Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/19

 tion, and declared for repeal. In 1835 he forced the attention of the House to the treasonable conspiracy which was masquerading under the name of Orangeism. He laboured for the extension of the suffrage, for the establishment of the ballot, and for the reform of ecclesiastical revenues. He moved for the abolition of sinecures and of flogging in the army. . . . But his special devotion was reserved for financial reform. It was at his suggestion that the word 'Retrenchment' was inserted between 'Peace' and 'Reform' in the official motto or war-cry of the Liberal party ; and on all questions pertaining to finance, revenue, expenditure, and the like, he was the most pertinacious and unsparing of critics." But he did not forget India, while pursuing British reforms in every department ; and on the second reading of Sir Charles Wood's Bill of 1853, to amend the Government of India, he spoke for several hours, championing the cause of the Indian people.

Sprung from such a stock, Allan Hume early displayed the characteristics of that hardy sea-faring race which peoples the north-east coast of Scotland.

As a lad his ambition was to enter the Royal Navy ; and although he was destined for the Indian Civil Service, his father permitted him to "try the life" ; and at the age of thirteen he joined the frigate Vanguard as junior midshipman, and served for a time, cruising in the Mediterranean. Later on, he was sent to the Training College at Haileybury, and on leaving, he took the opportunity to study medicine and surgery at University College Hospital, which was then adorned by the presence of the great surgeon Robert Liston. In 1849 he was duly posted to the Bengal Civil Service. Born in 1829, it is to be noted that his youth coincided with the years when, in all matters, social and political, the British nation was making a bound forward, under