THE INDIAN CONGRESS SEDITIOUS PAMPHLETS.. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR."] SIR,—It is no doubt true that, as is pointed out in the Spectator of the 5th inst., Bengalees do not believe their own charges against officials; but it by no means follows that they may not persuade an ignorant and credulous population to- believe in them, and also to believe the rest of the poisonous matter put forward in the pamphlets. As a matter of fact, we know from the statement made in the Report of the Congress of 1887 (p. 11), that it was owing to these pamphlets that, "of the 30,000 rs. required for the purposes of the third Congress, no less than 5,500 rs. were contributed by over eight thousand petty subscribers in amounts ranging from 1 alma to 1 r. 8 annas, and some 8,000 rs. by subscribers of from 1 r. 8 annas to 30m." Even coolies subscribed, we are told. There were probably at least ten thousand subscribers, all of whom may be regarded as propagandists of the seditious- matter put forward in the pamphlets, and we can thus form some estimate of the rate of progression of feeling adverse to. the continuance of our rule in India. Are we governing these poor people unjustly or justly, when we allow money to be ex- tracted from them with the aid of pamphlets which hold up, our rule as the cause of every evil in India, our officials as- types of everything that is brutal and tyrannical, and our very irrigation works as devices for extorting more taxes from the ryots P—I am, Sir, &c.,
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