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for which I lived and worked, and now an unspeakable sense of gladness fills my soul—the truest antidote to the calumny and vituperation to which I am so often exposed. In the course of the debate many hard things have been said, many hard knocks have been received. I hope they will not be remembered. Let us emerge from this Council Chamber rejoicing at the work that we have done, forgetting and forgiving, with tolerance and charity for all who have criticized us. (Hear, hear.) I appeal to the citizens of Calcutta to co-operate for its success, which, when achieved, will be the proudest monument of their civic spirit and the strongest justification for that full measure of responsible government to which we all aspire, and which will be the crowning reward of the labours of this and of successive Legislative Councils. (Applause.) Let no party spirit mar the fruition of this great object.'

One important feature of the Bill was the further expansion of Calcutta by the inclusion of a large suburban area, a part of which lay in my own constituency. I obtained for it an important conces- sion, which, again, was a departure from the precedent established in a similar case. The rate-payers of the added area were not likely for some time to enjoy the conveniences and amenities of Calcutta; and it was therefore only right and proper that they should not bear the same incidence of municipal taxation. The Government recognized the soundness of the proposal and accepted it; and the Legislative Council acquiesced in it. In the first year the rate-payers of the suburban area were to pay no enhanced rates, and in the next four years there was to be a differentiating rate in their favour, to be fixed by the Corporation at its discretion.

I followed a definite principle in including a suburban area within the limits of Calcutta. In the original Bill, with the exception of a small tract, there was no such proposal; for I adopted the democra- tic principle that there was to be no extension of boundaries, if it went wholly and decisively against the wishes of the people con- cerned. They were not to be treated as so many dumb, driven cattle in the vital matter of their local administration. I further knew from my experience in connexion with the Partition of Bengal the passions which a change of boundaries is apt to evoke when carried out in the teeth of popular opposition. But the demand for the inclusion of some of these areas was insistent, and it was based on considerations of the public health of Calcutta as well as of the areas concerned. I at last decided to appoint a Boundary Commis- sion, with the Advocate-General as its President, and two other members, one a European, whose independence and impartiality