considerations. The most elaborate precautions taken to procure a purely judicial mind must break down at critical moments. The Privy Council cannot be free from the Limitations of all human institutions which are good enough only for normal conditions. The consequences of a decision favourable to the people would have exposed the Indian Government to Indescribable discredit from which it would have been difficult to free itself for a generation.
Its political significance can be gauged from the fact that, as soon as the news was received in Lahore all the preparations that were made to accord a fitting welcome to Lala Lajpat Rai were immediately cancelled and the Capital of rhe Punjab was reported to be in deep mourning. Deeper discredit, therefore, now attaches to the Government by reason of the judgment, because rightly or wrongly the popular opinion will be that there is no justice under the British constitution when large political or racial considera- tions are involved.
There is only one way to avoid the catastrophe. The human and especially the Indian mind quickly responds to generosity. I hope that, without the necessity of an agitation or petitions, the Punjab Government or the Centra! Government will immediately cancel the death sentences and if at all possible, simultaneously set the appellants free.
This is required by two considerations, each equally important. The first is that of restoring public confidew* which I have already mentioned. The second is fulfilment of the Royal Proclamation to the letter. That great political document orders the release of , all the political offenders who may not by their iclease prove a danger to society. No one can possibly suggest that the twenty-one appellants will, if they are set free, in any shape or form constitute a
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