Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/184

 earnestness, his selfless, ceaseless devotion to the cause which he believed to be good and which he espoused, and by his unshakable faith that right and justice would eventually triumph. He was truly a great soul— one of the noblest Englishmen ever born. He was one of those benefactors of mankind who came to initiate movements of great poten- tiality for the good of their fellow-men. Mr. Hume com- bined in him the large-hearted love of freedom, of justice and of equality of treatment between man and man. He hated oppression and wrong-doing, and sincerely and earnestly desired the good of all his fellow-men."

The Hon. R. N. Mudholkear, speaking at Amraoti, said, " Misunderstood, misrepresented and reviled by short- sighted or perverse men, he was one of the most potent friends of British rule, a veritable pillar of strength to it. Directing the mind and energies of the thinking portion of the Indian community into the channels of constitutional agitation, he and his co-workers effectually minimized the chance of its flow into unsafe and dangerous courses, while his intense humanity and abiding sympathy for the Indian people deepened their faith in British justice. He was more than a far-sighted and noble Briton or a friend and bene- factor of India. He was a saint, one of those beings sent now and then to the earth to rouse men to a due recog- nition of the higher and brighter side of human nature. In him India has lost a guide, a teacher, a leader, whose every word and every act was instinct with wisdom and deep affection ; England a loyal, high-minded and far-seeing son ; the Empire a statesman-like citizen, and the human race an ardent striver after great ideals."

While the leaders of Indian public opinion referred td|| Mr. Hume's services in terms of unqualified affection and admiration, the Indian newspapers paid warm tribute to the departed leader. The Bengalee of Calcutta wrote that to Mr. Hume belonged "the credit of organizing the scat- tered elements of public life and focusing them in an institution which was to cement the public spirit of the country, to build and stimulate national life. The first