Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/103

 Mr. Romesh Dutt, Mr. H. A. Wadia, Mr. H. N. Haridas, Mr. A. Chaudhuri, Mr. M. A. Jinnah, and Mr. Bhupendra- nath Basu. On account of his long absences in India, it was not till the 6th of May 1890 that Mr. Hume was himself able to join as a member, and for the first time to attend a meeting of the Committee.

As a Congress leader, and as an early member of the British Committee, Mr. W. C. Bonnerjee stood pre- eminent, combining wise counsels with steady per- severance and ungrudging liberality. His lamented death occurred on the 21st of July 1906, and Mr. Hume writing of him as " one of the best and truest friends " he ever had, thus described his work for India : " From the very outset, he had thrown in his lot, unhesitatingly, with the Congress movement of which he was one of the originators, and from early in 1885 up to this his lamented decease, he adhered to and supported that movement, alike through good and evil report, giving it all the strength of his high character and position, great abilities and widespread influence. Probably no other Indian gentleman of modern times ever exercised so great an influence over his countrymen at large — not merely in Bengal, but throughout India — as did Mr. W. C. Bonnerjee, who from the first day that he put his hand to the plough of Reform very early in 1885, never grudged his time, his talents or his money, whenever and where- ever he saw, or thought he saw, that the cause of India's people might be in any degree aided or promoted by any or all of these."

As time went on, changes occurred in the permanent membership of the Committee. Early colleagues dropped out, and new friends were added. In 1903 there came an important accession of strength when Sir Henry Cotton K.C.S.I. joined the Committee, and from time to time other sympathetic Parliamentarians were added,