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what about the transformation of the atmosphere in the various departments of the transferred subjects, in Sanitation, Local Self- government, Medical relief, and other branches?

The real difficulty about diarchy is that it depends upon the un- certainties of the personal element, which may vary in the different provinces, and in the same province from time to time, and against which no rules and no hard and fast convention can afford adequate protection. Further, it may often set up two divergent and even conflicting interests (the reserved and transferred), which must interfere with that homogeneity and solidarity which is the truest guarantee of efficiency, and which in the long run secures public approbation. Lastly, so far as one can judge, educated public opinion condemns it; and no popular institution can in these days thrive without the support of public opinion. I would therefore support the recommendation in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report that after five years a Parlimentary Commission should be sent out to report on the whole situation.

Diarchy should go as quickly as possible, not because it has been a failure everywhere, but because public opinion does not want it. But in any case full provincial autonomy cannot be given without the necessary safeguards. We must have liberty, but not licence. Licence is the mother of revolutions. The freest institutions must be subject to the necessary checks, provided by statute, or by rules, or by conventions. The English constitution is thus safeguarded against the risks incidental to all human institutions, and England is the mother of parliaments, furnishing the model to all parliament- ary institutions. I recognize that there is a possible risk of the loss of efficiency; but we must face it, for good government is no substitute for self-government.

The real danger is the domination of the Swarajist party. They have been tried in constructive statesmanship and administration, and they have failed. Their methods are selfish and unscrupulous. They have in the administration of the Corporation subordinated the general weal to party interests. In the large concerns of the province there is no guarantee that the same principles and the same objectives will not guide them. In their case power, instead of exercising a sobering influence, has generated a dangerous intoxica- tion. But a party that does not make righteousness the guiding impulse of its policy cannot long remain in power. Therein lies the hope of the future of self-government. The divine gift of self-