Lord Morley, who was the guest of the Indian Civil
Service Dinner Club on Thursday, made an admirable speech to the distinguished and representative audience gathered to hear him. He was trying, be declared, to feel his way through the most difficult problem, the moat difficult situation, that a responsible Government ever had to face. After declaring that it was impossible to enter upon an era of pure repression, Lord Morley quoted the astounding prophecy made by Lord Macaulay in 1836. Macaulay mentioned that " in the single town of Hooghly 1,400 boys were learning English." The effect of this education on the Hindus was, be declared, "pro- digious." " It is my firm belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be effected merely by the natural operation of knowledge and reflection." Very poignant was Lord Morley's comment : " Ah, gentlemen, the natural operation of knowledge and reflection carries men of a different structure of mind, of different beliefs, of different habits and customs of life—it carries them into strange and unexpected paths."
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