ſºlº cro LO № CO ！| 4：e-gº-„…！ ！ 5∞ ſae º º... •<！-- º•,，，^ » . . • • • • • • •¿a º ： CC I TO CÔ University of Michigan ######## |（883）, ſ. №ſſº Ķ;ſae ~--~ ×∞ ·• • ►ae.، -· Paeſ，ſº...ºººººº, ººººººº..ººººº + '&ſe（）. ！！!！！ Lºſ ſeſſ.;. ? ∞ √≠ ≤ ≥ § . .*?）<§§§ P R O P E R T Y O / (//? /ī/. /// AN INDIAN JOURNALIST: BEING THE LIFE, LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE ZATE EDITO/P （9F ‘ RE/S AAWD RA YYET’ CAL CUTTA. By F. H. S K R IN E , I.C.S. (ſſſſſſſſtää . THACKER, SPINK & CO. 1895. g” ) $ º-->, < *** * is'. "A .*** ,” - wº (. Ç.) C..}º ‘. g CALCUTTA : T H E. B E E PR E S S. 2 - G|| d a - C & I N D E X, ~~~afºgº-oº- Abdool Hamid, H. M., Sultan of Turkey, 314, 315. Abdool Huq, Sardar, Piler Jung, C. I. E., of Haidara- bad, 224. . Abdool Luteef, the late Nawab Bahadur, C. T. E., 28, 33, his good breeding, 56, 308, 309, 374. Abdus Subhan, Moulvi A. K. M., Khan Bahadur, telegram, 455. Actor's career compared with Journalist's, 67. Adhyaya, meaning of, 38 I. Address, ſorms of, among oriental, I 59. Age of Consent Bill, supported by Mookerjee, 384, 387, 388. Albert Victor, H. R. H. the late Prince, visit of 315, Ode to, 4o I. tº . Ameer Hossein, Hon’ble Nawab Syed, C.I.E., 41 tº letter, 45 I. Ardagh, Col. Sir J. C., C.B., K.C.I.E., Private Secre- jv INDEX, tary to the Viceroy, letter, 269, 278, 316, 3 19, 321, 439, 450. Arnold of Rugby, Dr., 6. Arteve/de, Philip van, 18. - * Atkinson, the late Mr. E. F. T., C. S., Accountant. | General of Bengal, letter, 273, 275. Balzac, H. de, on posthumous ſame, 66. Banarji, Babu Jyotish Chunder, letter, 425. Banarji, the late Revd. Dr. K. M., I 12, letter, 128, 467. O - Banarji, Babu Kumad Nath, 66. |Banarji,...Babu Manmatha Nath, letter, 465. Banarji, Babu Saradaprasad, letter, 404. Banarji, Rai Bahadur Shib Chunder, letter, 455. Banarji, Hon’ble Surendranath, 337. “Baroda Yellow Book,” 36 (note), 338. Barth, M. A., letter, %. Bayley, Sir Steuart Colvin, K.C.S.I., 202, 205, 234, 236, 352. Q Beaconsfield, Lord, 57 Beames, Mr. John, C. S., 206. Belchambers, Mr. R., letter, 468. Bell, the late Major Evans, I.S.C., letter, 73, 83, 87, r38, 140, 153, 157, 166, 181. - INDEX. * . V Benares, effect of death at, 4O9. Bengal Theatre, 446, 447. Bengalis frequently traduced, xxv., 59 (note.) Bentham, opposed to Judicial Taxation and Stamp Tax, 381. - Berigny, the late Dr. Th., first homoeopathic practi- tioner in Calcutta, I 7. * Bhaddaur, Sardar Sir Atar Singh, Chief of K.C.I.E., tº letter, 3.22. º Bhattacharjya, Babu Krishna Kamal, Principal, Ripon College, 32. Bhattacharya, Dr. Jogendra Nath, 388, 394. , Bhopal, H. H. the late Begum Sekendra oſ, her career, 36, life by Mookerjee, Io;. Binaya Krishna, Raja, letter, 389. Bonnerjee, Mr. W. C., Barrister-at-law, 37 I. Boswell's Life of Johnson, 3. & *. Bradford, Col. Sir E. R. C., K.C.B., 401. Baird, the late Mr., C. S., 374. Brahmanism, 4, 97. Bribery in England and India, difference, 378. Bural Family of Jorasanko, 12. Č) Burmese War, third, Mookerjee’s attitude regarding, S2. vi INDEX Bussy-Rabutin, his views on letter-writing, 69. Calcutta Monthly Magazine, Mookerjee's first literary arena, I I. Calcutta Training Academy, Mookerjee Principal oſ, 3 I. Campbell, General Napier, letter, 130. Cats, Mookerjee's love for, 64 and note. Charlo, Rao Bahadur