Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/173

 verted it, at the eleventh hour into a Political League to protest against the Boycott and Swadeshi movements, to uphold the Bengal Partition and to praise Sir B. Fuller to the skies, Mr. Tilak was rather delighted than vexed. He foretold that once the great Muslim Community was aroused, it would outstrip the Hindus in political demands. Of course, he severely condemned the attitude of the Mahomedans on the occasion of the disturbances at Comilla and Jamalpur. He fully approved of the Manifesto of fifteen Bengali leaders including (the Hon'ble Sir) Surendranath Banerjea which described how "Hindu shops have been looted; Hindu temples have been desecrated; the images of Hindu deities have been defiled; the Cutcheeries of Hindu Zemindars ransacked; Hindu women have been outraged"; he condemned in scathing terms officers and Mahomedans alike who were responsible for this lawlessness. But he knew that a day would come when the "favourite wife of Sir B. Fuller" would be awakened to a full sense of her duty and would no longer allow the Bureaucrats to "Divide and Rule" us.

With the growing awakening in the Nation, the tide of Repression began to rise. Lord Morley, from his philosophical seat in the India Office was unable to arrest either the one or the other. From his Presidential chair at Benares, Mr. Gokhale had told the world how he "felt towards Mr. Morley as towards a Master " and how his heart leapt "with hope and fear" at the appointment of the Biographer of Gladstone to India Office. Mr. Morley, so trusted and revered, did not hesitate in his budget Speech (June 1907) 'reluc-