky of blue, with song of bird, and hum of bee, and perfume of flower, luxuriant with waving grain, and early fruit, and promise of profusion in the budding year. Kecali to your minds your capacities of body and of mind, coordinated to be sustained by these benefits, and to appreciate these delights. Bemember your own joyous young lives, as you stand now in the glorious freshness of opening manhood and womanhood, pausing to scan the field before you plunge into the conflict. Think of the circumstances amid which you move, that though not sensible to the eye and ear, and so not comparable with * these sights and sounds, are yet more worth to you as the invaluable portion of the heritage which you may accept and enjoy. Consider, the citizenship which is open to admit you in this free and grand republic, which we fondly claim presents for capacity and ambition facilities for advancement unknown under any other sky. Begard the endowments. of mind and heart, memory, thought, will, affection, conscience, by which your life is distinct above all other lives that surround and delight you. Becount the generous provision that the State and nation have made for you, that you might make the broadest and the best development of your native capacities. Sit down here and complete with deliberation and care an inventory of all that you have and expect to attain, of all that you are and hop3 to be, and then tell me if it be not true that, made, endowed, and environed as you are, your place in nature and in life can scarcely be lower than that which the angels are presumed to occupy.