For the charter of 1833 [Footnote: During Lord Grey's ministry.] definitely promised that native Indian subjects of the English Government were to be admitted on equal terms with English subjects _to every office of State_, except that of governor-general or commander-in-chief. Not only that, but the solemn proclamation of the late Queen was issued in 1858, pledging the word of Sovereign and Parliament that the "sole aim of British rule in India was the welfare of the Indian people, and that no distinction would be made between Indians and Europeans in the government of the country, on the grounds of race, or creed, or colour." As Francis Newman says very clearly, it is a "task which we have voluntarily assumed-to rule India, which means" (the italics are his) "_to defend it from itself in infancy, to train it into manhood_.... It presupposes that the people gradually get more and more power until, like a son who comes of age, the parental control is discontinued.... We cannot take the last steps first, nor can we abruptly and recklessly resign our post...." The Hon. M. G. K. Gokhale, in a keenly interesting paper read before the East India Association in the summer of 1906, states very definitely the point of view of educated Indians as regards our unfulfilled pledges of nearly eighty years since. He says: "Until a few years ago, whatever might have been thought of the pace at which we were going, there was no general disposition to doubt the intention of the rulers to redeem their plighted word. To-day, however, the position is no longer the same.... There is no doubt that the old faith of the people in the character and ideals of British rule has been more than shaken.... Half a century of Western education, and a century of common laws, common administration, common grievances, common disabilities, have not failed to produce their natural effect even in India.... Whatever a certain school of officials in India may say, the bulk of educated Indians have never in the past desired a severance of the British connection.... "But, he adds: "It is a critical juncture in the relations between England and India.... The educated classes in India ... want their country to be a prosperous, self- governing, integral part of the Empire, like the colonies, and not a mere poverty-stricken bureaucratically-held possession of that Empire."