Just imagine the District Magistrate and the District Superintendent of Police forming a Caucus in the mofussil to manage Municipal or District Board elections and then quietly claiming that they had done this in their private capacity. The whole question is so important and the future course of local self-government so much bound up with it, that I trust it will receive earnest consideration at your hands to day, and that we shall not rest in this matter till Government officers as a class are not only forbidden to form combinations, but also are themselves expressly disqualified for election at the hands of popular constituencies. One word more and I have done. Gentlemen, I feel bound to say—and I say it with regret-that the Bombay Government has not come well, at any rate so far, out of this affair. It will not do for the Government,. Nelson-like, to put the glass to the blind eye and say that it knew nothing of what had been going on. The intense excitement caused by the activity of the Caucus, the extraordinary and unparalleled unanimity with which Indian papers of all shades of opinion were writing day after day and week after week, should have impressed on the Government the necessity of its pulling up its officers promptly before harm had been irrevocably done. However, nothing was done to discourage the mischievous zeal of the Caucus, and when the day of election arrived, it was found that all officers of the Government, high and low-all, with the exception of the very highest, were there at the place of election to vote solid for the Caucus ticket, and to support the Caucus actively in other ways, and when three Additional Members of the Bombay Legislative Council wrote formally to the Bombay Government to represent the state of public feeling, and to request an open inquiry into what had taken place, offering to adduce evidence in support of their statements, an amazingly curt reply was sent to these gentlemen, as much as to say that their letter was an impertinence, and that the officials in the Government could not be expected to hear complaints against their brother officials in the Caucus. Further, the astounding plea was advanced that the wise and salutary prohibition against Government officers influencing popular elections.

applied to Legislative Council elections and not to Municipal elections. One would have thought that, after the fierce storms of indignation that swept over Bombay after the day of the election, the Government would have recognized better the necessity of a strictly impartial attitude. on its part in all subsequent developments. But what are we to think of the appointment of Mr. Suleman Abdul Wahed as a nominee of the Government on the new Corporation? This gentleman, who was practically coerced by the Caucus to join them, who had no wish of his own to come forward as a candidate, who was declared disqualified for membership in a Court of Law, is included by Government among its own nominees at the first opportunity. Well, all I can say is, that if the Government had wanted to confirm the unfortunate impression in the public mind that its sympathies were with the Caucus in this deplorable affair, it could not have taken a more effective step than this to do so. Gentlemen, I fear we have had enough indication of the attitude of the Bombay Government in this matter, and I think we are justified in not waiting further for redress at its hands. You are now going up to the Government of India, which, let us hope, will deal with the question in a spirit of greater regard for the requirements of justice and fair play, and with a higher sense of responsibility towards the freedom, purity and independence of popular elections. It may be that even here motives of official prestige may come in the way, as has so often happened in the past, of the right thing being done, or rather of the wrong thing being set right. But let us not anticipate evil unnecessarily. Things are bound to take their appointed course, and all we owe to ourselves in these matters is to strive our best according to our lights and our opportunities.

SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURN.

[At the Twenty-sixth Session of the Indian National Congress held in Allahabad, in 1910, the Hon'ble Mr. G. K. Gokhale in moving the resolution of vote of thanks to the President, spoke as follows :-]

Ladies and Gentlemen,-It is my privilege now to move that our most cordial thanks be accorded to our President, Sir William Wedderburn (cheers) for the great trouble he has taken in coming to India to preside over this Assembly and for his devoted labours in guiding aright the deliberations of the Congress. Gentlemen, on the opening day of this Congress installing Sir William in the chair as also to-day in moving a vote of thanks to the British Committee, our distinguished countryman, Babu Surendra Nath Banerjea (cheers) has spoken of Sir William's lifelong services to India with an eloquence and a felicity of expression all his own; and to what he has said, several prominent members of this Congress have also already added their own tributes. I will not, therefore, occupy you for more than a very few minutes. And as a matter of fact, it is really unnecessary for me or for anyboby else to say anything to commend this resolution to your enthusiastic and unanimous approval. Gentlemen, we are bound to feel that any acknowledgment of the services which Sir William has rendered to this country, no matter from whom it comes, or no matter how it is made, is bound to be a most inadequate expression of the feelings which rise uppermost in our hearts at the mere thought of all that we owe to him, for all that he has felt for us, for all that he has hoped for us, for all that he has done for us, for all that he has borne and braved for us. That being so, I really think that I need not occupy much of your time; but there are two or three things which I hope you will permit me to say. Sir William before he left England, mentioned, at the gathering which had assembled to do him honour, that on the 25th November

