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government has in it the seeds of its own self-preservation and self- correction.

Almost from the very moment that the Bengal Legislative Council was constituted the Extremist Press raised the cry for a reduction of the salaries of the Ministers. It was taken up with greedy avidity by disappointed ministerial office-seekers. There were 140 members, and among them only three were to be Ministers. The more ambitious among the remainder were dissatis- fied. One of these gentlemen told me, almost immediately after the formation of the Council, that he would have the Ministers dis- missed or their salaries reduced in three months' time. Many three months passed within the specified time of three years—the life- time of the Council. But the Ministers were not dismissed nor their salaries reduced. The Council was dissolved. My friend retired to his constituency for their suffrages. They were not particularly charmed with his shibboleth. They would not have him. He with- drew into private life, a dissatisfied man, and went back to the contentious wranglings of his great profession.

In connexion with this controversy, a curious fact comes to light, which so far has not been explained, and which without sufficient explanation would afford an unfortunate commentary upon the consistency and soundness of certain phases of Indian public opinion. On the eve of the enactment of the Reforms Act, in 1919, Indian opinion of every shade and complexion was unani- mous in demanding that the status and emoluments of the popular Minister should be the same as those of Members of the Executive Council; but, as soon as the Act was passed and the Councils were constituted with popular Ministers in charge of the transferred departments, a demand was put forth in every Council for a reduc- tion of their salaries, while keeping intact the salaries of the Mem- bers of the Executive Councils, which were not subject to the vote of the Legislative Council. The movement was universal and persistent; and was engineered by the Extremist Press. It had its roots partly in personal feeling and partly in the triumph of the Moderate party, which had successfully secured the passage of the Reforms through Parliament in the face of strenuous Extremist opposition. In the Bengal Legislative Council there were five motions made during its brief tenure of life. Every one of them was defeated. But the opposition continued its work, in defiance of the unanimous sentiment of the country uttered only twelve months before. Let me for a moment call attention to the solid