(3) The enlargement of the Viceroy’s Legislative Council from twenty-four to fifty-three by the inclusion of more Viceroy’s nominees, two representatives of the Chambers of Commerce, two Mohammedans elected by rotation from Mohammedan districts, seven landholders elected by the landed magnates, and seven instead of four members elected by the non-official members of the Legislative Councils. The last point may appear like a concession to popular representation, but seven out of fifty-three is not so powerful a fraction as four out of twenty-four. (4) The enlargement of the Provincial Legislative Councils, but this proposal was left vague, beyond a few suggestions. Some miscellaneous points in the history of the year remain to be noticed. The official return of deaths from PLAGUE during the first four months of the year (1907) amounted to 642,000, and the total deaths from plague since its first appearance in 1896 up to April, 1907, were 5,250,000. On August 7th, and again on October 2nd, disturbances arose in College Square and Beadon Square in Calcutta, and in the same city a popular speaker named BEPIN CHANDRA PAL was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment (September 11th) for refusing to give evidence in the prosecution of the Indian paper, _Bande Mataram_. When summoned as witness before the magistrate, Mr. Kingsford, he replied:— “I have conscientious objections against taking part in a prosecution which I believe to be unjust and injurious to the cause of popular freedom and the interests of public peace.” (August 26.) Two special commissions were instituted in the autumn—a DECENTRALIZATION COMMISSION, under Mr. Charles Hobhouse, at that time Under-Secretary for India, and a FACTORY LABOUR COMMISSION, under Mr. W. T. Morrison of the Bombay Civil Service. They sat in various parts of India during the winter. In July an agreement was announced with China, by which it was ultimately arranged that China should regard 51,000 chests of OPIUM exported from India as a standard amount, this amount to be decreased yearly by one-tenth from 1908 till it disappeared in ten years, provided that China made similar reductions in her produce. On August 31st an ANGLO-RUSSIAN AGREEMENT was signed, dividing Persia into Russian and British spheres of influence, with a neutral zone between; Afghanistan was recognized as outside Russian influence, and both Powers agreed not to send representatives to Lhassa. In some quarters it was hoped that this Agreement would warrant a large reduction in the military expenditure of India. In October SIR GEORGE CLARKE, lately Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence, arrived from England as new Governor of Bombay. In the same month MR. KEIR HARDIE, ex-leader of the Labour Party in the Commons, visited Eastern Bengal, where his private statements and conversation were misrepresented by correspondents to the English newspapers and agencies as seditious speeches.