Cambridge University Reporter Special

A Congregation of the Regent House was held this day at 2.30 p.m. The Chancellor was present. Processions formed in the Schools Arcade at 2.25 p.m., passed round the Senate-House Yard, and entered the Senate-House by the South Door and the East Door.

Music was performed at the Congregation by the Choirs of King's and Jesus Colleges and by the King's Trumpeters.

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry in Stanford University, Honorary Member of Christ's College, scientist, and author

Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Wales, Bangor, formerly Professor of Linguistics in the University of Reading, author, editor, and broadcaster

The Orator delivered the following speeches when presenting to The Chancellor the recipients of Honorary Degrees:

Inter summos iuris nostri iudices opportuno aduenit femina, sed quae prima eorum femina futura erat, ea debebat ius docte prudenter lucide dicere. sunt apud nos qui studentis huius meminerunt: eo erat ingenio eoque animo ut gradu primo in hac aula nondum collato iuris docendi munus in uniuersitate Mancuniensi accepisset, ibique per annos XVIII docebat disputabat explorabat; conscripsit autem librum cuius titulo apparet quid sui plurimum in iure referret, Mulieres et Leges qui uocatur: nam si de uiris ea quae de mulieribus in iure inessent, multo abhinc tempore aliqua commutata essent.

nec mirum si mox inter eos est adscripta qui leges perscrutati si quid emendari aliterue ferri placuerit sic monent. haec cum scrutata monuisset, inter leges est illa de pueris lata, qua nulla in his temporibus grauior, nulla optabilior habetur; adeo in causis quae de familia domoque dicuntur ualet huius auctoritas.

atque iam summa creata iudex quas sententias dicit? iudicare appellantibus solent quini, quorum unus dicit princeps; huic igitur plerumque aut consentire aut dissentire adhuc accidit, sed etiam tum locus est ut oratione impigra et plana qua solet usa cogitationes aperiat. legi de raptu puellarum quae praue lata erat cum ceteri parent haec subtili probata ratione dissentit; legi de hostibus ciuitatis nuperrime latae cum argumentis undique aduocatis resistunt omnes, haec breuiter aequitatem ita explicat quibus radicibus orta sit ut ciui cuilibet prodesset audire.

praesento uobis iudicem probam, sapientem, doctam, feminam admodum honorabilem, inter summos iudices causarum appellatarum adscriptam, excellentissimi ordinis imperi Britannici dominam commendatricem, magistram in artibus, collegi Girtonensis curatricem

BRENDA MARJORIE, baronissam HALE DE RICHMOND

Elevation of a woman to the highest court of justice in the land is timely; as first woman among these judges she had to be one who could deliver judgment with learning, good sense and clarity. There are those here who can remember their student Brenda Hale, a student of such talent and purpose that before she received her first degree here she had accepted a post in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manchester, where she spent eighteen years teaching, debating and exploring the law. The title of a book she co-wrote, Women and the Law, exposes well the area of her special interest. If the rules that applied to women in the law had applied to men, there would have been changes long ago.

Her recruitment to the Law Commission came as no surprise. Its job is to examine our laws and to recommend desirable alterations. She did her work and made her recommendations. One result is the Children Act. No acts in recent times have been more important or more needed. Its creation is a measure of her authority in the whole field of family and domestic law.

And now that she is a judge in the highest court of the land, what judgments does she deliver? The court is normally formed of five, and one judge leads. Mostly her role so far is to agree or to disagree, but that leaves plenty of room for her own understanding to be revealed in her own busy and unpompous style. There was a case of rape for which the law was badly drawn: four of them abode by the law as it was, but she in a dissenting judgment argued with skill and cogency for rejecting its mistakes. There was the recent law on terrorism: all the judges rejected its terms, with evidence brought from all quarters; she put the case for fairness in a brief exposition of the governing principles, and any citizen of the land would be the better for hearing it.

