Where the “National Congress” and the Congress ideas have sprung from is manifest when she first presents herself upon the Indian stage.  As her first president she has a distinguished barrister of Calcutta, Mr. W.C.  Bonnerjee, of brahman caste by birth, but out of caste altogether because of frequent visits to Britain.  Patriot though he is—­nay, rather, as a true patriot, he has broken and cast away the shackles of caste.  His English education is manifest when he opens his lips, for in India there is no more complete master of the English language, and very few greater masters will be found even in Britain.  Further, as her first General Secretary and general moving spirit, the first Congress has a Scotchman, Mr. A.O.  Hume, commonly known as the “Father of the Congress.”  His leading of the Congress we can understand when we know that he is the son of the celebrated reformer and member of Parliament, the late Dr. Joseph Hume.

[Sidenote:  Representative Government.]

Several of the claims of the Congress have been conceded in whole or in part.  Since the first meeting in 1885, elected members have been added to the Legislative Councils in the three chief provinces, Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, and new Legislative Councils set up in the United Provinces and the Punjab.  To the Council for all India, the Viceroy’s Council, also have been added five virtually elected members, out of a council now numbering about twenty-two members in all.  Four of the new members represent the chief provinces, and the fifth the Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta.  Other five the Viceroy nominates to represent other provinces or other interests.  Looking at the representation of Indians, it is noteworthy that in 1880 only two Indians had seats in the Viceroy’s Council, whereas in 1905 there were no fewer than six.  The Provincial Legislative Council of Bombay will suffice as illustration of the stage which Representative Government has now reached.  Eight of the twenty-two members are virtually elected.  That is to say, certain bodies nominate representatives, and only in most exceptional circumstances would the Governor refuse to accept the nominees.  And who make the nominations?  Who are the electors enjoying the new political citizenship of India?  We shall not expect that the electors are “the people” in the British or American sense:  no Congress yet asks for political rights for them.  The idea regarding citizenship still is that it is a royal concession, as it were to royal burghs, not that it is one of the rights of men.  The University elects a member to the Governor’s Council, for it has intelligence and can make its voice heard; the Corporation of Bombay elects a representative, for in the capital are concentrated the enlightenment and the wealth of the province; the importance of the British merchants must be recognised, and so the Chambers of Commerce of Bombay and Karachi send each a representative.  Other groups of municipalities elect one; the boards of certain country districts elect one; and finally two groups of landlords elect one representative each.  It comes to this, that the men of learning, the burgesses of the chief towns, the British traders, and the landowners and country gentlemen, have now a measure of citizenship in the modern sense of the word.