passive goodwill. Both then and at subsequent sessions various speeches were delivered which breathed a loyal and reasonable spirit. But as the association made way it became a rallying centre not only for men who merely desired the gradual establishment of a parliamentary system, but also for those whose real quarrel was with British rule in any form. Partly through Hume's exertions the movement gained friends in England. In 1888 its leaders embarked on vigorous propaganda of an aggressive nature. Hume admitted that friends had warned him of the danger he incurred of fostering race hatred and arousing passions which would pass beyond his control. But he considered that the whole campaign was inevitable in view of the lack of official response to reiterated demands; and he continued to work for the congress until he left India in 1894. Thereafter, living in England at Upper Norwood, he interested himself in English politics, maintaining correspondence with his friends in India. He lived to see the Morley-Minto reforms, which were in fact the first substantial step taken by England toward the establishment of a parliamentary system in India.
Hume married in 1853 Mary Anne Grindall (who died in 1890), and had one daughter. He was a keen sportsman and a noted ornithologist. Together with Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, of the Indian army, he wrote a standard book, The Game Birds of India, Burmah, and Ceylon (Calcutta, 1879–1881). In 1885 he presented a collection of bird-skins and birds' eggs to the British Museum of Natural History, South Kensington. He also founded and endowed the South London Botanical Institute. For some time in India he was connected with the Theosophical Society, but subsequently separated himself from that body. He died at Norwood 31 July 1912 at the age of eighty-three.
[Sir William Wedderburn, Allan Octavian Hume, 1913; Sir Harrington Verney Lovett, A History of the Indian Nationalist Movement, 1920.]
HUNTER, Sir ROBERT (1844–1913), solicitor, and authority on commons and public rights, was born in London 27 October 1844, the only son of Robert Lachlan Hunter, by his wife, Anne Lachlan. He was educated at a private school and at London University. After taking the M.A. degree in 1865 he studied law and was admitted solicitor in 1867. Public opinion at that time was stirred by the enclosure of many metropolitan commons, and (Sir) Henry Peek, of Wimbledon, offered prizes for essays on the subject. Hunter, amongst many rising lawyers, competed; his essay gained a prize and was selected for publication. This led to Hunter becoming in 1869 a partner in the firm of Fawcett, Horne, and Hunter, solicitors to the Commons Preservation Society which had been founded in 1865. He was entrusted with the conduct of the suits that led to the protection of Hampstead Heath, Berkhamsted, Plumstead, and Wimbledon commons, and other threatened open spaces, and established the principles of public interest upon which the law relating to commons is now based. The most notable case effected the recovery of 3,000 acres of Epping Forest on the suit of the corporation of the city of London, when Hunter acted with the city solicitor in the conduct of the protracted legal proceedings (1871–1874).
In 1882 Henry Fawcett, then postmaster-general, appointed Hunter solicitor to the General Post Office. He held the position until shortly before his death, and was concerned in the drafting and passage of over fifty acts of parliament dealing with the department. These measures included the Conveyance of Mails Act (1893), which ensured that all differences between the railway companies and the state as to remuneration for the carriage of mails should be referred for settlement to the Railway and Canal Commission. It has been officially stated that by his initiative and able handling of this measure Hunter saved the country over £10,000,000. His most striking achievement, however, was his successful negotiation, in conjunction with Sir Henry Babington Smith, of the terms for the purchase of the National Telephone Company's system under the powers conferred on the Post Office by the Telegraph Arbitration Act, 1909. The compensation claimed by the company was £20,924,700, but the amount awarded to them was reduced to £12,515,264, after the contract, drafted by Hunter, had stood the test of bitterly fought arbitration proceedings lasting for seventy-two days. The value to the Post Office of Hunter's acumen and persuasive personality was well recognized, and Fawcett once declared that nothing in his official career had given him greater pleasure than the securing of a man of Hunter's character and ability for the country's service.
Hunter's interest in the movement for protecting commons was maintained, and
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