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Between 1896 and 1906, in the course of a decade, a marked change in the attitude of official opinion in regard to the Congress had taken place. We have seen how frankly hostile that opinion was to the movement in 1888. In 1890, the Bengal Government had circularized, directing that its officers should not attend the sittings of the Congress in Calcutta even as visitors, and that circular had to be withdrawn at the instance of the Government of India, to which an appeal was made by the Congress authorities. In 1891, when the Congress was held at Nagpore, the Chairman of the Reception Committee had approached Sir Anthony MacDonnell, then Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, to ascertain his attitude with regard to the Congress. Sir Anthony MacDonnell, who was an official out-and-out, but was not devoid of liberal instincts, said to him, 'Mr. ——— I shall not think the better or the worse of anybody who attends the Congress.'

The same Sir Anthony MacDonnell, when the Congress was held in 1899 and he was Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces, would not, as a plague measure, allow the Congress to be held anywhere in or near Lucknow, but located it at a distance of seven or eight miles from the city, amid sugar-cane and rice fields, where the delegates were tormented by flies during the day and by wild boars during the night. Visitors to Lucknow were not excluded from the city, nor segregated in this way. They were allowed access and residence, subject to the ordinary measures of precaution. But for some reason or other the delegates to the National Congress coming from plague-stricken areas could not be dealt with in this way. For safety, physical as well as, we presume, moral, they were excluded, isolated and segregated in this fashion. I lived at Barrackpore, which was not a plague-stricken area, but I had dear and esteemed friends among the delegates and I did not wish to be separated from the general body of my co-workers, but preferred to participate in their hardships and inconveniences. Kali Prosanna Kabyavisarad was suffering from fever; Kali Churn Banerjee was not in the best of health; Ambika Churn Majumder was one of our party. We were all in the same tent, and we tried to make the best of a bad and trying situation.

It is a different atmosphere now. One naturally enquires, what was it that contributed to bring about this change in the official mind and temper? The Congress had not changed its programme. Its ideals and its methods remained the same until its recent adoption of the principles of non-co-operation. It has never allowed