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Indians is definitely recognized as a cardinal principle of the Government.

The potency of Indian public opinion has been fully established by the modification of the Partition of Bengal, which had been repeatedly declared by high authority to be a settled fact, but which Indian opinion declined to accept as such, and Indian opinion triumphed. The Press to-day is free, vocal, all but omnipotent. Our organizations—social, political, and industrial—cover the land from end to end. Thus a stupendous revolution has been achieved in less than fifty years' time. It is bloodless except for occasional and transient outbursts of anarchical violence.. The more ardent spirits may not be, and perhaps are not, satisfied with what has been achieved. They urge a more rapid pace, perhaps even a shorter cut to the goal. But that there has been a vast transformation none can gainsay. The world-forces may have helped the movement. But we too did our bit. Self-government was the end and aim of our politi- cal efforts; constitutional methods the means for its attainment. The Indian National Congress was our great outstanding organiza- tion, and it recognized no method except by, and through, the constitution for the achievement of self-government within the Empire. For more than thirty years it worked upon these constitu- tional lines with undeviating singleness of purpose; and marvellous has been its achievement.

And here let me raise a warning note. There is a feeling amongst some that, if necessary, we should travel beyond the constitution and the limits of the British Empire to achieve the full measure of cur freedom and cur status in the civilized world. To that my reply is that the necessity has not yet arisen; nor does it seem to me, from all that one knows of British history, that it will arise within a measurable distance of time of which we need take any note. It is a mistake in politics to take too long views of things. We may then be apt to drift into ideals the realization of which may hamper our present activities and our immediate growth and progress. 'Suffi- cient unto the day is the evil thereof' is a scriptural text which the man of affairs should never lose sight of. If we proclaim that we aspire to be independent of the British connexion, that we want self-government, pure and simple, without being hampered by the obligations of our position as members of the British Common- wealth, no one can oppose an aspiration which in the abstract is so just and patriotic. But it is circumstances that impart to every political principle its colour and its discriminating effect. Now what