P. Ananda, letter, 393. Chatterjee, the late Rai Bahačar Bankim Chandra, C.I.E., novelist, 173. Chatterjee, Mr. K. M., Barrister-at-law, letter, 399. Chaudhuri, Babu Hem Chunder, Rai, L. M. S., letter, 64 (note.) + Cicero on the brotherhood of man, 59. Citizenship, Major Evans Bell on, I 54, 157, 183. Civil Service, Major Evans Bell on the, 183, organic changes in, 238. Clarke, Mr. S. E. J., secretary of the Bengal Cham- ber of Commerce, letter, 263. t Coleridge, St., 345. Colvin, Sir Auckland, K.C.M.G., K.C.S.I., C.I.E., a • constant correspondent of Mookerjcº's, 4o I, letter, I 95, 203, 204, 197, 209, 232, 235, 255, 402, his administration of the N.-W. P. summarized, 403, INDEX. wii a born man of letters, 404. Condolence, Letters and telegrams of, 44.9-77. Congress Agitation, disliked by Mookerjee, 57, 283. Conversation, Mookerjee on, 422. Cooper's Hill College denounced as a job, 89. Correspondence of Dr. Mookerjee, 73-448. Cotton, Hon. H. J. S., C. S. I., 197. Cow Protection movement, distrusted by Mookerjee, 57, 4.37. º, Croſt, Sir A. W., K. C. I. E., 384, 385, as Vice- Chancellor on Moºre, 472. Croker, Mr. J. W., 382. U} Curzon, Hon. G. N., article on frontier politics in the Nineteenth Century, 236. - Darbhanga, Maharaja of, 317, 318, 319, 320. Das, Babu Srinath, 433. f Das, the late Mr. Upendi, Nith, 4.33. Deb, Babu Manahar, letter, 466. *. Deditation, xxv-vii. Deussen, Professor Paul, his visit to India, 409. Dewas, Raja oſ, 230. * Dey, Babu Kaliprasanna, Editor, National Magazing, I 79, 18 I. - Dey, the late Babu Syamacharan, distinguished Ac- viii INDEX, countant-General, 32. Digby, Mr. W., C.I.E., Agent in England for the congren, 257. Dufferin and Ava, Marquis of, a regular correspond- ent of Mookerjee’s, 70, letter, 2 16, 2 19, 22 I, 237, 243, 332, 342, acquires the Pérsian language, 283, Mookerjee’s opinion of his policy, 297. Dumraon, the late Maharaja Sir Radhaprasad Singh, K.C.I.E., 318, 32O. J’ Durga Puja Vacation, Mookerjee’s agitation for the closure of offices during, 269-81. Dutt Family of wellington Square, Io, 264, their library, 367. C Dutt, the late Babu Doorga Churn, 267. , the late Babu Grish Chunder, 267. , Babu Jogesh Chunder, 175, 267, 350, 352, 369, 478. C Dutt, Mr. O. C., ris, letter, 452. , Babu Prakash Chunder, 267. ,, Prosaddoss, letter, 461. , the late Babu Rajinder, 17, 264. . , the late Babu Romesh Chunder, 10, 17. , Babu Satish Chunder, 175. , the late Babu Sooresh Chunder, Io, I 3, 267. IND EX. T ix Dutt, the late Babu Woomesh Chunder, 267. Early marriage, defended, I 2-13. Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, his patriotism and hones. ty, 63 (note). Elgin, Lord, letter, 450. Elliott, Sir Charles A., K.C.S.I., correspondent of Mookerjee’s, 70. **ś, Emerson, R. W., on biography, 2. Empress, illustrated Calcutta magazine, 302. English home and school life, Mookerjee on, 96. Englishman, Calcutta," 224, praises the enterprize of Reiſ and Rayyet, 432. Evans, Hon'ble Sir Griffith H. P., K. C. I. E., 403, letter, 428. tº. Fawcett, Proſessor Henry, 91. Frontier, the Indian North-Western, a splendid school, I O2. S. Fuzl Rubbee, Dewan, of Murshidabad, 352. Gatiguli, Babu Kisari Mohan, letter, 171, 173; 179, 379, 386, 41 1, 415, 417, 429, 434, 444, 447, 478. Ganguli, Babu Syama Charan, Principal, Uttarpara