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in Northern India, belonging to a generation that has now passed away. Sir Syed Ahmed, Pundit Ajodhyanath, Pundit Bishambar Nath, Raja Ameer Hossain of Mahmudabad, Babu Aiswarya Narayan Singh, Babu Hurrish Chunder, and Babu Ramkali Chowdhury of Benares, were men of whom any community might well be proud. They differed in their temperaments, in their intellectual capacity, and even in the quality of their civic spirit, but they all loved the motherland and were eager to serve her.

The most famous of those whom I met was undoubtedly Sir Syed Ahmed, the founder of the Aligarh College and one of the greatest leaders of the Moslem community under British rule. He did not know a word of English, but, more than any other Mohamedan leader of his generation, he realized how necessary English education was for the advancement of his community, and he had the will to resolve, and genius to organize, a movement for imparting it upon a scale of far-reaching comprehensiveness, and under conditions of permanence and utility that have immortalized his name. He received me with the utmost kindness, and our friendly relations continued, notwithstanding differences of opinion, which the Congress movement subsequently gave rise to. He presided at the Civil Service meeting at Aligarh, which accepted the Calcutta Resolutions, among which was one in favour of simultaneous examinations. It is worthy of note, however that, as a member of the Public Services Commission of 1887, he signed the report of the majority, and did not join Sir Romesh Chunder Mitter and Rai Bahadur Nulkar in their support of simultaneous examinations.

It can serve no useful purpose to recall at this distance of time the memory of controversies that are now past and well-nigh forgotten. We lost his championship and the great weight of his personal influence and authority in the controversies that gathered round the Congress movement. His Patriotic Association was started in opposition to it. But even the greatest amongst us has his limitations. The Patriotic Association has disappeared; the Congress has continued to live and flourish. But let bygones be bygones. Let us not forget the debt of gratitude that Hindus and Mohamedans alike owe to the honoured memory of Sir Syed Ahmed. For the seeds that he sowed are bearing fruit; and to day the Aligarh College, now raised to the status of a University, is the centre of that culture and enlightenment which has made Islam in India instinct with the modern spirit, and aglow with that patriotic