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Madras Congress of 1894. I believe that his election as President of the Congress did not meet with the approval of Mr. W. C. Bonnerjea. The latter's view was, and it is held by many, that the President of the Indian National Congress should, save in excep- tional cases, be an Indian.

I moved the Resolution on the Civil Service question. It was, and had been, my practice in the Congress to stick to the two questions in which I felt the deepest interest, namely, the wider employment of our countrymen in the higher offices in the public service, and the establishment of representative institutions. I felt that they lay at the root of all other Indian problems, and their satisfactory settlement would mean the solution of them all. If power were vested in us to legislate, and to control the finances, and to carry on the administration, through and by our own men, in accordance with principles laid down by our representatives, we should have self-government in the truest sense, and possess the amplest facilities for developing our powers and faculties and taking our legitimate place among the nations of the earth. Our goal was not power for the sake of self, but power for the accomplishment of the high destiny assigned to us by an Almighty Providence.

In Madras I was invited to address a students' meeting. I gladly responded to the invitation. The topic was 'Should students discuss or take part in politics?' The subject, owing to recent events, had assumed an importance all its own. It gave rise to an animated discussion in which Pundit Madan Mohan Malavya and Mr. Khaparde took part. Both of them opposed me at the time. That Mr. Khaparde should have expressed the views that he did, seems extraordinary in the light of his subsequent utterances. I expressed the view, and have stuck to it through life with the strength of a growing conviction, that students should certainly discuss politics, and may even, subject to proper control and guidance, take part in political work. I have never wavered in this opinion, even when it was fiercely assailed by high official authority and eminent public men. I have noticed with pleasure, and with pride, that some of those who sang a different tune have come round to my views. When the Calcutta University Institute was started I was asked to join it. At the first anniversary meeting I was invited by the Secretary, the late Mr. Wilson, to move the first Resolution proposing the adoption of the report. I said I would gladly do so, but subject to one condition, namely, that students should be allowed to discuss politics in the Institute. The matter