of Government but the censure of the High Court of Madras.  At the Congress session held at Lucknow at the end of 1916 she shared the honours of a tremendous ovation with Tilak, whose sufferings—­and her own—­in the cause of India’s freedom her newspaper compared with those of Christ on the Cross.  Resolutions were carried not only requesting that the King Emperor might be pleased “to issue a proclamation announcing that it is the aim and intention of British policy to confer self-government on India at an early date,” but setting forth in detail a series of preliminary reforms to be introduced forthwith in order to consummate the “bloodless revolution” which, according to the President’s closing oration, was already in full blast.  The All-India Moslem League sitting at the same time at Lucknow followed the Congress lead.

To those feverish days at Lucknow the session of the Imperial Legislative Council held shortly afterwards at Delhi afforded a striking contrast.  The Great War was in its third year, and the end seemed as far off as ever.  The Government of India announced the issue of an Indian War Loan for L100,000,000 which was well received and speedily subscribed, and, as an earnest of the revision of the whole fiscal relations of the Empire after the war, an increase of the import duty on cotton fabrics, without the corresponding increase of the excise duty which had always been resented as an unjust protection of the Lancashire industry, abated an Indian grievance of twenty years’ standing.  A Defence Force Bill opening up opportunities for Indians to volunteer and be trained for active service responded in some measure to the agitation for a national militia which the Congress had encouraged.  The Viceroy also announced that the system of indentured emigration to Fiji and the West Indies against which Indian sentiment had begun to rebel was at an end, and that the problem of Indian education would be submitted to a strong Commission appointed, with Sir Thomas Sadler at its head, to inquire in the first place into the position of the Calcutta University, and he warmly invited the co-operation of Indians of all parties with the representative Committee under Sir Thomas Holland, then already engaged in quickening the development of Indian industries which, far too long neglected by successive governments, was at last receiving serious attention under the compelling pressure of a world-war.  Government and Legislature met and parted on cordial terms.  But Mrs. Besant never abated the vehemence of her Home Rule campaign, for only by Home Rule could India, she declared, “be saved from ruin, from becoming a nation of coolies for the enrichment of others.”  Access to some of the provinces was denied to her by Provincial Governments, and the Government of Madras decided to “intern” her.  The “internment” meant merely that she transferred her residence and most of her activities from Madras to Ootacamund, the summer quarters of the Madras Government, where