The minority in support of any resolution resisted by Government never reached 20, and generally fluctuated somewhere between 16 and 20.

The only resolution which would have certainly combined all the native members in support of it was Mr.
Gokhale's resolution with regard to the position of British Indians in South Africa, but, as it was accepted by Government, it was passed _nem.
con._ without a division.
That in these circumstances the official members who are at the same time heads of the most important administrative and executive departments should be kept in constant attendance during debates in which many of them, are not in any way directly concerned, and that they should thus be detained in Calcutta at a season when their presence would be far more useful elsewhere, constitutes one of the most serious of the many practical drawbacks of the new system for which a remedy will have to be found.

It is as if not only the Parliamentary representatives but the permanent officials of our own great public departments were expected to sit through the debates in the House of Commons, without even the facilities which the private rooms of Ministers, the library, and the smoking rooms at Westminster afford for quiet intervals of work between the division bells.

Nor is that all.

The Council sat during the very months of the short "cold weather," when it is customary and alone practicable for heads of departments to undertake their annual tours of inspection.