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from anybody, he removed my disqualification and sent me a copy of the Government notification.

I was placed in a position of some difficulty. I had repeatedly said that I would not allow myself to be elected to the Councils unless and, until the Partition of Bengal was modified. So far as the reformed Councils were concerned I had often told the leaders of public opinion in Bengal: 'Hands off till the Partition is modi- fied.' Speaking at Sir William Wedderburn's breakfast in West- minster Palace Hotel on June 24, 1909, I said in the presence of Sir Charles Dilke, Sir Henry Cotton, Mr. Hume, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, and others:

'If Lord Morley were to hold out in his right hand the gift of the Re- form Scheme and in his left the gift of the modification of the Partition, and were to tell the people of Bengal, "You cannot have both, make your choice", my countrymen would, with overwhelming spontaneity, declare themselves in favour of the modification of the Partition and would allow the Reforms to come in their own good time.'

It had always struck me that one of the most effective protests that we could make against the Partition of Bengal, which Lord Morley had so often declared with nauseating insistence to be a settled fact, was, for the Bengal leaders to abstain from all participa- tion in the work of the reformed Councils. I knew that such a self- denying ordinance would not be acceptable to all. But I had made my choice and had proclaimed my faith. For me, at any rate, there was no excuse. I had resolved upon making the sacrifice, forgoing a career, in which on a former occasion, I had, in the opinion of my countrymen, done useful work. But it was a far more difficult task to refuse what indeed was an invitation made by a friend, for whom I had great personal respect, and who was moved by a friendly and generous impulse. The invitation of the Governor of a province would have made little or no impression on me. It was the act of a friend who wanted to make the new Reform Scheme a success and who desired that I should contribute to it. To me it would have been a matter of great personal satisfaction to have been a colleague of Sir Edward Baker in the enlarged Legislative Council; for I knew how high-minded he was in all his dealings, how generous to his critics, and how affectionate and kind to his friends.

I felt the difficulty of my position and at last invited some of the leading men of Bengal to a conference to advise me as to what I