Allan Octavian Hume
in happy partnership with the British people. It was a labour of Hercules, but he brought to the task the necessary elements of genius — the power to formulate a lofty ideal, with infinite patience and industry to work out the practical details ; also he possessed in himself the personality necessary for success in a heroic enterprise. In him we see the true Aryan breed ; of the Western type, in character and physique with the Norse strain that belongs to Scotsmen dwelling by the North Sea ; fair and blue-eyed, stalwart and active, a dauntless lover of freedom. He had within him the compelling spirit of the Berserker ; but his craving was not for battle, but for peace and goodwill. He was thus in full brotherly accord with the Aryan of the East, the meditative and saintly type ; and it pained his very soul that West should deny to East the joys of freedom, which should be the common heritage of both.
In Japan, a peaceful revolution converted a mediaeval military despotism into a constitutional government, based on the people's will. By a process of evolution, equally peaceful, the followers of Mr. Hume have set themselves gradually to convert the precarious domination of a foreign bureaucracy into a stable national government, under the aegis of the British Empire. India will then become a tower of strength to the Empire, attached by the strongest ties to this free country, under whose auspices she will, we trust, attain redemption and happiness.
Inspired with these hopes for the future, Mr. Hume became the Founder of the Indian National Congress; and the foundations were well and truly laid. Trust in the Indian People was the corner-stone ; and the trust was well justified. During twenty-five long and weary years the Congress stood firm ; often under storm and stress : the floods came, and the winds blew upon that
