Page:A Nation in Making.djvu/138

as that which marks the extinction of local self-government in that city where he lived and worked, and which was the city of his love.'

Before I leave this subject, it is only right and proper that I should say a word or two about the distinguished member of the Civil Service, Mr. E. N. (afterwards Sir Edward) Baker who was in charge of the Bill. I had known him ever since 1890, when he was Magistrate of the 24-Parganas. I was Chairman of the North Barrackpore Municipality, and we had some differences. I saw him, and our little dispute was settled in half an hour. The acquaintance thus begun ripened into a warm, personal friendship that was not marred by even acute differences of opinion. Our respect and esteem for each other was reciprocal. He was indeed a bureaucrat, but an Englishman with warm, generous and liberal sympathies. He wrote against the Jury Notification; and, as a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, he was the life and soul of the reform movement which culminated in the Minto-Morley Scheme. He had been for many years a member of the Calcutta Corporation and was thoroughly familiar with the working of the municipal law. His sympathies were really with us, and he did not at all like the Bill; but he had to carry out orders and to get on in the Service. The Bill had originally been introduced by Sir Herbert Risley, then Municipal Secretary; but on his translation to the Government of India as Home Secretary, Mr. Baker was placed in charge of it. Throughout he was fair-minded, and consistently with his instruc- tions was willing to make concessions to the opposition. But, of course, he could not go beyond a certain point.

Before I made my last speech in the Council, he came round to me and said, 'Surendranath, don't burn your boats', meaning that I should say nothing that would commit me to an absolute refusal to take further part or share in the work of the Corporation after it had been reconstituted under the new Act. I said, 'That is impossible'; and have remained outside the Corporation ever since September 1, 1899, when the twenty-eight Commissioners tendered their resignation. Once or twice I was pressed to reconsider my decision, by men like Narendranath Sen and Nalin Bchari Sircar; but I remained obdurate; and to me it fell by a strange irony of fate to revise the Mackenzie Act and to democratize the constitution of the Corporation.

The year 1893 witnessed what may be regarded as a notable event in our political history. On June 2, 1893, Mr. Herbert moved