Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
mild ancl worthy prince , whose ancestor and mine were in this very city tied by the bonds of the warmest friendship . The present prospect which you have here before you , of their descendants joining in the act of laying this stone , after a period closely approaching to half a century , naturally suggests , were it not too long a task for the present occasion , a contrast between what India then was , and what she now is . The step she has taken is a marvellous one , and
the tokens of a further advance are not wanting . The prominent benefits which we now have , and of which , in those clays , a dream even woulcl have been deemed extravagant , are the wide diffusion of education , indigenous and Fnglish , the opening up of public roads , the establishment of newspapers , forming in some degree what is so great a desideratum in this country , a kind of public opinion ; and , though last not least , our rivers dotted with steam-boats , not established by government , but the
result of private enterprise , in which many of our native brethren are concerned . In reference to the wide spread of education I have only to call your attention to the fact , that many of the youths educated in our schools are as well grounded as in our schools in England ; and it is but very recently that we have seen at home a youth of Calcutta carrying away the prize in some branches of the medical profession from all his western contemporaries—turning once more to steam-boats , I myself recollect ,
nineteen years ago , when the first steam-boat which navigated the upper part of the Ganges made her appearance at Patna , and myriads flocked to see , as the magic ship , a thing now , to them , of every day occurrence . But there is another coming event which casts its shadow around us , and which , though not as yet an accomplished fact , cannot be omitted in this list . I allude to the steamers' younger , and equally vigorous , sister the railway . The blasting of the rocks to build the edifices , the busy hum of the miners diing for coal in the Vinclya rangethe felling of
gg , wood for the sleepers , the clinking of rivets in the rails seem already to be sounding in our ears . The change which has been worked in our own country by this wonderful agent is truly great ; hut here , where distance is one of the most formidable obstacles to civilization , what may not be expected ! Already do our Mussulman community hire steamboats at Bombay , to take them to Judda and hack again , and , aided by the safety of our roads , they perform in six months a journey which
formerly occupied from three to four years , ancl thousands yearly return safety to their homes , whereas formerly thousands perished in the way . It will not be many years ere the pilgrim to Gya and to Juggernauth will find his pilgrimage similarly shortened . It is curious to calculate what effect the rail will have on pilgrimages . Doubtless at first the effect will be to increase the number of those who visit these places of reputed sanctity ; but in the end , the credit of the mode of mortification will diminish . As distance is said to lend
enchantment to the view , so does it , in the form of difficulty , constitute the merit of an expiatory visit to a shrine . Remove the obstacle , ancl you destroy the merit . To a celebrated pilgrimage from London to Canterbury we owe one of the most original ancl powerful poems in the English tongue . The journey between those places occupied a time , which enabled the poet to attribute to a large body of pilgrims the telling of very many long tales , without a violation of probability . The time occupied at present in passing over the same space , would barely suffice to read one of those tales . I much doubt , if these pilgrims could now re-appear on the scene ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
mild ancl worthy prince , whose ancestor and mine were in this very city tied by the bonds of the warmest friendship . The present prospect which you have here before you , of their descendants joining in the act of laying this stone , after a period closely approaching to half a century , naturally suggests , were it not too long a task for the present occasion , a contrast between what India then was , and what she now is . The step she has taken is a marvellous one , and
the tokens of a further advance are not wanting . The prominent benefits which we now have , and of which , in those clays , a dream even woulcl have been deemed extravagant , are the wide diffusion of education , indigenous and Fnglish , the opening up of public roads , the establishment of newspapers , forming in some degree what is so great a desideratum in this country , a kind of public opinion ; and , though last not least , our rivers dotted with steam-boats , not established by government , but the
result of private enterprise , in which many of our native brethren are concerned . In reference to the wide spread of education I have only to call your attention to the fact , that many of the youths educated in our schools are as well grounded as in our schools in England ; and it is but very recently that we have seen at home a youth of Calcutta carrying away the prize in some branches of the medical profession from all his western contemporaries—turning once more to steam-boats , I myself recollect ,
nineteen years ago , when the first steam-boat which navigated the upper part of the Ganges made her appearance at Patna , and myriads flocked to see , as the magic ship , a thing now , to them , of every day occurrence . But there is another coming event which casts its shadow around us , and which , though not as yet an accomplished fact , cannot be omitted in this list . I allude to the steamers' younger , and equally vigorous , sister the railway . The blasting of the rocks to build the edifices , the busy hum of the miners diing for coal in the Vinclya rangethe felling of
gg , wood for the sleepers , the clinking of rivets in the rails seem already to be sounding in our ears . The change which has been worked in our own country by this wonderful agent is truly great ; hut here , where distance is one of the most formidable obstacles to civilization , what may not be expected ! Already do our Mussulman community hire steamboats at Bombay , to take them to Judda and hack again , and , aided by the safety of our roads , they perform in six months a journey which
formerly occupied from three to four years , ancl thousands yearly return safety to their homes , whereas formerly thousands perished in the way . It will not be many years ere the pilgrim to Gya and to Juggernauth will find his pilgrimage similarly shortened . It is curious to calculate what effect the rail will have on pilgrimages . Doubtless at first the effect will be to increase the number of those who visit these places of reputed sanctity ; but in the end , the credit of the mode of mortification will diminish . As distance is said to lend
enchantment to the view , so does it , in the form of difficulty , constitute the merit of an expiatory visit to a shrine . Remove the obstacle , ancl you destroy the merit . To a celebrated pilgrimage from London to Canterbury we owe one of the most original ancl powerful poems in the English tongue . The journey between those places occupied a time , which enabled the poet to attribute to a large body of pilgrims the telling of very many long tales , without a violation of probability . The time occupied at present in passing over the same space , would barely suffice to read one of those tales . I much doubt , if these pilgrims could now re-appear on the scene ,