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reform that was to culminate in the establishment of self-government in India.
The Deputation created great interest at the time. It would be no exaggeration to say that it went forth upon its errand amid the benedictions of the people. We started for England in March, 1890, and arrived in London early in April. The British Committee of the Indian National Congress organized our meetings, the first of which was held in Clerkenwell Road, Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji's constituency, under the presidency of Sir William Wedderburn. I well remember the day, and what preceded and what followed the meeting. We dined at the National Liberal Club as the guests of Mr. George Yule, and proceeded to Clerkenwell. The arrangements were very much those of an ordinary Indian meeting, such as I had been accustomed to. There was the platform where the speakers and the principal men of the locality were assembled, and there was the body of the hall where the audience sat.
I met Mr. H. E. A. Cotton at the meeting. He had been deputed by his father, Sir Henry Cotton, to see me and communicate his good wishes. I was a little nervous, as the audience was one to which I had not been accustomed. Mr. George Yule told me, as we were going to the meeting, that there was not much difference between an Indian and an English audience. Both hated long speeches and dry details; both were moved by appeals to the feelings that are a part of their inherited instincts, which it was for the speaker to discover and to play upon. I soon made the discovery. In fact, my acquaintance with English literature and history had given me an idea as to what the tenor of my speeches should be; and, on the whole, my efforts were not unsuccessful. Englishmen are not frightened by a dark man addressing them in their own language. At first they are perhaps a bit puzzled and amused. Presently they begin to appreciate, and even to admire, as the speaker proceeds; and, if he knows his business, he is able to develop in them a genuine vein of sympathy and perhaps of interest in the redress of grievances for which they are partly responsible. After I had addressed a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester, a gentleman stood up and said, 'I have never been so deeply moved as now in regard to Indian affairs'. There is a vast field of work awaiting us in England, and a great opportu- nity of which we have not taken the fullest advantage. On several occasions after we had addressed public meetings, we were asked to repeat our visit. Mr. Augustine Honey, the organizer of the