Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/123

Rh distinctly admitted that the charge against Mr. Tilak had nothing to do with the Poona murders. In spite of this clear admission, the notorious Globe had the effrontery to remark that "Tilak"—mark the omission of Mr.—had directed, if not organised, the campaign of murder and that the Western Presidency had been permeated by seditious conspiracies of a most dangerous character with the arch-plotter Tilak as the head. The Times of India published these remarks; but when hauled up before the Magistrate for defamation, made suitable amends by tendering a graceful apology which was as gracefully accepted. A suit was filed against the Globe in England, and the paper which had reviled this Poona Brahmin to eat its own words and tender an unreserved apology.

It was reserved for Sir Valentine Chirol to hold Mr. Tilak morally responsible for the Poona murders; and though Mr. Tilak failed in his attempts to legally disprove the subtle accusation, still all India holds him morally innocent of the charge. Directly or indirectly morally or actually, Mr. Tilak had nothing to do with murders; and the only murder he ever talked about was that of Afzulkhan, in connection with the Shivaji Festival. Mr. Tilak's life was an open book, on which the word 'patriotism' was writ large; and if the courts of justice made the mistake of confounding patriotism with sedition—well, he was prepared to pay the price. As for murder—political or otherwise—it was absolutely foreign to his nature.