in using the Tai Maharaj case for their political vendetta. There were, and there are leaders whose record of political service might be longer than that of Mr. Tilak. But they have not disdained to bask in the Sunshine of Government favour. In spite of their brave fights, they have more delighted in co-operating with Government. Their efforts in the cause of the Nation were made in the leisure of business or profession. They devoted their attention only to the intelligent few and never cared to approach the masses. In these and several other respects Mr. Tilak's career bears a striking contrast to theirs and it was this new ideal of leadership which Mr. Tilak placed before himself and the country that frightened the Bureaucracy. It was Mr. Tilak's virile methods of political agitation that were responsible for the implicable hostility with which he was pursued. Mr. Tilak never made complaints, he never sought relief. He knew that such persecutions were the necessary price he had to pay. But we may now ask "What did the Government gain by all this?" They could neither bend nor crush Mr. Tilak. They only succeeded in getting deserved odium for having unduly harassed a righteous man.
The apathy with which Mr. Tilak's political opponents in the Presidency could behold the conspiracy that well-nigh threatened to engulf him, is no less reprehensible. They had undoubted influence with the Government; they had very frequent occasions of meeting very high officers of the Government. Did they ever utter a word of protest regarding the Government's attitude in respect of this case ? Did they do their duty by Mr. Tilak? Nobody ever thinks of holding the
