THE VALUE OF EDUCATION ments made for the beginning of its work, and may Heaven's choicest blessings be showered on it! To this speech Sir Seymour FitzGerald made the following reply: Princes and Chiefs of Kathiawad, and Colonel Anderson,—The duty which you have called upon me to fulfil is one almost of a merely formal character; but because it is merely formal, it is not the less a subject of the greatest gratification to me, because I am confident that the ceremony in which we are engaged to-day, simple as it is, is one of the most vital importance to this Presi- dency, and one which will probably, or rather certainly, if it is properly carried out, bear fruits, the full value of which neither I, nor any one here, can rightly or fully estimate. And I must congratulate you, Chiefs of Kathia- wad, that we are met here to-day to complete an under- taking which his Excellency the Viceroy only a few weeks ago, in addressing your brother chiefs in Rajputana, recommended to them as an enterprise which it was important for them to commence, and thus, among the princes of your own blood and race, you have arrived at the goal before they have started; you have this noble building completed before they have even begun to consider the measures necessary to enable them to carry out what you have successfully achieved. You have asked me, Colonel Anderson, to impress upon the chiefs here present the importance and the value of this institution. It is difficult for me to do more than reiterate that which I ventured most to impress upon them in Darbar only the day before yesterday; but I have the success of this undertaking so much at heart, that I do not hesitate very shortly but earnestly to repeat what I then said* I beg them to consider what you yourself have pointed in your address—that the object of the institution is not merely that the sons of the chiefs of Kathiawad should have the means of acquiring a certain amount of knowledge, but that they should acquire it in the most valuable form in which it can be attained, in a manner that shall train and discipline the character 227