THE assassination of Sir William Curzon Wyllie ought not to be passed over without some attempt to learn the lessons which it seems fit to teach. For this purpose it is worth while to consider the facts so far as they are known. The trial of the miserable assassin, Madan Lal Dhingra, and the statements of members of his family regarding him, have made certain facts plain ; and it may be well briefly to recapitulate these.

The victim of the crime had an honourable career in India. His most important work was in the political department, where he was the friend and adviser of several Indian Chiefs, and had endeared himself to all who knew him by his kindly and sympathetic nature and his courteous yet straightforward behaviour. This is seen in all that has been said of him by people of all classes, who have given expression to the grief and horror with which they have heard of his death. There was no private grudge against him on the part of his murderer, except that he had endeavoured to assist Madan Lal's parents in delivering him from the evil influences under which he had come. What had marked Sir William out for assassination was that he exercised more than ordinary influence over Indian gentlemen, and was specially occupied in advancing their best

interests, and specially accessible to them.

was

The murderer was of the type well known to those who have had anything to do with the anarchical phase of Indian politics. He was of defective moral constitution, given to brooding and to callous and even cruel conduct, resentful of affectionate guidance, and easily amenable to evil influence: just such a man as the secret promoters of anarchy would find to be an apt disciple. He received his higher education in the Amritsar Municipal College and the Lahore Government College. He summoned home to Amritsar to learn commercial business. Hating this life, he ran away and worked as a lascar. a few months he returned home, and his brothers persuaded his father to send him to England to study engineering. Rai Sahib Ditta, a retired Civil Surgeon in the Punjab, consented to this with great reluctance; for he had little belief in his son's mental and moral soundness. Madan Lal came to England in 1906, and drifted to "India House last year. It was the effort, at his brother's request, to remove him from the evil influences of this pestilential institution that appears to have cost Sir William Curzon Wyllie his life.

There is no dispute as to the facts of the murder. It was carefully planned. Madan Lal

purchased a revolver, and by sedulous practice made himself an adept at the use of that weapon. He made the acquaintance of Miss Beck, the Honorary Secretary of the "National Indian Association," and so obtained the opportunity he desired of committing the crime on which he had determined. According to his own account, his object was to kill an Englishman, one of the members of a race which he had been taught to hate. That his intended victim was a man of high character and of deeply sympathetic nature was nothing to him, or rather, it was a further inducement to his crime; for this man was, in his view and in the view of those who apparently influenced him, one who made this hateful race not only tolerable to, but beloved by, the Indian nobles and peoples.

What was it that inspired this miserable young man with the hatred which he had towards the English race? Taking his own statement, we find that he had been taught to believe that the English have been the foes of India, and are "responsible for the murder of eighty millions of Indian people in the last fifty years, and they are also responsible for taking away £100,000,000 every year from India to this country"; that "the Englishman who goes out to India and gets, say, £100 a month, that simply means that he passes a sentence of death on a thousand of my poor countrymen, because these thousand people could easily live on this £100"; that "there is terrible oppression and hor

rible atrocities committed in India-for example, the killing of two millions of people every year and the outraging of our women"; and that the murder of private individuals (however innocent themselves) who belong to this hated race is but an incident in the war which patriotism demands against this foreign foe. These wild vapourings and baseless falsehoods might be regarded as the utterances of an insane and irresponsible mind; but they are not so. They are the words of a student, of defective moral sense no doubt, but thoroughly aware of the criminality of the act of which he was guilty. It would have been well for India if Madan Lal Dhingra could have been treated as a criminal lunatic; but that was impossible: he was a misguided, depraved, but responsible man. He has suffered the just penalty of his crime.

It is, in my judgment, correct to say, as the Under-Secretary of State for India said in the House of Commons on the 5th of August, that "the British people would be right to regard" the terrible tragedy under consideration "as the isolated act of a fanatic, and not to connect it with any widespread general conspiracy against the British nation." I believe that there are very few among the millions of Indians who have any sympathy with such a crime, and fewer still who would commit such orimes themselves. More than that, the vast majority, not of the peoples of India only, but also of the educated and enlightened classes, know that

the British rule has been, and is, a blessing to India, and that Englishmen are their friends. At the same time, the situation is not to be trifled with. This infinitesimal minority may, unless adequate measures are taken for the repression of orime, do most serious injury to India. One hails with satisfaction, therefore, the declaration of the deliberate intention to maintain order and to bring this intention "home to the agitators," and the general tone of the remarks of the Under-Secretary of State on this subject.

The injury which this infinitesimal minority may do to India consists, not in the murder of certain officials, but in the possible effect of such crimes on the relations between the two races. It is only natural for the police, in their endeavour to protect officers from violence, to prevent the people from coming freely into their presence; but it would be hard to conceive a greater injury to sound administration in India than that our officers should cease to be accessible. The possibility of sound and just government depends on officers going freely about among the people. It may reasonably also be feared that, if such crimes continue, Europeans may feel that efforts to help or benefit Indians, especially Indian students, are accompanied by undue risks. It is not logical nor just to hold a race responsible for the crimes of individuals; but it is only natural to have some suspicion of the many for the crimes of a few belonging to the same race.

On the other hand, such a crime tends to produce in the Indian mind a feeling of shame leading to a sensitive shrinking from familiar intercourse with European friends which is much to be deplored. To those who realise the importance, in the interests of India, of maintaining confidential relations between Europeans and Indians, the absolute necessity of suppressing these crimes of violence at all cost is most apparent.

It is a noteworthy fact that on the very day on which the Lord Chief-Justice of England condemned Madan Lal Dhingra to death for murder, he also passed sentence on an English printer for criminal carelessness in publishing articles by Mr Krishnavarma, which his lordship described "as being deliberate and direct incitings to murder, and a wicked attempt to justify these incitings by suggesting that political assassination is not murder." This indicates that Government is now alive to the necessity for vigorously repressing this poisonous propaganda both here and in India. But more than this is required. It is necessary to have firm and effective repression of deliberate attempts to stir up race hatred. The false and mischievous libels contained in Madan Lal's statement are the real cause of his murderous hatred. Similar falsehoods are circulated freely among the student class in India; and there are in this class too many

though comparatively fewof unbalanced or defective mind ready to accept these falsehoods, and to allow them to produce