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was pressed by my fellow-passengers to address them on the subject of the Congress. My Indian friends joined in this request, and I gladly responded to their invitation. I spoke for over half an hour in the saloon, which was crowded with passengers, Captain Hansard, the captain of the steamer, presiding. There were a good many passengers who were not Englishmen; and I concluded my speech with an earnest appeal to them in the following words:

'To those who are not Englishmen I would also appeal with confidence to help us in the work in which we are engaged. For do they not belong to the brotherhood of civilized humanity? I venture to claim for the Congress that its work does not belong to India alone. It has a wider scope and a deeper significance. It concerns the interests of human free- dom and the progress of human civilization; and the political enfranchise- ment of a great people on the banks of the Ganges would be welcomed as glad tidings of great joy throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world.'

In the year 1895, I was for the first time elected President of the Indian National Congress. The Congress was held that year at Poona, the capital of the Deccan, and an important intellectual centre in the western presidency. Early in November, I received a wire from Mr. Mahadeo Govind Ranade offering me the Presi- dentship of the Congress. I replied the same day thankfully accept- ing the offer. In those days there was no eager competition, no canvassing for the honour. The Reception Committee selected the President, and their decision was acquiesced in without demur. If I remember rightly, it was in 1906 that the first signs of a contest for the Presidentship showed themselves. They culminated in the break-up of the Surat Congress in the following year, and the un- happy schism that followed. The contest was synchronous with the development of strong differences of opinion in the Congress camp soon after the Partition of Bengal, and the apparent failure of constitutional methods.

Mr. Ranade was, in regard to all public movements in the western presidency, the power behind the throne. A public servant, loyal to the Government, with that true loyalty, not born of per- sonal motives, or of passing impulses, but having its roots in the highest considerations of expediency and the public good, he was the guide, philosopher and friend of the public men of the western presidency; and all public movements, were they political, social or religious, bore the impress of his masterful personality. I came in contact with him while quite young in my career as a public man.