greed that Government
agricultural banks should be introduced. Then the representatives, having
sat for about four hours, adjourned till the following day.

On the 13th we met again accordingly at 8 a.m., and on this occasion sat
in the gallery, which was quite wide enough to accommodate the members. It
was proposed that I should take the chair, and I did so, and opened the
proceedings by introducing rules to regulate the discussion. These were
that the introducer of a proposed measure should be allowed ten, and a
discusser five minutes; that no one should interrupt or rise to speak
before the previous speaker had sat down, and that a discusser could only
be heard once. These rules were agreed to, and I found the last two of
great advantage in managing the proceedings. The first two, I was glad to
find, were hardly necessary, as anything in the shape of the British, or,
worse still, the Irish wind-bag, did not appear to exist amongst the
members.

The next subject taken up was that of organization, and on the assumption
that the Government would grant our prayer that the present members should
not be dismissed at the end of the session, but should continue to be
representatives till their successors were elected, it was resolved that
there should be a standing central committee of the Assembly, and also
district and county committees, and it was agreed that the first should
consist of twenty-two members--for Bangalore and Mysore city six members
each, one from each district, and one from each coffee planters'
association. Seven members to constitute a quorum. The district committees
were to consist of one from each county, and two from the head-quarters of
the district, five being a quorum, and the county committees of three
members. We then agreed to the members who were to form the central
committee and district committees, and, after that, that the Maharajah
should be formally thanked for his action on his part as regards the
Assembly, and that it should be prayed that the measures now asked for
might be granted. And finally, it was arranged that the standing central
committee should draw up an address to the Maharajah, embodying the views
and wishes of the representatives.

The meeting terminated at about 11 a.m., and immediately afterwards the
central committee sat upstairs in a room at an angle of the building, when
I was appointed chairman. We first took up the question of funds, and I
suggested that each membe