and retrogression, every financial measure involving greater burden of taxation, and many more subjects have incessantly occupied his attention. The frown of party and the personal abuse of party-men have never swerved him an inch from discharging those duties which he considers sacred and which he feels are necessary if India is to make a slow but steady advance in her national life. No living Englishman within recent times has endured greater obloqy and more unjust, nay unfounded censure and ridicule than he. But with that magnanimity of mind, which is the trait of the genuine Englishman, he has taken no notice of them, feeling conscious of the fact that in the first place his motives were of the purest and most disinterested, while in the second place his sincerity and earnestness could not be impeached even by the most truculent and contumacious of his traducers. Uniformly he has gone on the even tenor of the career he has chalked out for himself, ambitious for no other reward than the reward of his own unblemished conscience and the expression of unbounded gratitude of millions of people who have throughout reposed the fullest confidence in him and have recognised him as their most trusty guide and friend. It is with feelings of this consciousness that Sir William works for India in Parliament. But it is not only in Parliament that his activity on behalf of the country is confined. His extra-parliamentary labours in that behalf are even more numerous and arduous-labours, however, greatly lightened by the share which Lady Wedderburn takes in them-a lady of equal sympathy, culture, and noblemindedness for Indians as her good husband. But only those who have intimately come into contact with him are aware of these facts. Not a day, aye, not an hour, passes by, year in and year out, when Sir William is not found by his close friends working hard at some pressing Indian problem, or busy at framing interpellations for Parliament, or assisting and advising at some important meeting or one function or another which has for its object Indian welfare. Indian finance and amelioration of the Indian peasantry still form the permanent planks of his Parliamentary or extra-Parliamentay agitation. It is to him and to Mr. Dadabhoy Naoroji that we owe the appointment of the Royal Commission on Indian expenditure. And every unit of India knows how actively he worked at the Commission while sitting ; and how truly did he try to interpret to the English members of that body the true spirit of the opinions of the Indians as expressed through their representative witnesses. Whatever may be the recommendations of that Commission, we may feel confident that neither Sir William nor Messrs. Dadabhoy Naoroji and Caine will fail to give effect to the emphatic demands of the Indian people as formulated by those able witnesses. And we may also rest assured that if the Commission by a majority refuse to comply with those just demands, either wholly or partially, it will not be for any want of strenuous advocacy on their part. But to return to the good work of Sir William. An important part of that work which he has done since his entry into the public life of England may be seen in the following collection of his speeehes. They are not only an index of the undiminished activity of that noble-minded Englishman but are a permanent monument of his undying devotion to India. As such they are worthy of his nation and worthy of finding a place in every public library of England and India and of every enlightened Indian in this country. For really they represent in a concrete form for reference and reflection the thoughts of a genuine Englishman whose friendship is not tainted, as the Hon'ble Mr. P. M. Mehta justly observed, "with the selfish prejudices of bigotry. No. Sir William is not a friend of the Indians whose friendship is affected by the arrogance of a narrow superiority, not founded on individual merit but on racial difference ***. We count Sir William Wedderburn among the true friends of this country because he has given loyal and sincere adhesion to those principles of justice and righteousness on which the declared policy of the Crown and Parliament for the government of this country is founded. His great abilities, culture and clear intelligence have convinced him that these are the only principles on which this country can be safely and beneficially governed, and he has the moral intrepedity to act up to these convictions in spite of censure, abuse and ridicule **. This is what has enabled him to have a deeper and truer insight into Indian questions where even men of higher intellects or greater culture have utterly failed or groped in the dark.” All honour, then, to an Englishman of so noble a character, of such sagacity and broad-mindedness, great tolerance and of deep and abiding sympathy as Sir William Wedderburn the type of whom is indeed growing rarer. He is indeed Indias' own ideal Knight who reverences his conscience as his Queen, and strenuously strives to fight David-like the righteous battle of India for the better welfare and contentment. of her people than whom there exists not in all the worldwide dominions' of the Queen Empress subjects more patient and long suffering, more loyal and law abiding. BOMBAY, 17th November 1899. D. E. Wacha. CONTENTS. PAGE ... ... 3 THE FIFTH INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 5 THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION 13 ... 25 28 35 46 49 56 70 74 and retrogression, every financial measure involving greater burden of taxation, and many more subjects have incessantly occupied his attention. The frown of party and the personal abuse of party-men have never swerved him an inch from discharging those duties which he considers sacred and which he feels are necessary if India is to make a slow but steady advance in her national life. No living Englishman within recent times has endured greater obloqy and more unjust, nay unfounded censure and ridicule than he. But with that magnanimity of mind, which is the trait of the genuine Englishman, he has taken no notice of them, feeling conscious of the fact that in the first place his motives were of the purest and most disinterested, while in the second place his sincerity and earnestness could not be impeached even by the most truculent and contumacious of his traducers. Uniformly he has gone on the even tenor of the career he has chalked out for himself, ambitious for no other reward than the reward of his own unblemished conscience and the expression of unbounded gratitude of millions of people who have throughout reposed the fullest confidence in him and have recognised him as their most trusty guide and friend. It is with feelings of this consciousness that Sir William works for India in Parliament. But it is not only in Parliament that his activity on behalf of the country is confined. His extra-parliamentary labours in that behalf are even more numerous and arduous-labours, however, greatly lightened by the share which Lady Wedderburn takes in them-a lady of equal sympathy, culture, and noblemindedness for Indians as her good husband. But only those who have intimately come into contact with him are aware of these facts. Not a day, aye, not an hour, passes by, year in and year out, when Sir William is not found by his close friends working hard at some pressing Indian problem, or busy at framing interpellations for Parliament, or assisting and advising at some important meeting or one function or another which has for its object Indian welfare. Indian finance and amelioration of the Indian peasantry still form the permanent planks of his Parliamentary or extra-Parliamentay agitation. It is to him and to Mr. Dadabhoy Naoroji that we owe the appointment of the Royal Commission on Indian expenditure. And every unit of India |