Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/81

 departure, and especially the campaign in the rural districts, had also the effect of causing some genuine alarm among the officials. I do not wish to enlarge upon the proceedings of the more excitable and high-handed functionaries, who put their trust in espionage; who stimulated among Mahomedans a class hostility to the movement; who desired to suppress the Congress; and who recommended that Mr. Hume should be deported. This was only a passing official phase, not countenanced by the highest authorities, which we may well forget. But it is altogether different in the case of a critic of the position and abilities of Sir Auckland Colvin, and in order to judge regarding the merits, or demerits, of this new and active propaganda, we cannot do better than study the letters which, in October 1888, passed between Sir Auckland Colvin and Mr. Hume, and which were published, with Sir Auckland's consent, as a pamphlet, under the title of "Audi Alteram Partem." Sir Auckland Colvin was a very distinguished member of the Civil Service; he held the high office of Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces; he claimed to belong to the "Liberal Official Camp"; and, until the new departure which followed the third Congress, held at Madras, he was distinctly friendly to the Congress movement. The grounds therefore of his disapproval, which are stated in calm and courteous language, are deserving of the most respectful consideration. His letter also was welcome at the time it was written, because it gave Mr. Hume a favourable opportunity of publicly making his position clear, and replying in detail to the objections raised by a competent and responsible critic. So important indeed is this correspondence, that I would gladly have reproduced the letters in extenso, but they are too detailed and (in parts) too technical for this brief memoir, Sir Auckland Colvin's letter extending to