Lectures on Modern history

Excerpt

FELLOW STUDENTS—­I look back today to a time before the middle of the century, when I was reading at Edinburgh and fervently wishing to come to this University.  At three colleges I applied for admission, and, as things then were, I was refused by all.  Here, from the first, I vainly fixed my hopes, and here, in a happier hour, after five-and-forty years, they are at last fulfilled.