Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/47

 the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Commerce. In July 1871 he appointed Mr. Hume as Secretary in this Department, on account of his special knowledge of agriculture, transferring him from the Home Department, where he had been acting as Secretary for a year. At the same time he changed the designation of the Department, putting Agriculture before Revenue ; but to this the Secretary of State took exception, and in his Despatch of 3rd August 1871, directed that in the title of the Department "Revenue," as the subject of paramount importance, should come first. At the same time he laid down the rule that "the officer appointed to the post of Secretary in this Department, should always be chosen on account of his knowledge of the subjects connected with revenue, rather than from any knowledge which he may possess of agricultural or commercial matters." Agriculture had therefore to take a back seat ; and upon this conclusion Mr. Hume remarks, "It will be seen, therefore, that as constituted, this Department never was, and never was intended by the Home Government to be, a Department of Agriculture. Lord Mayo hoped to convert it into this, but with his death India lost the warmest, most competent, and at the same time, most influential advocate for agricultural reform. No change, such as he contemplated, has ever been made in the constitution of the Department, and succeeding administrations have only made the official bonds more rigid, and converted its chief more and more thoroughly into a mere desk-tied secretary." It was reserved for a later generation to realize that improved agriculture is the backbone of Indian finance.

Though deeply disappointed by the frustration of Lord Mayo's scheme, Mr. Hume did not on that account relax his efforts. He was a workman of the sort that, if