Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/50

 service." This platitude was in reply to a letter from Mr. Hume inquiring in respectful terms the reasons for his removal. No dereliction of duty, or incapacity, was alleged or suggested ; the reply was in substance a refusal to give any reason whatever for action altogether out of accord with official precedent. But if no reasons were forthcoming from the Viceroy and his advisers, public opinion, through the Press, was not slow to give its view of the merits. It was clear that a great principle affecting the morale of the public service was at stake, and I have before me extracts from leading Anglo-Indian journals, not usually too friendly to Mr. Hume, which declare, in uncompromising terms, that his offence was that he was too honest and too independent. The Pioneer characterized the whole proceeding as "the grossest jobbery ever perpetrated" ; the Indian Daily News said it was "a great wrong" ; and the Statesman, "Undoubtedly he has been treated shamefully and cruelly." But the best statement of the case is contained in an article in the Englishman of 27th June 1879, a part of which I will now reproduce. It is believed to have been from the pen of a distinguished member of the legal profession, and friends of Mr. Hume will be glad to read this vindication of his personal action, and of the principles for which he suffered. Referring to the ^' measure by which Mr. Hume was summarily superseded and degraded," the Englishman writes: "The plea advanced in justification of this arbitrary act was that Mr. Hume habitually, in his minutes on measures coming up for discussion in his department, expressed his views with great freedom, without regard to what might be the wishes or intentions of his superiors. If he believed a particular policy to be wrong, he opposed it without hesitation, using plain language for the expression of his views. We cannot find that any other charge has been brought against him.