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that he had preferred duty to the vanishing fumes of an evanescent popularity. The opposition to my motion among my friends of the Indian Association was partly sentimental and partly based upon practical grounds. They did not like the withdrawal of the Viceroy from the Chancellorship. That was a point of dignity. Further, the Government of India had made large grants to the Calcutta Univer- sity, and they apprehended that the flow of beneficence from the Central Government would receive a check from the discontinuance of the Viceroy's personal relationship with the University. The question of dignity never troubled me. The financial consideration was more weighty, but it was bound to be short-lived, as no excep- tional treatment in administration can long endure.

In the cause of Local Self-government I have always felt very great interest. I agitated for it as an instrument of political advance- ment even before the Resolution of Lord Ripon of October, 1881; and ever since its inauguration I had been associated with its practical working. I felt that it was my duty to take advantage of my presence in the Imperial Legislative Council to press for its further expansion. There was no denying the fact that its growth was dwarfed by official neglect and apathy. It really meant the withdrawal of power from the bureaucracy; and bureaucracy all over the world is so enamoured of power that it resents its curtail- ment. As Lord Morley pointed out in one of his despatches that as there was little of real power vested in the popular members of the local bodies, they felt little or no interest in their work. In March, 1914, I moved a Resolution recommending that the Presidents of District and Local Boards be elected and that a Local Government Board should be created in each province. The Resolution was opposed by Government and was lost, as might have been expected. But I have the satisfaction of feeling that official opinion has within the last few years steadily advanced to- wards the acceptance of my views. The Government of India, by their Resolution of May 18, 1918, urged Local Governments to arrange for the election of the Chairmen for the rural boards wherever possible; and in Bengal, all District and Local Boards have since been allowed this right. As Minister of Local Self- government, it was my privilege to have helped this movement forward. In 1919, when I was in England as a member of the Moderate Deputation, I was appointed by the Secretary of State as a member of a Committee to enquire into the institutions of Local Self-government in the United Kingdom as regards their