wonderfully patient under it—more patient than they would have been a quarter of a century ago. But a sore, and among the ignorant a dangerous feeling prevails, as those working amongst them will, I think, admit.
If I am asked if there is no measure which can be taken in order to give our Government a deeper hold on the people, I reply that we cannot do better than go on as we have begun. Some may think that the time has come for broadening the foundations of our rule and basing it on a system of representation by election. This is one of the main objects of the Congress, a gathering of persons supposed to represent the different provinces, which has been held yearly for the last twenty years or more. Their platform is almost the same now as it was in the beginning: employment of natives of the country in all the higher posts (they already occupy all the lower); a representative body, elected by the people, with some power of financial control; the repeal or the Arms Act; liberty to everyone to become a volunteer. But there is one thing they have not thought fit to propose—the abolition of the British army, although they think that if they were allowed to volunteer it might be reduced. They know well that British rifles are required to defend the country and keep the peace while they practise their statesmanship upon it. They know also that if they were left to their own resources they would be speedily hunted out of their legislative palace, wherever they might have established it. It is impossible to take such a Congress seriously. The unsoundness of their proposals will be apparent to anyone who has realized the diverse and multitudinous elements to which British dominion alone has given any sort of unity. Their doings serve mainly to show the political immaturity, of the present generation of educated Indians. If they refrained from sedition and exciting race hatred, one might laugh at them. But they have not always so refrained. Their loyalty is ostentatious, but some-
