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the simple reason that self-governing institutions formed an essential feature of the civilization of the Aryan race, and we come from the Aryan stock. (Cheers.) The hon. opposer of the motion is pleased to refer to the authority of Sir Henry Maine in reference to certain quotations he has made. I am prepared to bow to that authority, and accept him as an authority on Indian matters. What does he say in reference to India? "The first practical illustrations of self-governing institutions are to be found in the early records of India. Their village communities are as old as the hills." (Cheers.) When we ask for representative institutions, or a partial concession of representative institutions, we ask for something which is in entire accord with the genius and the temper of the people of India, in entire accord with the traditions of their history, and in entire accord with the tenour of British rule in India.'

I concluded my speech with the following peroration:

'Representative institutions are a consecrated possession, which in the counsels of Providence have been entrusted to the English people, to guard that possession, to spread it, and not to make it the property of this people or that people, but the heritage of mankind at large. England is the home of representative institutions; from England as the centre, representative institutions have spread far and wide until this country has justly been called the august mother of free nations. The people of India are children of that mother, and they claim their birthright, they claim to be admitted into the rights of British citizens and British fellow-subjects. I am per- fectly certain that such an appeal made to the English people can meet with but one response—a response of sympathy, and a readiness to grant it. (Cheers.) I plead before this House for justice; I plead for liberty not inconsistent with the British connexion, but tending to consolidate its foundations; and I am perfectly convinced that, so long as these words, these sacred words, have any weight, any meaning, any signification, amongst Englishmen, and in this House, you will record, by an unanimous vote, an emphatic vote, your sympathy with our aspirations, our desire that India should be governed according to those eternal principles of justice and liberty, which are engraved deep in the hearts, the convictions, and feelings of Englishmen, to whatever party, to whatever creed, to whatever sect they might belong.' (Loud and prolonged cheering.)

I returned to Bombay on July 6, 1890, and on the evening of the same day a monster meeting was held at the Framji Cowasji Institute, to accord me a welcome. At Allahabad and Calcutta, where similar meetings were held, I repeated the burden of my song, namely, that the work which had been begun should be continued, and that deputations should be sent to England from time to time. Unfortunately this was not, and could not be, done for various reasons. The idea was always present to the mind