I present to you 'an upright judge, a wise and learned judge', the Right Honourable

BRENDA MARJORIE,Baroness HALE OF RICHMOND, D.B.E., M.A.,

Versus Latinos puer X annorum purissimos hic scribebat: tam bene educatus quid non facere potuit? sed huic uiro, aeque ac multis aliis eo saeculo natis, bellum illud alterum gentium intercessit: fit miles, et stipendia in Africa Sicilia Europa optime meritus, cum duces hostium iudicandi erant, legato nostro Gladwyn Jebb aderat. qua re permotus totum se deinde ad id concilium adiuuandum tum nouissime institutum dedidit quo gentes in UNum conuocatae cauerent ne quid rursus gentibus tantae atrocitatis minaretur.

optime per XL annos quaesturam quasi perpetuam pro praefectis concilio egit, quorum quis se summa uirtute in munere tractaret iuste censet eum esse qui lapsus ab aethere fato multo tristiore quam quo Icarus est perditus. illo quidem praefecto, cum quidam Aegyptum inuasere, nata est ratio illa qua copiae quas quis submitteret hostibus utrisque interpositae pacem seruarent: Britanni enim Gallique ex acie se receperant, sed quid Iudaeis et Aegyptiis obstabat quin iterum manum consererent? copias emissas pilleis pigmentoque glauco suppeditatis hic uir instruxit. X annos non pugnabatur. tunc erant qui recipiendas censerent. receptis statim pugnatur. paradoxum illud, ut si dimicare cessandum est, instruas milites, iam melius intellegitur.

sunt tamen quae, ut in Africa media, felici exitu careant. esto; audiamus potius quae cum se munere abdicauit apud Iudaeos dicta sunt: Tu omnium qui huc illuc pacem petitum commearunt unus exis misericordia et aequitate par et perfectus. addamus ipsi:

praesento uobis uirum fortem et strenuum, equitem auratum, praeclari ordinis sancti Michaelis et sancti Georgi equitem commendatorem, excellentissimo ordini imperi Britannici adscriptum, gentium in unum conuocatarum olim ab epistulis praefecti

BRIAN EDWARD URQUHART

'I could write correct and grammatical Latin verse when I was ten,' he says: with an education like that he might have done anything, but for Brian Urquhart, as for so many of his generation, the Second World War intervened. He joined up, and served with distinction in North Africa, Sicily and Europe, and when the surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial he found himself assisting our chief prosecutor Gladwyn Jebb. The experience was decisive: he then devoted himself to serving a body newly formed, the United Nations Organization: the atrocities just ceased could not be allowed to recur.

For forty years he served with distinction a long line of Secretaries General, of whom the most outstanding in his view, which has much to recommend it, was Dag Hammarskjöld. Alas, he died in a plane crash, and his death has never ceased to be lamented. It was in Hammarskjöld's time as Secretary General that Egypt was attacked. One consequence was the creation of the United Nations Peace-keeping force. The British and French had withdrawn, but what would stop Israel and Egypt from resuming the conflict? Various nations supplied the troops, and Brian Urquhart supplied the helmets and the blue paint and the organization. For a decade there was peace, until some nations decided that their troops should be withdrawn. They were withdrawn, and war broke out at once. We understand rather better now the paradox that if such fighting is to be prevented you send in soldiers.

Some problems - in Zaire, for instance, and Angola - have no happy outcome. That is their way. Words of farewell published in the Jerusalem Post when Brian Urquhart retired from his long endeavours are worth hearing, however: 'Of all the many shuttlers and would-be peacemakers, you have come through with an unblemished record for dispassionate compassion.' We may add (in a Latin verse) that few are so earnest for peace as a professional soldier.

Sir BRIAN EDWARD URQUHART, K.C.M.G., M.B.E.,

Fugit hic uir adolescens Iudaeus e Norico: patria noua sibi trans oceanum Atlanticum inuenta, nondum XIX natus annos fit baccalaureus in artibus unoque post anno nomen suum inuestigationi edendae primo inscripsit; doctoris gradum duobus tantum annis assecutus statim quo altius rem chimicam inuestigaretur in alteram sibi nouam patriam migrauit, ibique cohortis tironum Mexicanorum dux creatus moleculas quas στερεοειδεις uocamus docet quo possint artis interuentu scientiaeque uariari. nam numero multae gignuntur eae moleculae similique forma, aliisque sunt alia in rerum uiuentium natura fouenda uel inhibenda officia. tum uero inter cohortis certabatur quae prima moleculas arte genitas probaret quibus dolor articulorum humani corporis leuaretur; tanta sollertia duxit hic suos ut rationem probatam XXIII diebus prius ediderint quam ceteri, nec multo post alteras moleculas e dioscorea uillosa genitas probauit quibus femina se solito fructu Veneris liberaret accepta ore pilula. o quae grates inde agi coeptae, morisque coeundi quanta mutatio!