he was to complete the 50th year of his service in the cause of the people of this country. It is almost a coincidence that this period of fifty years is divided into almost two equal parts, the first half being his period of service as an official and the second half being his period of work as our trusted leader in England (cheers). Now even when Sir William was serving in this country as an official he was doing more than any other official of his time on our side to bring the two races closer together. I remember the words of my great master, Mr. Ranade (cheers), once telling me that among all the Englishmen whom he had known there was none to be put on the side of Sir William. That was while he was an official, but after his retirement, he has thrown himself heart and soul into our work and India has held his whole heart to the exclusion of every other subject; and for the last 25 years he has laboured for us in England, he has watched for us in England, he has fought for us in England, as no other man of our time has done. During these 25 years everything that he has undertaken has been entirely for the sake of India. For our sake he went into Parliament, for our sake he left Parliament, for our sake he made friends, for our sake he entered into hostilities, for our sake he undertook the most menial service and the lasting work that can be undertaken. Nothing was too small or too laborious for him to undertake if only it was for the good of India. If this has been his work during 50 years, was it any wonder that when Sir William came to know that it was the wish of the United Provinces that he should come over to preside at this Congress that he readily assented to do so? That he undertook this mission in spite of the dissuasions of those dearest and nearest to him, in spite of the advice of his doctor, in spite of the grave anxiety of his friends, was not to be wondered at. It was sufficient for him to see that his coming out to India would be of use to India and even at his great advanced age and his impaired health, he undertook this voyage in order to preside over our deliberations here (cheers). Well, that in itself would entitle him to our enduring gratitude, but the manner in which he has guided us during these stormy days, the manner in which he

has given every moment of his time and thought to our work from the moment he landed up to the present, has filled every one of us with the utmost admiration and gratitude. I have had special opportunities of watching him during these days and I may tell you that from the moment he landed, his one thought has been how to bring these proceedings to a harmonious and successful close. Sir William has guided our deliberations with wisdom and insight that are altogether his own, his wisdom born of long experience and insight that is his by nature; and in addition to the wisdom and insight he has also brought to bear on his task, great tact, great patience and great gentleness and the proceedings have proved to be so successful, as I am sure everybody will agree that they have, the credit is mainly due to Sir William's presence in the chair. I will say one thing more and conclude. Why is it that Sir William has done all this for us? Why is it that he has come all this distance? Why is it that he has been taking all this trouble for the last 25 years, if we exclude his official career? Well, the answer to this is twofold. Part of the answer is that he could not help it that it was in his very composition, that he was so made; this would be part of the answer. The other part of the answer is based on this, namely, that by temperament, by nature, Sir William is one of the most fair-minded men that exist anywhere. His strong stern absolute sense of justice has been responsible for making him do all this work. He saw that the present arrangements were not just to the people of this country, and he has thrown himself heart and soul to make them more just and to set right the injustice done to the people of this country. Then again, we all know how deep, how passionate is his attachment to the cause of humanity in general. Wherever there is wrong, Sir William's sympathy goes straight to that place. His deep attachment to the cause of humanity--it is that that has also sent him in this direction. These two are general grounds. That is his composition and that is how he is made; but in addition to these two there have been two other causes. The first is his deep, his abounding love for the people of this country, love that has stood all tests, such tests that even