nce the dialogue closes.

With the aid of these pamphlets in dialogue form, it appears, from the
statement in the introductory article of the Report, that the emissaries
of this Indian League have been gathering in money from the poorest
classes in India, down even to coolies. No less than 5,500 rupees, it
appears (p. 11), were collected from 8,000 persons, in sums varying from 1
anna to 1 rupee 8 annas, and some 8,000 rupees were contributed in sums of
from 1 rupee 8 annas to 30 rupees. But it is unnecessary to pursue further
the work of the Congress, and it is sufficient to say that its proceedings
were lately brought before the House of Commons, and that the action of
Mr. Hume, in writing and publishing a kind of proclamation of a most
objectionable character in connection with the Congress, was denounced in
the House of Commons in strong terms. It is time, however, to close these
brief remarks on the Indian Congress. It still exists, but in a
languishing form, and will probably gradually disappear. It has sought to
bring the Queen's Government into hatred and contempt. The only effect it
has had is to bring the educated classes of India into ridicule and
contempt in the minds of those who are imperfectly acquainted with them,
and perhaps to delay the extension of those Representative Assemblies
which are so well suited to the requirements of the inhabitants of India,
and the value of which I trust I have sufficiently shown.

Since this chapter was written I have met with a passage in one of the
speeches of a member of the Congress which is highly creditable to the
candour of the Congressionists, and which proves that we are quite right
in keeping in our own hands all, or nearly all, important executive and
governing power. The passage occurs in the Fourth Report of the Indian
National Congress (p. 49), and one of the members said on this occasion:

"But it is a fact, which no one present will call in question, that what
preponderates in the national character is quiescence or passivity, the
active virtues being thrown into the background, or remaining in a state
of dormancy." And further on the speaker says, "The virtues we are sadly
deficient in are courage, enterprise, the will to do and the heart to do."
(Cheers.)

These remarks, which were received with assenting cheers, should be read
in connection with those made on the Queen's Proclamation in the earlier
pages of this chapter.

I may observe finally that