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Empire, thus knit together upon the basis of common civic rights and obligations, may bid defiance to the most powerful combination that may be formed against it, and may gaze with serenity and confidence upon those vicissitudes which, as all history tells us, have wrecked the fortunes of States and thrones which relied upon the security of physical rather than upon the paramountcy of those moral laws which represent the index-finger of Divine Providence in the dispensation of human affairs.'

This was said in 1909, and when in 1914 we stood face to face with the most formidable combination that had ever been formed against the Empire, our rulers discovered that in a prosperous and contented India, secured by the inauguration of responsible govern- ment, lay one of the strongest guarantees of Imperial unity and strength. If the truth had been earlier recognized and practised, our man-power and money-power would have been even more freely available in the service of the Empire.

The speech was received with warmth and even enthusiasm by the audience; and a Press delegate sitting next to me said as I resumed my seat, 'If there are two hundred men like you in India, Mr. Banerjea, self-government ought to be granted tomorrow. I said, 'There are twice two hundred men like me in India.' The function being over, as I was leaving the hall, the caretaker came up to me and said, "Will you, sir, write down your name in this book?' And as I was writing he said to me, 'Sir, let me tell you this, that such a speech has not been delivered in this hall since it was built.' It may have been the language of high-pitched admira- tion, but it certainly represented the feelings of the man, for he spoke with evident warmth and sincerity.

The Manchester Press, whose representatives were all present at the function, wrote in appreciative terms. The Manchester Courier, an organ of Conservative opinion and not always very friendly to Indian aspirations, said of the speech: 'It was the most dramatic incident of the Press delegates' visit to Manchester. . .. On the Manchester citizens whom the Lord Mayor had invited to meet the guests, the effect of the speech was almost electrical. To find them- selves addressed in their own language by a native of India with a fluency that must have been the envy of all present, and with the impassioned utterance that only a born orator can attain, was an experience that happens only once in a lifetime.'

I left Manchester almost immediately after the function as I had to attend a dinner party in London at the house of Mr. (afterwards