have had sufficient experience of its working to enable me to form an opinion as to their utility. I should not fail to admit, however, that the actual working of these councils is enveloped in somewhat of a mystery and to one outside it, it is a puzzle how it is that the non-official members are so little able to do good of any kind.
It was not till I myself became a member of the Madras Legislative Council that I saw how unjustly our friends in the council were censured in the majority of instances and what little influence they possessed in the council either for good or for evil. With the best intentions in the world, I may assure you, gentlemen, they find themselves in the wrong place, and so long as the present constitution of these Councils remains unchanged it is idle to expect that these non-official members will prove of any great use to the country... If one carefully noted the successive laws that are enacted by these Councils, one would plainly see that the functions of these Councils are limited to registering the decrees of the executive Government and stamp them with legislative sanction... Every suggestion that I made was received with great considera-
