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It was at Barisal only fifteen years previously that we had had the historic Barisal Conference. It was here on that occasion that one of the most notable demonstrations against the Partition of Bengal had been held. I was the central figure and the hero of that demonstration. I was acclaimed by a populace who rent the air with their cries and whose overflowing gratitude would have softened the hearts of the sternest. Fifteen years had come and gone; and in the meantime Non-Co-operation had done its work, creating a bitter feeling against the Government and all associated with it. The Reforms and the spirit of the Reforms were not able to allay this. I had come to Barisal on a work of beneficence in which politics had no part or share. I had come to promote sanita- tion, equipped with all the resources and the organization of the Government. But even such a boon, so vital to the people, was unacceptable when offered by the Government, even in the person of one who not long before was hailed as a public benefactor. I was reminded of the words of Aeneas in Virgil: timeo Danaos et dona ferentes—I fear the Greeks even when they come with gifts in their hands. The feeling was not universal; perhaps it was not even general. But it was there, a living factor in the local public senti- ment, blatant and demonstrative. I remember Mr. Montagu's remark when I said to him in London in 1919 that our people would remain grateful to him for the Reforms: 'Don't you be quite so sure of that; for there is no such thing as gratitude in politics. I did not then know that I was soon to realize this truth in my own case.

But this was not the only notable feature in connexion with my visit to Barisal. The irony of fate had ordained strange things. In 1906, when the Barisal Conference was held, Mr. Emerson was the Magistrate. It was under his orders that I was arrested and fined and the Conference was dispersed; and now, as Commissioner of the Division, he rendered me every possible help. Quantum mutatus ab illo—how changed from his former self!

A warm-hearted Irishman, a close contact with him has inspired in me feelings of respect and esteem for his personality. In India, it is often difficult to judge of a Government servant by his official conduct. He has sometimes to perform duties, under orders of superior authority, which would give a misleading idea of the man and his character. From Barisal I parted from Mr. Emerson in 1906, under an impression that had to be revised in the light of subsequent knowledge. We were brought into closer touch as