num Nemeaeis deuictus leo placeret siletur; edita pilula diu uarieque disceptatur. hic uir e commercio serius lucratus paulatim mentem ad alia studia direxit: facit fabulas, quarum aliquae scaenicae, eo consilio permotus quo si quis minus in rerum natura inuestiganda sit exercitus consuetudinem usumque eius studi quales sint consideratius intelligat. tabulas autem Pauli pictoris illius Heluetii multas acquisiuit, quibus omnibus pinacothecae publicae dono datis postea fundo in hospitium conuerso uiuis suppeditat pictoribus aliisque eius generis artificibus. qui principio scientia liberalitate quoque nunc abundat.

praesento uobis Chimiae in uniuersitate Stanfordensi professorem emeritum, collegi Christi honoris causa participem, auctorem et editorem

CARL DJERASSI

Austria in 1938 was no place for a young Jew: Carl Djerassi fled, and found a new home across the Atlantic, where he gained his first degree at the age of 18 and first put his name to a scientific paper one year later. After a doctorate which took him only two years he promptly moved to another country to pursue his research interests: he was appointed to lead a comparatively inexperienced team in Mexico, to train them in the art and science of steroid chemistry. Steroids are molecules plentiful in nature, similar in form and powerful in encouraging and inhibiting developments of all sorts in living things. There was a race on at the time to establish an artificial steroid which would control inflammation of the joints in human beings. Carl Djerassi led his young team with such skill that they established and published their synthesis of cortisone 23 days before the others, and shortly after that he developed another steroid, from the Mexican wild yam: women could now be free of the common consequence of sexual intercourse simply by swallowing a pill. There was much thankfulness as a result, and quite a revolution in people's sexual behaviour.

Whether they were happy in Nemea when Hercules had slain their lion is unclear; marketing the Pill gave rise to prolonged and shifting dispute. Profit from the enterprise came late; Carl Djerassi's interests little by little moved on. He took to writing, sometimes for the stage, in order to give a better appreciation of what sort of a thing scientific research is to those largely ignorant of it. He acquired many works of the artist Paul Klee, but then gifted them all to a public gallery, and converted his estate in California into a centre for painters and other artists. Scholarship and generosity have met in him abundantly.

CARL DJERASSI,

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry in Stanford University,Honorary Member of Christ's College, scientist and author

Lapidis illam fabulam quis nescit post praematuram mortem auctoris annos XXX latere, famamque ei serius accessisse quam ut frueretur? hic uir, in prouincia Serum australi natus, multa puer audiebat narrare seniores, inter quae bellatorum fabulas et amantium, quas tanta delectatione percepit ut iuuenis, cum ab optato cursu prohiberetur, ad artem narrandi conuersus statim opus primum multorum, Librum et Ensem nomine, conscripserit. his libris equitum amantiumque res gestas celebrat (Aquitanos illos ternos ad regis Arturi mensam fingite inter equites errantis adiectos); artem cum gladio dimicandi praecipue collaudat; stilo autem adeo docte eleganterque conscribit eos, sed idem sermone communi lasciuiisque uariatos, ut et in ludis et in academiis iam legantur, uenierintque numero ter miliens. nam ciuium cum res multa abhinc saecula gestas bene cognouit tum quas adulescentuli gerere cupiant comprehendit; cognouit autem quid per allegoriam fabulae uetustae ferant uirtutis et ponderis.

rei publicae quoque studet: quid praesertim apud Seras accidat noui per nuntios papyraceos edidit, addiditque commentaria non modo suo conscripta calamo sed etiam Anglice reddita, ne in insula tunc in antiquam fidem reditura populus unus alterum ignoraret quid uellet; quae commentaria mox in libro sunt edita. multum uero hic uir, qua est prudentia, ad reditum illum parandum profuit. qua de re sic ipse more Solonis:

praesento uobis excellentissimo ordini imperi Britannici adscriptum, collegi Robinsoniani honoris causa socium, scriptorem et editorem

