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sioners with real power and responsibility, to relax all internal control and to exercise it from without. That was the underlying principle of Lord Ripon's Resolution of May, 1882, and of Lord Morley's Despatch of 1908. But, progressive as the measure is, I have seen it described as reactionary, because the Government keeps for itself a reserve of control, to be enforced when required in the public interests. There are often difficult and even delicate. questions between local factions in municipal areas, which need the intervention of superior authority, capable of looking at them from a detached point of view. These critics seem to forget that in England, where the population is more homogeneous, and local controversies are less complicated, even greater power is reserved to the Local Government Board.

Again, there is criticism of another kind with which the Bill has been assailed. A Mohamedan member of the Legislative Council objected to it, and opposed its introduction, on the ground, as he said, that the principle of communal representation has not been accepted in the Bill'. I plead guilty to the charge. It was reserved for the Swarajist party to support and extend this principle by the adoption of a Hindu-Moslem Pact, which proposes to apply the communal system to all the municipalities in Bengal. In the mean- time I remain unconvinced and prefer to tread the old path of obstinate opposition to the communal system in the constitution of our local bodies.

In taking leave of these Municipal Bills I feel that I must refer to the good service rendered in this connexion by my Secretary, Mr. Goode. Of municipal affairs he had wide and varied experience. He was for several years Deputy Chairman of the Calcutta Corpo- ration, and for some time its Chairman. As Magistrate of the 24-Parganas and Deputy Commissioner of Darjecling, he had an intimate knowledge of the working of mofussil municipalities, and his mastery of legal technicalities and municipal details was of great assistance in the preparation of our Municipal Bills.