Allan Octavian Hume, C.B./Parentage and Early Years
His Parentage and Early Years.
In order to realize the personality of Allan Hume, it is necessary to bear in mind his parentage, and his early surroundings. In the first place, he was the son of that sturdy and fearless Scottish patriot and reformer Joseph Hume, from whom it may be said that he inherited not only a political connection with India but also his love of science, and his uncompromising faith in democracy. The following character sketch is from the facile pen of the Rt. Hon. G. W. E. Russell: "Joseph Hume was born in 1777 and died in 1855. His father was a tradesman at Montrose: but the son preferred science to shopkeeping, and qualified as a surgeon. In 1796 he obtained an appointment in the service of the East India Company, and sailed for India. On the voyage the Purser fell sick; Hume took over his duties, and discharged them so well that the Company transferred him from marine to civil employment. He threw himself with ardour into the study of oriental languages, and acquired them so thoroughly that he was made an Interpreter, and in that capacity transacted a good deal of delicate and important business between the Company and the Native Powers. Those were the grand old days when Proconsuls became Nabobs, and the humblest officials in the service of the Company had frequent opportunities of indulging in the pastime of 'shaking the Pagoda Tree.' By 1808 Hume . . . had put by enough for his immediate object, which was to enter the House of Commons. . . . Willing the end, he willed the means, and, returning to England, he proceeded to buy one of the two seats which the Borough of Weymouth then possessed. The transaction was perfectly deliberate, straightforward and business - like. Hume drew his cheque, and the Free and Independent Electors of Weymouth undertook to return him for two parliaments. He was duly elected at a bye-election in January 181 2, but a dissolution occurring in the following November, the vendors of the seat declined to fulfil their bargain, whereupon he brought an action for breach of ontract, and recovered half his money. In 1818 he regained a seat in Parliament, this time for the Montrose Burghs, and he represented in turn Middlesex, Kilkenny, and again Montrose. He was a Radical of the deepest dye, and for thirty years was the recognized leader of the Radical group in Parliament. ... It has always been the portion of Radicals to be dreaded and dispraised by the big-wigs of the Liberal party, and yet all the while to be tracing the path of advance along which, a few years later, the whole party advances to victory. This was as true of Joseph Hume as in later days of Bright and Cobden, of Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Lloyd George. In 1834, amid universal derision, he attacked the Corn Laws, as producing artificial starvation, and declared for repeal. In 1835 he forced the attention of the House to the treasonable conspiracy which was masquerading under the name of Orangeism. He laboured for the extension of the suffrage, for the establishment of the ballot, and for the reform of ecclesiastical revenues. He moved for the abolition of sinecures and of flogging in the army. . . . But his special devotion was reserved for financial reform. It was at his suggestion that the word 'Retrenchment' was inserted between 'Peace' and 'Reform' in the official motto or war-cry of the Liberal party ; and on all questions pertaining to finance, revenue, expenditure, and the like, he was the most pertinacious and unsparing of critics." But he did not forget India, while pursuing British reforms in every department ; and on the second reading of Sir Charles Wood's Bill of 1853, to amend the Government of India, he spoke for several hours, championing the cause of the Indian people.
Sprung from such a stock, Allan Hume early displayed the characteristics of that hardy sea-faring race which peoples the north-east coast of Scotland.
As a lad his ambition was to enter the Royal Navy ; and although he was destined for the Indian Civil Service, his father permitted him to "try the life" ; and at the age of thirteen he joined the frigate Vanguard as junior midshipman, and served for a time, cruising in the Mediterranean. Later on, he was sent to the Training College at Haileybury, and on leaving, he took the opportunity to study medicine and surgery at University College Hospital, which was then adorned by the presence of the great surgeon Robert Liston. In 1849 he was duly posted to the Bengal Civil Service. Born in 1829, it is to be noted that his youth coincided with the years when, in all matters, social and political, the British nation was making a bound forward, under the impetus of the great Reform Movement of 1830, and when Bright and Cobden were triumphantly vindicating the right of the people to their daily bread.