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A NATION IN MAKING

imprisonment. Mr. Justice Romesh Chunder Mitter insisted upon a fine only. The day before, so the report went, the Chief Justice had seen him at his private residence and had talked to him and argued with him, with a view to persuading him to agree with the majority, but all in vain. At the conference the arguments were repeated with the added weight of the personal authority of the other judges. But Mr. Justice Mitter remained unconvinced, relying on the precedent created in Taylor's case, where the Chief Justice, Sir Barnes Peacock, had deemed the infliction of a fine sufficient.

At last, when it was past half past eleven, the five judges appeared and took their seats on the Bench. The Chief Justice read out the judgment on behalf of the majority of his colleagues, putting in a slip, which was evidently a later production, that he and his collea- gues disagreed with Mr. Justice Mitter. Mr. Justice Mitter then read out his dissenting judgment, after which the judges left the Court. The crowd in the Court-room slowly followed.

Outside in the streets, among the thousands that were gathered together, there were signs of excitement and even indignation. The prison-van was at the Court-gate ready for me; but, in view of the attitude of the crowd, I was conveyed in a private carriage, leaving the Court by the judges' entrance, and was taken by a roundabout way to the Presidency Jail. Mr. Larymore, the Superintendent of the jail, was present, expecting my arrival. Mr. Larymore was a warm-hearted Irishman. He and I were friends, for we had sat round the same table as Municipal Commissioners of Calcutta. He treated me with all the courtesy that his official position permitted.

At the time when I arrived at the Presidency Jail, it was not known whether I should be lodged in the civil or criminal side of the jail. Mr. Larymore was waiting for orders, but he had already given me to understand that, in case I had to be in the criminal jail, he would give me a separate cell and would not insist upon my putting on prison-dress. But these difficulties were soon set at rest. The order arrived that I was to be a civil prisoner; and Mr. Lary- more gave me comfortable quarters in the upper storey of the civil jail. The same afternoon my friend, Mr. B. L. Gupta, who was then Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta, called on me to express his sympathy and to make me comfortable so far as lay in his power.

It is due to the prison authorities to say that, while in no way relaxing their rules, they treated me with courtesy and due regard to my feelings. I was never asked to go down to the muster, which was held in the yard every afternoon. It was sufficient for me to