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wisely given, a generation ago, by that great statesman, Lord Halifax, to such Indian gentlemen as by their influence, their acquirements, and the confidence they inspired in their fellow- countrymen, were marked out as useful adjuncts to our Legislative Councils.'

Mr. George Yule, afterwards President of the Congress at Allahabad, who was sitting next to me, said, as these words were uttered, 'You will get the reform in five years' time'. The words were prophetic. They were uttered in 1887, we got the reform in 1892, just five years after. It is curious that Lord Dufferin, who encouraged the idea of an Indian National Congress and sympathized with its aspirations at the outset, should have, before he laid down the reins of office, described the educated community as a 'microscopic minority'. Indeed, while he was condemning the Indian National Congress at the St. Andrew's Dinner in Calcutta, he was writing a secret despatch supporting its recom- mendations for the reform of the Councils. Strange are the ways of statesmanship. Nevertheless we can forget and forgive much in the case of a Viceroy who first recommended a scheme for the reconstitution of the Legislative Councils upon a popular basis. His confidential despatch, which I was the first to publish in the Bengalee in March 1889, formed the basis of the Parliamentary Statute of 1892.

I may here state that Lord Dufferin, before he submitted his despatch on the reform of the Legislative Councils, consulted several persons, including Sir Henry Harrison, Mr. Cotton, and, I believe, one or two others. I was invited to Government House and had a long conversation with His Excellency. I urged that the Councils should be reconstituted upon an elective basis, with the right of interpellation and of control over the budget. It was a frank and friendly conversation, and at the end of it he took me to his private secretary's room, and, introducing me to Sir Donald Mackenzie, said in terms of great kindliness, 'Give Mr. Surendra- nath Banerjea whatever information he may ask from you. I repeated the conversation to Sir Henry Harrison, who, I found out, had already seen the Viceroy on the subject, and he said to me, Surendranath, there will be a Council of which you will be a member'. The prophecy has been fulfilled. The words of the good and the true never fail of their effect.

The year, upon the events of which I am now dwelling, was for me in many respects a year of hard and strenuous work. For