58 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL DINNER 



What led to the dinner was this: 



The Reformed Legislative Council is the chief 

 feature of the Morley reforms reforms which 

 may appear unduly circumscribed, but which are, 

 I feel sure, destined to lead to far-reaching changes 

 in the future, and, as I think, changes for the 

 better. 



The old dispensation answered well enough in 

 the past. Our rule has been beneficent, and above 

 all a just one, but it is unsuited to present-day 

 conditions. We have given Indians not only 

 Western education, we have given them Western 

 ideals, and it is idle to suppose that a mild despotism 

 can remain acceptable to the India of the twentieth 

 century. A recognition of this fact has come none 

 too soon. A genuine participation in the govern- 

 ment of their own country with a view to eventual 

 self-government is but a natural sequence to the 

 educational development which we have ourselves 

 introduced, and the Indians are quite obviously 

 entitled to political reform. I realised shortly 

 after its first meeting that the Reformed Council 

 into which the elected element has been intro- 

 duced would not work smoothly unless something 

 were done to weld it into a homogeneous gathering. 

 Being an Englishman, a dinner at once suggested 

 itself to my mind as a simple method by which 

 sharp corners could be rounded and rough edges 

 smoothed. Accordingly I decided on asking the 

 whole of the members to dinner. 



The few friends, official and otherwise, whom 

 I consulted threw the coldest of cold water on the 

 proposal. IThe ndians would resent it Mahome- 

 dans would object to dine with Hindoos and vice 