College, 32. George III., King, his pride in his British nation. ality, 58. X IN IDEX. Ghose Family of Bagh Bazar, 8. Ghose, the late Babu Grish Chunder, 68, I I 2. Ghose, Mr. Lalmohun, Barrister-at-law, 187. Ghose, Mr. M., Barrister-at-law, 378, 379. Ghose, Babu Nabokissen, “ Ram Sharma” of Indian literature, letter, 406, 452. Ghose, Babu Narendra K., 452. Ghosh, Babu Kali Prosanna, Manager of the Bhawal Estates, letter, 387, telegram, 456. Gid hour, Maharaja oſ, 32 o. Goethe, his three essentials of culture, 26. Graham, Mr. W., Barrister-at-law, letter, 423, 451. Grammar, Mookerjee on, 426. Griffin, Sir Lepel H., K. C. S. I., letter, 227. Grimley, Mr. W. H., C. S., Commissioner of Chuta Nagpur, 49. Guha, Babu Sarada Kanta, letter, 260. Guin, Babu Sib Chandra, Professor, Sanskrit College 4. I 3. Haſez, version of odes by, 214. Hall, Dr. Fitz Edward, his arrival in India, 264, friendship with the Dutt family of Wellington Square, 264, obtains a high post in the Edu- cational Service, N.-W. P., 265, Principal, Benares IND EX. . xi College, 265, , profound Orientalist, 265, letter, 265, 302, 471, 472. Handley, Mr. A. P., Barrister-at-law, 372, 393 Haridas Viharidas Desai, the late Dewan, telegram, 465. * Harris, Captain, Professor, Metropolitan College, Io. Harrison, the late Sir Henry, Kt., C. S., 197, 247. Hindi v. Urdu in Bihar, 418. Hindoo Patriot, I 3, 1 R, 20, its early history, 2 1, 22, Mookerjee appointed Sub-Editor of, 20, virtually edits ſor three years 'the, 2O, death of the virtual ſounder, 20, purchased by a millionaire, 22, Moo- kerjee leaves, 25, Rai Kristodas Pal Bahadur SU, C- ceeds him as Editor, 26. &J Home charges, Hon’ble Sir Griffith H. P. Evans, K.C.I.E., on, letter, 428. Homoeopathy, Mookerjee embraces, 17. Hume, Mr. Allan O., Father "of the Indian National Cöngress, 187, letter, 188, Sir Auckland Colvin and Mr. Hume, 258. Hunter, Sir W. W., L.L. D., K.C.S.I., C.I.E., Annals of Rural Bengal by, 31, Dictionary of the non-Aryan Languageſ of India, 74, his Gazetteer of India, 79, letter, 7.4, 80, 82, 156, his Brief History xii INDEX. of India, I 55. Income Tax, violates nearly every canon of taxation, 22. Index, iii-xxiv. Indian Daily Newſ, 38, 223, 224. Indian Leisure Hour, 143. + Iyer, Mr. A. Krishnaswami, 422, letter, 457. Jaipur, the late Maharaja Ram Singh of, friendship with Mookerjee, 38, his character, 38 (note) Jehan Kadr, Hon’ble Prince, K.C.I.E., 352. Jenkins, Mr. E., late M. P. & Dundee, letter, 28. Johnson, Dr. Samuel, biography, 3, on national misfortunes, 12, his love of cats, 64. * Journalism, drawbacks of, º a career, 66. Jung, the late Nawab Sir Salar, K.C.S.I., letter, IoA. Kashipur, the late Raja Sheo Raj Singh of, Mookerjee becomes Private Sečetary to, 33, his misunder- standing with, 34, notwithstanding, the Raja recommends Mookerjee to the Nawab of Ram- pur, 34. Ker, Babu P. N., 478. Knight, Mr. Paul, letter, 328. Knight, the late Mr. Robert, I 57, criminal proceed- ings against for defamation, I 76, 186, letter, 176, INDEX. xiii 177, 192, 201, 3oo, Mookerjee's grief at his death, 329, 346. Kossuth, Louis, 226. Kuch Behar, H. H. the Maharaja of, 3 I 5, 32 o. Laing, Hon’ble Samuel, Finance Minister, Io9. Lamber, Sir John, K. C. I. E., letter, 459. Lansdowne, Marquis of, 337, Lord Dufferinº esti- mate of, 