Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/76

 that at all hazards the authorities must be awakened to the urgency of the case. In no grudging spirit he acknowledged the benefits conferred by British rule: the blessings of peace, and protection to life and property. But the Pax Britannica has not solved the economic problem, nor availed to preserve the debt-laden and despairing peasantry from the ravages of famine and disease. British rulers, he maintained, had failed, not from any lack of good intention, but from insufficient knowledge. The sufferings of the Indian masses from famine and disease arose from poverty; and this poverty was preventible, if the Government would take into their counsels experienced representatives of the people, who know exactly where the shoe pinches. But the Government would take no action. What was to be done? The case was one of extreme urgency, for the deaths by famine and pestilence were counted, not by tens of thousands, or by hundreds of thousands, but by millions; and in order to constrain the Government to move, the leaders of the Indian people must adopt measures of exceptional vigour, following the drastic methods pursued in England by Bright and Cobden in their great campaign on behalf of the people's food.

In the days of his youth Mr. Hume had witnessed the progress of this campaign, and he told how the delegates of the Corn-Law-League were refused a hearing by the House of Commons; and then Cobden, in few but weighty words, announced the new propaganda, which was to have such far-reaching results for the people of England: "The delegates," he said, "have offered to instruct the House; the House has refused to be instructed; and the most unexceptionable and effectual way will be by instructing the nation." "So," continued Mr. Hume, "has it fared with us; our educated men singly, our Press far and wide, our representatives at the