We are glad to record that the Legislative Council at
Simla has passed the Bill renewing the Seditious Meetings Act till March 31st, 1911. If the Act had ever any justification— we believe, of course, that it had ample—it would be sheer lunacy to withdraw it now. There was some opposition to the renewal by unofficial members of the Council. Lord Minto said that their opinions were in themselves sound and true, but that as he was drawing to the end of his term of office he must not prejudice the action of his successor, Lord Hardinge. He could not, therefore, either repeal or re-enact the Act. The only wise course was to renew it so as to make it opera- tive till Lord Hardinge's arrival. "I feel very strongly," he said, "that this Act is of such enormous importance that it . cannot be fittingly considered in Simla. Our action can only be put into effect legitimately in full Council in Calcutta." We suspect that the summaries of Lord Minto's speech do it an injustice, and that he did not really speak of the renewal of the Act as a thing to be done faute de miens rather than as a matter of earnest conviction and clear public necessity.
