Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/183



Colonial Office Records No. 181, Vol. 38

Letter to "The Natal Mercury" (7-7-1894)
DURBAN,

July 7, 1894

TO

The Editor

The Natal Mercury

SIR,

It was a treat to read your learned and able leader in today's issue. It was not expected that there would be nothing to be said against the franchise petition. That would be a wondrous—I was almost going to say, superhuman—thing that would not have its two sides, in these modern times. On the same principle, Sir George Chesney is not the only writer who would serve your purpose. Sir Henry Sumner Maine was also, after all, a mortal. It is, therefore, only natural that his theories and conclusions should be contested. There seems to be no escape for a mortal from “the pairs of opposites”. I would, however, without for the present presenting the other aspect of the