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of what may be called the Revolutionary Movement. I have no hesitation in saying that the Partition of Bengal and the policy that followed it were the root causes of the movement in our province, though no doubt they were strengthened by economic conditions. It was the dispersal of the Barisal Conference with all its attendant circumstances of lawlessness and violence that brought it to a head. I am confirmed in this view by the facts to which I shall presently refer.

One evening a few months after the Barisal affair, two young men called at my residence at Barrackpore and wanted to have a private interview with me. As I entered the room and took my seat, they said that it was an exceedingly delicate and difficult matter, and they wanted the doors to be closed. Three of us were now closeted in the room, and one of the young men who, it appeared, was a medical student, began the conversation. He said, 'We have come to ask your advice upon a matter of the utmost importance. We have formed a plan to shoot Sir Bampfylde Fuller; and we are going to—to-night for this purpose. What do you say about it?' Not being prepared for it, and the proposal being so unusual, I was a little staggered. I said, 'Why do you want to shoot Sir Bampfylde Fuller? What has he done?' The young man replied with evident emotion, 'His Gurkhas stationed at Banari- para have been outraging some of our women, and we want to take revenge upon him.' I said, 'You are bound to be caught and hanged.' They said, 'We will take our chance and if need be suffer for the honour of our women.'

No position, one might well imagine, could be more difficult than mine. Here were two young men, determined to avenge the honour of their women in the belief that the law would give them no remedy, and they had to be dissuaded from their purpose. At that time, fortunately for me, there was a strong rumour, which I believed to be well-founded, that Sir Bampfylde Fuller had resigned. I said to them, 'Do you know that Sir Bampfylde Fuller has resigned? What is the good of shooting a dead man? On the other hand, your attempt would be attended with imminent risk to the public interest. We all want to get rid of him as Lieutenant- Governor. If your attempt fails—and you cannot be sure that it will succeed—his resignation is bound to be withdrawn, and he will continue in office. Do you want to do this disservice to your country?'.

That was a settler. The young men at once agreed to drop the