As one of his organs blurted it out:--"If the British yield all power to us and retain only nominal control, we may yet be friends." Such was the position when, on June 24, 1908, Tilak was arrested in Bombay on charges connected with the publication in the _Kesari_ of articles containing inflammatory comments on the Muzafferpur outrage, in which Mrs.and Miss Kennedy had been killed by a bomb--the first of a long list of similar outrages in Bengal.

Not in the moment of first excitement, but weeks afterwards, the _Kesari_ had commented on this crime in terms which the Parsee Judge, Mr.Justice Davar, described in his summing up as follows:--"They are seething with sedition; they preach violence; they speak of murders with approval; and the cowardly and atrocious act of committing murders with bombs not only meets with your approval, but you hail the advent of the bomb into India as if something had come to India for its good." The bomb was extolled in these articles as "a kind of witchcraft, a charm, an amulet," and the _Kesari_ delighted in showing that neither the "supervision of the police" nor "swarms of detectives" could stop "these simple playful sports of science," Whilst professing to deprecate such methods, it threw the responsibility upon Government, which allowed "keen disappointment to overtake thousands of intelligent persons who have been awakened to the necessity of securing the rights of _Swaraj_." Tilak spoke four whole days in his own defence--21-1/2 hours altogether--but the jury returned a verdict of "Guilty," and he was sentenced to six years' transportation, afterwards commuted on account of his age and health to simple imprisonment at Mandalay.
The prosecution of a man of Tilak's popularity and influence at a time when neither the Imperial Government nor the Government of India had realized the full danger of the situation was undoubtedly a grave measure of which a weaker Government than that of Bombay under Sir George Clarke might well have shirked the responsibility.

There were serious riots after the trial.

From the moment of his arrest Tilak's followers had put it about amongst the mill-hands that he was in prison because he was their friend and had sought to obtain better pay for them.

Some of his supporters are said to have declared during the trial that there would be a day's bloodshed for every year to which he might be sentenced by the Court, and, as a matter of fact, he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and the riots lasted six days.