Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/186

 and ancient land for the venerable departed can be given no adequate expression. An Englishman and a member of the Indian Civil Service, Mr. Hume, with a freedom from pre- judice rare as it was glorious, founded the Indian National Congress, an organization of which no Indian can be too proud. If a new life is visible in India to-day, if the Indians have a national self-consciousness which was non-existent before the year of the first Congress, if their national self- respect is higher, if the esteem in which they are held by the civilized world is greater than it was, if with determination and self-confidence they look forward to the day when their country will have responsible government such as is enjoyed by the self-governing dominions of the Empire ; the credit for all this is to no small extent due to the Congress that was founded by Mr. Hume and therefore to Mr. Hume himself. The names of Allan Hume and William Wedderburn will be inseparably associated for ever in the Indian mind as the two worshippable men who laid aside every consideration of self and of race in order to strive nobly and work actively for the regeneration of an ancient land now low in the con- federacy of nations but with a rich promise of coming into her own by dint of unselfish exertion persisted in notwith- standing failure, in the simple faith in God that no good cause can fail."

The Lahore Tribune said Mr. Hume " corresponded with all public men in India and spent money freely in promoting the cause of the Indian National Congress. He wrote lead- ing articles for newspapers, corresponded with the highest officials, carried on controversies, wrote pamphlets, and was tireless in his industry. He was by no means in robust health, but nothing deterred him for a moment from the work he had undertaken to do. If any man had a mission it was Mr. Hume. He had the fervour of a prophet and the enthusiasm of a fanatic held well under control by the practical insight of a statesman. And his selflessness was sublime. A man who might have become a Lieutenant- Governor was content to work silently for the people among whom he had lived so long. Now that he has been called to