The Congress claimed to represent the educated opinion of India, and, though Government withheld from it all official recognition, it flattered itself not without reason that its preaching had not fallen on to altogether barren soil when, still under Lord Dufferin’s Viceroyalty, the Indian Local Government Act of 1888 marked a large advance upon the reforms in local and municipal institutions which, with the repeal of the Lytton Press Act, had been amongst the few tangible results of Lord Ripon’s “Pro-Indian” Viceroyalty; for it fulfilled many of the demands which Indian Liberals, and notably Pherozeshah Mehta, had urged for years past for a more effective share in municipal administration.  Still greater was the satisfaction when, under Lord Lansdowne’s Viceroyalty, the British Parliament passed in 1892 an Indian Councils Act, for which Lord Dufferin himself had paved the way by admitting that Government could and should rely more largely upon the experience and advice of responsible Indians.  The functions and the constitution of both the Viceroy’s and the Provincial Legislative Councils, though their powers remained purely consultative, were substantially enlarged by the addition of a considerable number of unofficial members representing, at least in theory, all classes and interests, who were given the right to put questions to the Executive on matters of administration and, in the case of the Viceroy’s Council, to discuss the financial policy of Government if and when the budget to be laid before it involved fresh taxation.  The Act of 1892 did not, however, admit “the living forces of the elective principle” on which the Congress leaders had laid their chief stress, and they went on pressing “not for Consultative Councils, but for representative institutions.”  Their hopes never perhaps rose so high as when one of their own veterans, Dadabhai Naoroji—­though Lord Salisbury could not resist a jibe at the expense of the “black man”—­entered the House of Commons as Liberal member for Central Finsbury.  It must be conceded that, had Government at that time taken the Congress by the hand instead of treating it with disdain and suspicion, it might have played loyally and usefully a part analogous to that of “Her Majesty’s Opposition” at home—­a part which Lord Dufferin had been shrewd enough in the beginning not to dismiss as altogether impossible or undesirable.  Its claim to represent Indian opinion, as, within certain limits, it unquestionably did, was ignored, and it was left to drift without any attempt at official guidance into waters none the less dangerous because they seemed shallow.  It quickly attracted a large following among the urban middle classes all over India.  But as the number of those who attended its annual sessions, held in turn in every province, grew larger, it became less amenable to the guiding and restraining influence of those who had created it, and especially of those who had hoped to lead it in the path of social and religious reform as well as of political advancement.