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practical exclusion of Indians from the higher appointments in the minor Civil Services, namely, the Police, the Customs, the State Railways, the Opium, the Public Works, the Survey, and other departments.

I can never forget the conversation I had with Sir Henry Fowler in the House of Commons in regard to this matter, and the idea had sunk deep in my mind that our exclusion was indefensible from every point of view, and that we had an overwhelmingly strong case. On my return to India, I submitted, as Secretary of the Indian Association, a memorial to Government. The depart- ments of Government, wedded to old-world ideas, move slowly. I cannot say that the result of our efforts was satisfactory, or that we got what we had a right to expect; but the representation had a quickening effect upon the departments. It is slow work to move the Government; but patience is the first and last qualification of public workers.

At the session of the Congress held in Calcutta in 1901 I moved what was substantially the same resolution, urging at the same time that effect should be given to the Resolution of the House of Commons of June 2, 1893, regarding the holding of Simul- taneous Examinations for the Indian Civil Services.

This session of the Congress was the last in which Mr. W. C. Bonnerjea took part. Ill-health compelled him to leave for England early in 1902. Though stricken down by disease, he never lost his interest in the Congress. He stood as the Liberal candidate for Walthamstow; and all accounts say that he had a good chance of being returned. But Providence had willed otherwise. His failing health compelled him to withdraw from the parliamentary contest; and soon after his countrymen learnt with a sense of profound sorrow the news of his death in England.

Mr. W. C. Bonnerjea was one of the leading members of the Calcutta High Court Bar in his time; and, though enjoying a wide and lucrative practice, he took a keen and active interest in the work of the Congress. In his time, it would be no exaggeration to say, he was the leader of the Congress movement in Bengal. He was not an agitator in the ordinary sense - and the word stinks in the nostrils of some of our officials. His association with the move- ment gave it a dignity and an air of responsibility in official eyes which otherwise it would not perhaps have possessed.

It cannot be said that Mr. W. C. Bonnerjea was throughout his life a public man. Immersed in the engrossing work of one of the