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when he presided and I spoke. Bishop Weldon on that occasion sat next to me, and, after my speech was over, shook me by the hand and said, 'Well done'. Sir Walter Lawrence, the Viceroy's Private Secretary, who was present, congratulated me and said, 'I hope we shall meet often'. We, however, never met at all.

Before I leave the Madras Congress of 1898 it is only right and proper that I should refer to Mr. Ananda Mohan Bose's presidential speech. It was a masterly performance, one of the greatest orations ever heard from a Congress platform. Perhaps the voice of the orator was not equal to the occasion, but this was fully made up for by the inspiring earnestness and the penetrating conviction that lay behind every utterance; and, when it is borne in mind that Mr. Bose's health was not good at the time, onc marvels at the performance.

Mr. Ananda Mohan Bose, with his great intellectual and moral gifts, did not combine that physical robustness which sets them off to the best advantage, nor, I have to add regretfully, did he take that great care of his health which I regard as the first and foremost duty of all our public men. Their lives are to the com- munity an invaluable possession; and length of days must invest their judgments with a maturity, their utterances with a weight, their personalities with a halo of reverence, almost an air of sanctity, that should make them national assets beyond all price. This is a consideration that I fear our public men do not always bear in mind, and we have had so often to mourn their premature loss.

Immersed in his multifarious public duties, social, religious and political, Mr. Bose was careless of his health, and suffered for it. He had been to England in 1898 and returned home in September. We gave him a public reception at the Town Hall. I made a speech proposing the adoption of the address to him. He rose to reply, but, after he had uttered a few sentences, he completely broke down and fell back into his chair. The meeting had to be broken up. While he was in this weak state of health, an invitation was addressed to him by the Madras Reception Committee to preside at the Congress. His friends hesitated; his doctors shook their heads; but his sense of duty overmastered him; he responded to the call and delivered the magnificent address to which I have referred.

In his noble life, there was a still nobler instance of self-surrender and of thrilling devotion to the cause of country to which it will be my duty to call attention later on.