and were ever ready to act as the spokesmen of Indian
discontent. Some of them were of that earnest
type of self-righteousness which loves to smell out
unrighteousness in their fellow countrymen, especially
in those who are serving their country abroad; some
were hypnotized by the old shibboleths of freedom,
even when freedom merely stands for licence; some
were retired Anglo-Indians, whose experience in the
public service in India would have carried greater
weight had not the peculiar acerbity of their language
seemed to betray the bitterness of personal disappointment.
Every invention or exaggeration of the Bengalee Press
found its way into the list of questions to be asked
of the Secretary of State, who, with less knowledge
than he has since acquired, doubtless considered himself
bound to pass them on for inquiry to the Government
of India. A large proportion of these questions
were aimed at Sir Bampfylde Fuller, who, as the first
Lieutenant-Governor of the new province of Eastern
Bengal, had been singled out for every form of vituperation
and calumny, and no subject figured more prominently
amongst them than the disciplinary treatment of turbulent
schoolboys and students. It is so easy to appeal
to the generous sentiments of the British public in
favour of poor boys, supposed to be of tender years,
dragged into police courts by harsh bureaucrats for
some hasty action prompted by the generous, if foolish,
exuberance of youth, especially when the British public
is quite unaware that in India most students and many
schoolboys are more or less full-grown and often already
married. Every one of these questions was duly
advertised in the columns of the Bengalee Press, and
their cumulative effect was to produce the impression
that the British Parliament was following events in
Bengal with feverish interest and with overwhelming
sympathy for the poor oppressed Bengalee.
Nevertheless, there came a moment when the first feverish
excitement seemed to wane. Time had gone on,
and though there was a new Viceroy in India and a
new Secretary of State at Whitehall, the Partition
had remained an accomplished fact. The visit
of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Calcutta had
temporarily exercised a restraining influence on the
political leaders, and the presence of Royalty in a
country where reverence for the Throne is still a
powerful tradition seemed to hush even the forces
of militant sedition. In Eastern Bengal, where
the agitation had been much fiercer than in Bengal
proper, the energy and devotion displayed by the Lieutenant-Governor
in fighting a serious threat of famine had won for
him the respect of many of his opponents, and the
situation was beginning to lose some of its acuteness
when it was suddenly announced that Sir Bampfylde
Fuller had resigned. The effect was instantaneous.
The points at issue between Sir Bampfylde Fuller and
the Government of India have been fully and frequently
debated, and it is needless to discuss here the reasons