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There was another question, perhaps somewhat less controver- sial, which the Franchise Committee had to deal with namely, the special electorates for zemindars. I never favoured these special electorates, and in the Calcutta Municipal Bill, of which I was-in charge as Minister, I cut them down as far as I could. They are undemocratic in principle. They favoured the formation of privi- leged classes. and they withdrew from the general body of electors seats that might have gone to them. I believe the Committee, as a whole, were averse to them. But higher authority had decided otherwise, and we were bound by its mandate. Indeed, while the democratic principle might be said to be the basis of the Montagu- Chelmsford Scheme, a new special electorate had to be created, again under orders, for the Sikh community. Their war services were highly distinguished; and a grateful Government had to yield to the insistent demand of a martial race friendly to British interests. Here we have an illustration of the truth that political principles cannot always be carried to their legitimate and logical conclusion, and that every principle has to be determined by the circumstances of its application.

There was again the question of residence. Should the franchise be confined to those actually residing in the constituency, or should it be extended to all residents of the province, whose names were borne on the electoral roll? Official opinion supported the former view. The English practice is different and is in conformity with educated Indian opinion. To restrict the qualification to actual residents would narrow the field of choice, and might in some cases operate.to exclude the best men from the Legislative Council. Then again constituencies are notoriously fickle, and sometimes a good man might be thrown out, through the caprice of a not too stable electorate. In such a case a narrow residential qualification would exclude him. On the other hand it was contended that an unrestricted residential qualification would let in carpet-baggers and political adventurers, having no interest in the constituencies they represented, and perhaps little in the affairs of the province. However that might be, the local Governments, as a rule, were in favour of a residential qualification, and I remember the tussle I had with Lord Ronaldshay and the members of the Bengal Executive Council over this question. They were all opposed to me. Lord Southborough and the Indian members were of a differ- ent opinion, which in the end prevailed. In Bengal the electoral