LOUIS CHA

The Story of the Stone, that famous Chinese novel, languished in obscurity for thirty years after its author's early death. Louis Cha, born in the Chinese province of Yunnan, used to listen as a child with great delight to tales told by his elders, tales of warriors and lovers, and he listened to such effect that when as a young man he could not pursue the career he intended, he could switch to story-telling, and promptly he produced his Book and Sword, the first of many novels. In them he celebrates the gallant deeds of knights and lovers - you may like to imagine the knights errant of King Arthur's Round Table somehow combined with the Three Musketeers; in particular he celebrates the martial art of swordplay. He writes with such style and scholarship, but also with an earthiness and a sense of fun, that these works are now read in schools and studied by academics, and they have sold 300 million copies. Not only does he know his country's history very well; he also understands what its young people like to read, and he knows the power for good that old tales can have by way of allegory.

He is attentive to politics too. He is a publisher of newspapers which focus on matters in China, and he wrote his own editorials, publishing them in English and Chinese so that in Hong Kong, at that time soon to return to its ancient allegiance, the two communities should understand each other's aims. The editorials were later published in book form. Thanks to his moderation and common sense, Louis Cha was of great service in preparing for the end of British rule. As he himself in Solonian fashion has written of that time,

LOUIS CHA, O.B.E.,

¹ The slander and praise that came day and night do not merit mentioning; success or failure in a hundred years is no easy matter.

Linguarum est hic uir inuestigator quibus rationibus constent: animum primo aduertit ad eam Anglicae linguae rationem distinguendam qua quid per comma orationis non uocabulo electo nec conexu sed uoce, modo indicantis, modo dolentis, modo increpantis, modo exhortantis¹ significatur; inde erroribus studuit quales faciunt uel pueri priusquam satis edidicerunt uel alii impares ad perfecte eloquendum nati, quae studia non minimo sunt medicis usui.

tum schola relicta suo sub signo niti malebat, cuius tropaea si quaeritis, preli nostri templum adite: e tanta frequentia librorum, e ui tanta doctrinae, quid clarius quam glossemata illa, unum ipsi linguae quacumque quis utitur deditum, alterum Anglicae linguae? rebus undique compertis plena sunt (quas ipse in pagina ut commode legantur instruxit), nec quicquam obscurius sed omnia indiciis tam manifestis exposuit ut rem gessisse dicatur laudibus uix minoribus dignam quam quae uiro doctissimo Samueli Letocetensi tribuuntur. ad futura quoque prospicit, qui de lingua interretiaria conscripsit, neque affirmat id quod solitum est dici, fore ut opprimat ceteras Anglica: enimuero non bene una quaeuis ita dominaretur ut aliae quo more animalium genera pessum darentur; est sua cuique uirtus. quid enim de Tuiucana putemus qua nihil affirmare potes nisi eodem uerbo uariato aut uisum a te aut auditum significas aut testimonio probatum aut ab alio nuntiatum aut ipsa ratione conclusum? conscripsit autem de morte linguarum: habitare eum dixerim Monam insulam, quam rursus inuadunt barbari copiis Suetoni Paulini insolentiores.

hac igitur usus lingua quae se mortuam esse ipsa negat, praesento uobis excellentissimo ordini imperi Britannici adscriptum, academiae Britannicae sodalem, in uniuersitate Walliae ad Seguntium honoris causa socium professorialem, in uniuersitate de Reading olim linguarum professorem, auctorem editorem praeconem

DAVID CRYSTAL

David Crystal is a student of linguistics. In studying language he first gave his attention to the intonation patterns of English, those modulations of the voice over units of utterance which carry meaning apart from that of vocabulary and syntax; he then looked into the sorts of mistakes which children make while still learning their mother tongue or which people make who are born with a speech impairment. These studies have greatly helped medical work in the field.

