Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/126

 unknown in the presence of his unselfish devotion to the cause of progress.

"Mr. Williamson again carried the Liberal banner in May of the same year, and Mr. Hume, as the chairman of the Election Committee, was at work early and late. The result, however, was another defeat of the Liberals. From this time Mr. Hume's health did not allow him to take the continuous share of the work he had done. On several occasions he asked the Association to find him a successor for the office of President, but the universal feeling was that, while Mr. Hume lived, no other President was possible. For the last four or five years he has only occasionally taken the chair at the meetings of the Executive Council.

"On reaching his eightieth birthday, the Vice-Presi- dents of the Association invited all the members to a special garden-party in honour of Mr. Hume. At perhaps the largest gathering of Liberal workers ever held in the constituency the following resolution was passed unanimously and with much enthusiasm : —

"The members of the Dulwich Liberal and Radical Association (supported by the members of the Dulwich Women's Liberal Association and the Dulwich League of Young Liberals) most heartily congratulate our revered President, A. O. Hume, Esq., C.B., on his attaining his eightieth birthday. They thank him sin- cerely for his able and generous leadership for the past twenty years, for his uniform kindness and courtesy, and for his example as a high-minded politician. They trust that he may be spared to witness further triumphs of the great Liberal and Radical principles for which he has so fearlessly and consistently fought both in England and India.'

"The selection of Mr. H. E. A. Cotton, the son of his old friend Sir Henry Cotton, as candidate for Dulwich at