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movements have only been successful with the aid of trained and organized armies. Where is the army to assist the Indian revolu- tionary? And even when revolutions have succeeded, they have left behind them a trail of blood, and the memories of ruin and devastation, which have taken generations to efface and to repair. Revolution, said the great Edmund Burke, is the last resort of the thinking and the good. Evolution has been the motto of the Con- gress since its birth; and the old leaders of the Congress advocated the progressive realization of Self-government, which is the out- standing principle of the message of August 20, 1917. So far back as the year 1902, speaking as President of the Ahmedabad Con- gress, I observed:

'We have no higher aspiration than that we should be admitted into the great confederacy of self-governing states of which England is the august mother'; and I added:

'We recognize that the journey towards the goal must necessarily be slow, and that the blessed consummation can be attained only after pro- longed preparation and laborious apprenticeship. But a beginning has to be made.'

Mr. Gokhale, presiding at the Benares Congress in 1905, spoke in the same strain. 'For better or for worse' said he, 'our desti- nies are now linked with those of England, and what the Congress fully recognizes is that whatever advance we seek must be within the Empire itself. That advance, however, can only be gradual.'

The claim of the Moderate party, therefore, is that we are the legitimate successors of the founders and the early builders of the Congress, and that we uphold the ancient traditions of that great institution. It is those who have departed from these traditions that have really introduced a violent change, but we remain rooted to our ancient principles, which have brought us in sight of full res- ponsible government and the fruition of the dreams of the early founders of the Congress.

The Committee appointed by the Legislative Council addressed themselves to their work with businesslike thoroughness. I was elected Chairman of the Committee and the Rt. Hon. Mr. Shastri its Secretary. In due time we submitted our report. Into its details I need not enter. The Scheme, although a genuine and a definite advance, did not come up to our expectations. Especially was this the case in regard to one point: no responsibility in the Central