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The Vernacular Press Act came upon the educated community as a bolt from the blue; but that something of the kind was coming had long been anticipated. To the Delhi Assemblage of 1877 the Press was invited, I attended the Delhi Assemblage as the correspondent of the Hindoo Patriot, then the leading Indian paper in Bengal, under the editorship of that prince of Indian journalists, Kristo Das Pal. I was not connected with the Press at this time in any definite capacity, but, when I was in London in 1874–75, I had acted as the London correspondent of the Hindoo Patriot. To me it was a labour of love, a discipline and a training, and also an opportunity of showing my admiration and gratitude to one to whom I was bound by the ties of personal kindness and public duty. At Delhi I organized a Press Association consisting of all the members of the Indian Press who attended the Assemblage, and we waited in deputation upon the Viceroy with an address. I was the youngest member of the Deputation, but I represented the greatest Indian paper in the country. I stood upon my rights, as there was some difference of opinion as to who should be our spokesman; and to me was accorded the position of the head of the Deputation. I read the address. We had no casket, for we could get none made at Delhi within the time allotted. In the address we made a pointed reference to the report about the coming restrictions on the Press, and we expressed the hope that the liberties so long enjoyed might be continued. The Viceroy, as might have been expected, was reticent and said nothing in reply to this part of the address. We felt that we had done our duty in communicating our hopes and fears, and for the time the matter ended there.

Within less than fifteen months, the Vernacular Press all over India, save that of Madras, was muzzled. In the Council Chamber not a single dissentient voice was raised. Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohon Tagore, who was then a member of the Imperial Legislative Council, had been, so the report went, sent for and spoken to by the Viceroy, and he voted with the Government. The Hindoo Patriot wrote against the measure, but not with the warmth that usually characterized its patriotic utterances. Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohon Tagore was one of the most prominent members of the British Indian Association; and his vote hampered the independent judgement of that body. They could not disavow him, one of their most trusted colleagues. I have no desire to justify the Maharaja’s vote on that occasion. But in judging of a public man acting in circumstances of extreme difficulty we must endeavour to place