But then he abandoned academe and marched out on his own. For his success you may consult our own University Press: amid his many titles, true tribute to his learning and energy, most notable are his Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and his Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. They are full of the most wide-ranging information, laid out page by page to his own design for convenient reading, free of jargon and exemplified with such clarity that his achievement may be said almost to rank with that of the great Doctor himself. He looks forwards too: in writing Language and the Internet, he rejects the common belief that English is bound to become the world language. In any case, it simply wouldn't be good for any one language so to dominate that others were squeezed out of existence like endangered species. Every language has its own unique worth. Take Tuyuca, an 'evidential' language in which you cannot assert something without having to indicate, by variation within one word, whether you saw it yourself or heard it or have good evidence for it or a report from another or you reasonably infer it. He has written also on the death of language. It needs to be said that he lives on Anglesey, where monoglots intrude more ruthlessly than the troops of Suetonius Paulinus.

DAVID CRYSTAL, O.B.E., F.B.A.,

Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Wales, Bangor, formerly Professor of Linguistics in the University of Reading, author, editor, and broadcaster

Hunc leporem lepore suo Dionysus adulescentem cepit suum: nam etiam dum studet hic uir Roscios aequalis ad se collegerat. ipse partis agebat, proferebat ipse fabulas, uaria adhuc conscribit, sed scribendis praestat fabulis; nec false dicuntur omnium qui se in re scaenica exerceant posterorum memoria maxime teneri nomina auctorum.

primo saeua quaedam indignatio uerba faciebat. uis illa manet, cum potestate coniuncta id rectissima occupandi de quo disputari placuerit; sed partes praesertim feminarum iam ampliore sunt intellectu animi ornatae. in fabula quae Copia uocatur, Susannam primum licet oderis, sed causa tota dicta contrarie quoque sentias, nec multo te aliter mouere uideatur Alicia: pendet admodum altera ex altera. in fabula quae Dentes Risusque nominatur, Margarita, cui in uino aliisque fortasse rebus sit ueritas, haec subito:

tam poetice raro facit, sed semper politice: nam fabulas, quarum hoc capite praestat ea quae Fit Quod Fit uocatur, informat res publica, per hunc et hunc expressa qui quippe media sapientia homines acutius forsitan dicant quam ipsi intellectum habeant.

atque eane posthac legentur quae ex hodiernis rebus oriuntur? at non modo legentur eius fabulae, quae iam in scholis inuestigantur, sed ubique gentium agentur quas histriones amant, quibus inest cum uis tum facetiae: equidem audita Susanna his se interpellare uerbis non risum continui, Nec uero iuuenes quidem me iuuant: quid enim angustius? utriusque enim Musae ditatus est gratia.

praesento uobis equitem auratum, magistrum in artibus, collegi Iesu honoris causa socium, fabularum scriptorem

DAVID HARE

This is a hare coursed and caught in his youth by Dionysus himself: while still a student he had formed a company of actors. He used to act himself, he used to direct, he still writes a variety of things, but pre-eminently he writes plays. Of all who busy themselves in the world of theatre, it is truly said that posterity remembers best the names of playwrights.

When he began, there was a good deal of Juvenal's scorn and indignation in him. The energy of that remains, combined with a rare talent for going straight for the point at issue and staying on it, but his female characters in particular are now drawn with the sympathy of a larger human understanding. In his play Plenty, Susanna is someone you may at first dislike; when she has put her whole case you may also feel the opposite, and the character called Alice may impress you similarly. To a considerable extent each works in reaction to the other. In his play Teeth 'n' Smiles, there is a character called Margaret (In vino veritas could be her motto, but other substances come into the picture) who suddenly says, 'There are no great, there are no beautiful, there is only the thin filth of getting old.' He seldom writes so poetically, but he is always political (Stuff Happens is the clearest example), in that his plays are penetrated and shaped by the whole wider world in which they happen, and the perceptions of it are expressed by characters who, as people without a privileged intelligence, may well speak with a shrewdness beyond their own understanding.

And will plays born of a contemporary concern find readers in the future? They will indeed: scholars are at work on his oeuvre already, and his plays will continue to find theatres too, because actors enjoy them. With their force goes a wit: I laughed out loud when I heard Susanna say, almost as an aside, 'And I don't really like young men. You're through and out the other side in no time at all.' The two Muses have endowed him most richly.

Congregation of the Regent House on 22 June 2005