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was regarded as a deliberate attempt to blast the prospects of Indian candidates for the Indian Civil Service. The Indian Association resolved upon organizing a national movement. A great public meeting was held at the Town Hall on March 24, 1877. It was presided over by Maharaja Sir Narendra Krishna Bahadur, and was representative of the whole of Bengal. Not only were the leading men of Calcutta present, but also delegates from the interior of the province. Keshub Chunder Sen, who had never in his life taken part in any political meeting, was persuaded to move the election of the President.

This meeting was one of the biggest public demonstrations held in Calcutta; it was destined to be the forerunner of similar and even more crowded meetings held all over India. The agitation was the means; the raising of the maximum limit of age for the open competitive examination and the holding of simultaneous examinations were among the ends; but the underlying conception, and the true aim and purpose, of the Civil Service agitation was the awakening of a spirit of unity and solidarity among the people of India. It was accordingly resolved to appeal to the whole of India and bring the various Indian provinces upon the same common platform (a thing that had never been attempted before), and to unite them through a sense of a common grievance and the inspiration of a common resolve. It was an inspiring ideal, and to me it appealed with overwhelming effect.

I was appointed Special Delegate to visit the different provinces. This was of my own seeking; the conception was mine, and the agent for carrying it out was myself. I went about collecting subscriptions, and entered upon the task with alacrity and enthusiasm. Taking advantage of the summer vacation of the Metropolitan Institution, where I was then employed as Professor, I started for Upper India on May 26, 1877, accompanied by Babu Nagendra Nath Chatterjee, a member of our Committee, who was well known at the time as a most eloquent speaker in the Bengalee language. We started about the hottest time of the year, and Babu Nilcomol Mitter of Allahabad, with whom I was in correspondence regarding this tour, warned me that I was incurring a grave risk. Risk or no risk, I had made up my mind and there was no going back. We went straight to Agra, where my friend, the late Babu Abinash Chunder Banerjee, was stationed as Subordinate Judge.

Abinash Chunder Banerjee and myself had been playmates. He passed the examinations cf the Calcutta University with great credit.