enlarging them, and giving "not less than one half" (p. 217 of
Report of 1887) of the seats to members elected through the agency of the
Congress. This proposed measure was justly considered by the delegates to
be the key of the position, as we shall more fully see when we come to the
consideration of the proceedings of the next Congress.

This, the third Congress, met at Madras in December, 1887, when 604
delegates (a large number of whom were lawyers and newspaper editors), who
"were appointed either at open public meetings or by a political or trade
association," assembled and passed no less than eleven resolutions. The
second, fifth and eighth of these are worthy of notice, as also are the
seditious political pamphlets previously alluded to, which, for convenient
reference, are bound up with the report of the proceedings.

The second resolution (p. 82 of Report of 1887) reaffirms the resolutions
of the two previous Congresses, which demand the expansion and reforms of
the various Indian Councils. Here the first speaker (p. 83) was a Mr.
Bannerjee, a newspaper editor, who in his introductory remarks in support
of the resolution assured the delegates that "the dream of ages is about
to be realized." We are not the legislators of the country, he further on
remarks, "though we hope to be so some day when the Councils are
reconstituted," and eloquent was the language of the speaker when he
subsequently dwelt on the fact that the power of making the laws would at
once give them every reform they could desire. Mr. Bannerjee was succeeded
by other native speakers, who dwelt warmly upon the advantages of
representative institutions, and these were followed by Mr. Norton,
Coroner of Madras, who most highly extolled the resolution. "That," he
said, "is the key of all your future triumph" (p. 90), and further on in
his speech he urges them to persevere up to the day "when you shall place
your hand upon the purse strings of the country and the government," for,
he continued, "once you control the finances, you will taste the true
meaning of power and freedom."

And here, after all the talk about the value of representative
institutions, and just as the Congress seemed to be on the verge of
recommending parliamentary institutions such as we have, the members
suddenly wheeled about and practically declared that India was unfit for
them by deciding (p. 91) that, as the rural districts might not elect
suitable members, the so-call