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Excellency Lord Ronaldshay reciprocated our attitude. He received us with kindness and even cordiality, and treated us in a spirit of conciliatory statesmanship. The order of prohibition was withdrawn. The princi- ple that the people of one province were not to discuss the proceedings of the authorities of another province was abandoned. This is the sum total of our work at Dacca. We are not ashamed of it; we stand by it.'

Thus was averted what threatened to be a crisis in the history of our public movements. Collisions with the Government I am, and have never been, afraid of, provided that the cause is just, that it has behind it a strong body of public opinion, and that it may not lead to a measure of repression beyond our strength to endure and which may retard our growing public spirit. The repressive measures following the anarchical movement in Bengal had a blighting effect upon the growth of our public life, because the hand of repression was too heavy for us to bear. The all-pervading influence of the police, to which our public men were subjected, the long terms of imprisonment inflicted on some of our young men, and the suppression of the Samitis, all had a disastrous effect upon the growth of our nascent public life. But perhaps I have travelled a little beyond the period with which I was dealing when I was led into this somewhat lengthy digression.