were next alluded to, and it was announced that the cities of Bangalore and Mysore were to have an extension of the electoral system.  The important subject of the reform of religious and charitable institutions (there had been several representations made as regards these in previous years by members of the Assembly) was next taken up, and it was announced that a specially qualified officer had been appointed to “inquire into the subject on the spot, and to carry out the needed reform in the case of each institution under the general and special orders of Government, and, when once all institutions are thoroughly reformed and placed upon a sound and efficient footing, the future management of them on the lines laid down will, as heretofore, have to be carried on by the local executive authorities.”  After alluding to some contemplated reforms in the Civil Service of the province, the Dewan concluded his able address by alluding to the apprehensions of famine which had been consequent on the failure of the rains, and congratulating the members on the fact that owing to good rain having fallen only a fortnight ago, the threatened danger had now passed away.

After the conclusion of the Dewan’s address I then rose, and, as chairman of the preliminary meetings of representatives, alluded to the subject of the organization of committees which we desired to carry into effect, and urged that, as far as possible, members should avoid going into petty local grievances, and devote their attention to those large general questions which affect the whole province.  After I had sat down a translation of the Dewan’s address was then delivered in Kanarese, for the benefit of the representatives who did not understand English, and the Assembly afterwards adjourned till the following morning.

After the Assembly had adjourned the members of the central committee met in a private room, and we agreed on the terms of the address to the Maharajah.  Then we returned to the Hall, as it had been thought advisable to take up several matters which had not been discussed at our first preliminary meeting, and it was again proposed that I should take the chair.  The first proposal made was that members, instead of being annually elected to the Assembly, should be elected for three years, and this was unanimously carried.  A leading native member next rose and proposed that no girl under ten years of age should be given in marriage.  Then ensued a scene of excitement that baffles description.  The representatives who, the moment before, had been quite calm and collected, and who looked so passive that it seemed that nothing could have aroused them from a condition of profound composure, became suddenly electrified.  A burst of tongues arose simultaneously all over the Assembly.  Several members got up and tried to speak at once, and one of these (I think I see him now), a tall, stout, elderly man with a voice of thunder, and his appearance much accentuated by an enormous bamboo