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Oxford University and was a member of the Calcutta High Court Bar. He was one of the very few Mohamedans who opposed the Partition of Bengal, after it had become an accomplished and a settled fact. He was always an unflinching advocate of the union between Hindus and Mohamedans for political purposes, and he regarded the Partition as a national calamity, in the sense that it would alienate Hindus and Mohamedans, interfere with the solidarity of the Bengalee-speaking population, and weaken their political influence. At one time, on account of these views, great was his unpopularity among his co-religionists. He outlived it all and had the satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of the opinions that he professed and unflinchingly advocated; and he lived to become a recognized leader of the great community to which he belonged. Mr. Rasool was never very strong, and the anxieties and cares of the most eventful conference ever held in Bengal were a great strain upon him; but he bore them all, sustained by the patriotic fervour that distinguished his public career.

The proceedings of the authorities in connexion with the Barisal Conference created a sense of indignation among the educated community not only in Bengal but also outside our province. In Madras a crowded and influential public meeting was held. Over ten thousand people assembled in the open air on the Esplanade. 'Long before the hour fixed for the meeting', says the report, 'people began to come in streams, shouting Bande-Mataram.' Bad rulers serve a useful purpose in the evolution of nations. They stir up the sleeping lion from his torper; they stimulate public spirit and foster national unity. The recognized leaders of the people took part in the proceedings, and, on the motion of the Hon. Nawab Syed Mohamed Bahadur, seconded by Dr. Nair, the meeting recorded a resolution protesting against the high-handed proccedings of the Barisal authorities as 'a flagrant infringement of the liberties of British subjects, and a subversion of the principles of constitutional government'. A cablegram was sent to the Secretary of State for India by the meeting, calling his immediate attention 'to the arrest of a great popular leader and the dispersal by the police force of an annual conference of several thousand members, and praying for sympathetic orders for allaying excitement and the restoration of public faith in British freedom and the rights of citizenship, and the punishment of the officers responsible'.

But the centre of the storm was in Calcutta, where it raged with cyclonic force. College Square had its meetings almost daily. The