s oneself unknown. There are a dozen of them, and sit six
aside at two slightly curved lines of beautifully polished desks. Thus
Sir Steuart Bayley occupies the frog of a badly made horse-shoe split at
the toe. In front of him, at a table covered with books and pamphlets
and papers, toils a secretary. There is a seat for the Reporters, and
that is all. The place enjoys a chastened gloom, and its very atmosphere
fills one with awe. This is the heart of Bengal, and uncommonly well
upholstered. If the work matches the first-class furniture, the inkpots,
the carpet, and the resplendent ceilings, there will be something worth
seeing. But where is the criminal who is to be hanged for the stench
that runs up and down Writers' Buildings staircases; for the rubbish
heaps in the Chitpore Road; for the sickly savour of Chowringhi; for the
dirty little tanks at the back of Belvedere; for the street full of
small-pox; for the reeking ghari-stand outside the Great Eastern; for
the state of the stone and dirt pavements; for the condition of the
gullies of Shampooker, and for a hundred other things?

"This, I submit, is an artificial scheme in supersession of Nature's
unit, the individual." The speaker is a slight, spare native in a flat
hat-turban, and a black alpaca frock-coat. He looks like a scribe to the
boot-heels, and, with his unvarying smile and regulated gesticulation,
recalls memories of up-country courts. He never hesitates, is never at a
loss for a word, and never in one sentence repeats himself. He talks and
talks and talks in a level voice, rising occasionally half an octave
when a point has to be driven home. Some of his periods sound very
familiar. This, for instance, might be a sentence from the _Indian
Mirror_: "So much for the principle. Let us now examine how far it is
supported by precedent." This sounds bad. When a fluent native is
discoursing of "principles" and "precedents," the chances are that he
will go on for some time. Moreover, where is the criminal, and what is
all this talk about abstractions? They want shovels not sentiments, in
this part of the world.

A friendly whisper brings enlightenment: "They are ploughing through the
Calcutta Municipal Bill--plurality of votes, you know. Here are the
papers." And so it is! A mass of motions and amendments on matters
relating to ward votes. Is _A_ to be allowed to give two votes in one
ward and one in another? Is section 10 to be omitted, and is one man to
be a