পাতা:১৯০৫ সালে বাংলা.pdf/৪৩

[ ৩৩ ]

spontaneous outburst of expression from this great gathering that we, who are assembled here, are resolved to live and die for the Swadeshi cause. The line of cleavage between the rulers and the ruled is becoming wider day by day. I ask—who is responsible for it? God knows that that awful burden does not rest upon our heads. Our rulers are responsible. Those who misapprehned the situation and who coming from the wilds of the Central Provinees, misunderstand the termper and character of the people of Bengal are accountable for the unhappy tension and excitement which prevail throughout these provinces. They seek to repress, where the sovereign remedy is conciliation. They seek to quench the flame by the application of force, and the flame blazes forth with redoubled fury. But whatever may be the defects of our rulers—and there has been a distinct deterioration in their qualities—our course of duty is plain and simple, namely to serve our country with unflinching devotion to her interest and to the cause of constitutional agitation which we are resolved to uphold. You, gentlemen, have by your sufferings set up a noble example, and it is because we mean to profit by that example that we are here to-