‘Indirectly,’ said the first report, ‘this Conference will form the germ of a native parliament, and if properly conducted will constitute in a few years an unanswerable reply to the assertion that India is still wholly unfit for any form of representative institutions.’ The answer to these aspirations and desires on the part of the educated natives given by the governing classes in India practically were—‘That the only government possible for India both in the interest of the British as well as of the natives, and as a protection against Russia, is a despotism.’ ‘That any concessions to native opinion will interfere with that despotism.’ ‘That the authority and domination of the officials must not be interfered with.’ ‘That if such concessions are made they will only serve as an opening for further demands, the object being ultimately to overthrow the Government, and that the leading natives have that end in view.’ The prophets were correct: one hundred years later saw India with a fully fledged Parliament, enacting laws for her own government and finishing by demanding full control of Imperial politics, till finally the control of the conqueror, however mild, was sought to be banished completely. There were those who were foolish enough to hint at extinguishing the Viceroy and all his court by means of electric lightning, but that course would have been idiotic in the extreme, for their rulers in turn could have annihilated the whole nation by the same process, so that to endeavour to settle the question by main force was simply impossible. Their grievance had by this time attained such magnitude that an immense requisition signed by millions of the inhabitants, or rather the natives, of India, was sent to the WORLD’S TRIBUNAL for consideration. What a tumult this action put the whole world into! Thousands of books and pamphlets were issued on the subject in every country. Throughout the globe newspapers and monthly journals eagerly discussed the question in their columns, and took sides according to their trade or political relationships with the countries in dispute, for self ever predominates in the decisions of nations as in those of individuals. Notwithstanding all this literary energy the ‘Supreme Law of Nations’ took its course. Delegates from every Government were summoned to appear on May 1 in the year 2002 to consider the secession of the Indian, from the control of the Teutonic Empire, and all the world wondered how it would end. In due course a sub-committee was formed from the delegates with powers to choose the place in which the WORLD’S TRIBUNAL should be held. It was finally decided that Paris should be thus exalted, for this charming city still held its own in the representation of the science and art of the world.