Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/20

 the impetus of the great Reform Movement of 1830, and when Bright and Cobden were triumphantly vindicating the right of the people to their daily bread.



We have now to follow him to India; and to record how he fared in the several stages of his official career. His period of service divides itself naturally into sections so diverse in their duties, that they may be treated almost as watertight compartments: (A) from 1849 to 1867, as a district officer; (B) from 1867 to 1870, as the head of a centralized department; (C) from 1870 to 1879, as a Secretary to the Government of India; and (D) June 1879, when he came into collision with the ruling authority, and practically ended his official career. In 1882 he resigned the service. Each of these sections carries a lesson of its own, for the personality of Mr. Hume acted as a touchstone, revealing the merits or demerits of each part of the administrative system: (A) as an executive officer, at the head of a great district in the North-West Provinces, he was a brilliant success. Both in peaceful times, and in the crisis of the Mutinies, his services at Etawah as an administrator deserved, and received, the cordial approval of the Government; and the official records show how, as regards (1) popular education, (2) police reform, (3) the liquor traffic, (4) the vernacular Press, (5) juvenile reformatories, and other domestic requirements, he laboured successfully as a pioneer of social progress. These years must have been among the happiest of his life; and the lasting results of his labours show how much may be accomplished for good by a district officer of the right sort, who understands the people,