Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/116

96 editor of Kesari was arrested on 27th July 1897 at Bombay where he had gone to seek legal redress against the reckless statements made against him by the Times of India. The printer of the Kesari was also arrested. The Editors of the Poona Vaibhav, the Modavritta, the Pratod were also arrested. The Editors of the Dnyanprakash and Sudharak bent their knees and saved themselves from prosecution. The Natu Brothers were deported under the notorious regulations of 1818. Altogether it appeared that a 'reign of terror' had been fully established at Poona and that the Collector's threat had been literally carried out.

After a series of preliminary proceedings Mr. Tilak was set free on bail by Mr. Justice Tyabji on August 4th. The conclusion his Lordship arrived at was that "the articles in question, * * about which he desired to say clearly * * that he gave no positive opinion one way or the other, were not necessarily of such a character as to lead one to the irresistible conclusion that the man responsible for such articles must be convicted upon them." One of the incriminating articles was a poem—the production of a poetaster— supposed to be addressed by Shivaji to the Mahrattas exhorting them to be up and doing and the other was the report of Mr. Tilak's speech at the close of the Shivaji Festival defending Shivaji's murder of Afzulkhan. On this slender foundation was the edifice of the prosecution constructed—a rhetorical piece in poetry from some obscure poet and a report of a speech defending Shivaji's greatness and insisting upon his claim to be recognised as a national hero.