Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/51

 He is notoriously a very hard worker, and Government will not easily find his equal in knowledge of the special subjects dealt with in his department. But he is what, according to the present ' Imperial ' phraseology, is called insubordinate ; this is the alleged ground of his transfer, and this is the point which to us appears most seriously to call for consideration. By ^ insubordinate ' the Govern- ment appears to mean, not that an officer refuses to obey orders, not even that he neglects to carry out in the best possible way orders which he does not himself approve, but that he refuses to join in the cry of ' Peace, Peace ' when Government says it is peace, but when it is really war. The present theory of official subordination is, that an officer is not merely to obey orders, not only to do his best to facilitate their execution, but that he is even in his most confidential, semi-official utterances, to suppress any indication of his dissent from what he disapproves, if he knows or has reason to suppose that the Viceroy desires to carry the point. In the days of Lord Dalhousie, Lord Canning, and Lord Mayo, the freest expression of the honest opinions of Secretaries and Under-Secretaries was not only permitted but invited. To have expressed to any one without the charmed circle of the Government opinions adverse to the Government policy, would article goes on to say that under Lord Northbrook change was initiated ; he could not endure the criticism by his own subordinates of measures he approved ; and Lord Lytton intensified this repression : "Clearly there is no security or safety now for officers in Government employment ; neither length of service, nor known ability, nor industry, nor all those merits which go to make up a public servant's claims — can avail to protect any man from