of authority, widespread terrorism and murder not only of the officers of the Government but of loyal and well-disposed subjects.” What is significant is, that the leader, Rash Behari Bose, a Bengalee, who had organised several such conspiracies, escaped. Commenting upon the same trial, the Times of India, an influential Anglo-Indian paper published in Bombay, remarked:
“If this conspiracy had been disclosed in ordinary times there might have been a tendency to regard the members as representative of a considerable class of India . . . but, as it is, the revolutionary party stands out a mere fraction of the population, a dangerous and determined section of the population perhaps, yet so small that it can not command any chance of success while the sentiment of the country remains what it has been so splendidly proved to be.”
Commenting upon the severity of the sentences inflicted, the Indian press took occasion to point out the grievous wrongs under which the country suffered at the hands of the British. After the conclusion of this case, over 100 persons more were indicted at Lahore [1]and a very large number at Benares, in connection with the same conspiracy. Besides, a number of men belonging to the military were tried and convicted in different stations in Northern India.
In Bengal political crime was rampant in a viru-
- ↑ Six of them have been sentenced to death, 45 to transportation for life, some to imprisonment and some have been acquitted.
