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Congress is not by any means the least attractive feature of the movement. A common platform is provided, where the leaders of Indian opinion meet and by the mutual interchange of views help to remove misunderstanding and promote friendly feeling.

Among the friendships that I formed at Madras on this occasion was one to which I think I must make a special reference. I made the acquaintance of the late Maharaja of Vizianagram, 'Prince Charming', as he was rightly called by Sir Mountstuart Grant-Duff, then Governor of Madras.

The incidents of our first meeting are as vivid now as if they had taken place yesterday. I was coming out of the pavilion, after I had spoken on the reform of the Legislative Councils, when he approached me and warmly shook me by the hand. We exchanged a few words of mutual compliment, and then was formed the begin- ning of a friendship that ended only with his premature death in 1897. He was a frequent visitor to Calcutta, where I had ample opportunities of meeting him; and I will say this of him, that I have hardly ever come across a warmer or more generous-hearted man. He was not only the pattern of courtesy, which all our princes are, more or less, but he was something more. His ample resources were always responsive to the impulses of his generous nature. The Rajas of Bhukoylas and he were hereditary friends. They were in pecuniary difficulties. He afforded them substantial monetary assistance. The same helping hand was stretched out to an English firm. Race, colour or creed was no barrier to the play of his generous affections, and he was the liberal patron of public movements and of public institutions, whether in Madras, in Bengal or the United Provinces. I approached him with a request for a subscription in aid of the building fund of the Indian Association. He wanted to know from me how much money was required and how much I had already secured. I put the figure at the modest sum of twenty thousand rupees; and I said I had obtained promises of five thousand rupees, among the donors being the Maharani Swarnamoyee, who had subscribed two thousand rupees. He said to me, with that warmth so characteristic of him, 'Suren Babu, what is the good of your going to this man and that man, and wasting your time, which might be otherwise usefully spent? I will pay you the balance of fifteen thousand rupees.' His word was his bond; and with this princely gift we secured for the Indian Association a name and a habitation. We asked permission to hang his oil-painting in the hall of the Association. He sent us a small portrait.