343, his opinion of Reiſ and Rayyet, 4o8, letter, 447. L Law, Kumar Kiwi, letter, 376. Lawrence, Lord, 337. Q, Lawrence, the Sir john, the catastrophe to, 43 I. Letters (and telegrams) of Condolence, 44977. Libel, prosecution oſ Mookerjee ſor, 353. - Life Story, Mookerjee’s, I-71. Love, Mr., Editor of Calcutta Morning Chronicle, I 1. Lyon, Mr. P. C., C. S., letter, 339, 372. Macaulay, Lord, note on the Penal Code, 378. Matihava Rao, the late Sir T., K.C.S.I., letter, 113. Mahomed, Moulvi Syed, letter, 395, 452, 453. Mahomedans, Mookerjee’s sympathy for, 56, 281, he aspires to fuse them with the Hindus into one nation, 311. t! Malabari, Mr. B. M., journalist of Bombay, 287. C xiv IND EX. Mallik, Mr. H. C., letter, 366, 410. Marston, Miss Ann, letter, 347. Marvell, Andrew, his incorruptibility, 62. Masters, Mr. William, mathematical teacher, Metro- politan College, Io. Mayo, Lord, 337. McNeil, Professor H., letter, 165. Mehta, Mr. R. D., letter, 358. Mitra, Mr. B. C., C. S., letter, 4.69. Mitra, the late Raja Degambar, C.S.I., 427. Mitra, the late Raja Dr. Rajendraiala, antiquarian, I I 2, 170, 303, 384, letter, I 17, 126. - Mitter, the late Hon. Dwarkanath, Judge of the Bengal High Court, s: I I 2 . - Mitter, Babu Siddheshur, letter, 458. Monarchy, its drawbacks, 42 (note). Mookerjee, the late Bábu Ashutosh, Prem Chand Roy Chand Scholar, 32. Mookerjee, the late Raja Dakhina Ranjan, 25, letter, 76. Mookerjee, Babu Gopal Chunder, 390. Mookerjee, the late Babu Hurrish Chandra, Editor, Hindoo Patriot, I 3, 15, struggles, 20, 2 I, 22, early death, 22. IND EX. XV Mookerjee, Mr. J. C., letter, 362. Mookerjee'; Magazine, 36 and note, I I I, 338. * Mookerjee, the late Babu Mothoor Mohun, father of the Doctor, 5, 30. Mookerjee, Raja Pearymohun, C. S. I., letter, 466. Mookerjee, Babu Ramdas, 478. Mookerjee, Babu Ramlal, of Boinchi, 427. Mookerjee, Dr. Sambhu Chunder, birth, 5, early training 5, enters a missionary School, 7, enters the Oriental, Seminary, 7, becomes inti- mate with the Ghose Family of Bagh Bazar, 8, oins the Calcutta Public Library, 9, enters the Metropolitan College, 9, impresses favour- ably the Principal, Captain D. L. Richardson, Io, his associates there, Io, his love of English compositon, Io, distaste, ſor mathematics, Io, first attempts at journalism,' I I, edits the Morning Chronicle, I I, disagrees with the pro- ºrietor on Lord Dalhousie's Oudh policy, I I, writes for the Hindoo Inte//gencer, 12, marries, 12, joins the staff of the Hindoo Patriot, 13, the origin of his liſelong asthma, 6, relieved oby opium, 17, embraces homoeopathy, I7, aids in establishing a dispensary, 17, his degree of M. 4 xvi - INDEX. D., 18, the defects of his early training dis- played, 19, studies law, 20, returns to the Hindoo Patriot as Sub-Editor, 20, pamphlet on Mr. Wilson's financial policy, 23-24, 1eaves the Patriot, 25, becomes Secretary to the Oudh Taluq- dars' Association, 25, edits the Samachar Hindu- frami of Lucknow, 25, studies music, 26, intense love for the art, 27, introduced to the last Nawab Nazim of Bengal, 28, becomes his adviser at Murshidabad, 29, intrigues against him of the courtiers, 30, triumphs over his ſoes, 30, leaves Murshidabad, 30, death of his ſather, 30, returns to the staff of the Patriot, 31, high qualifi- cation as a reviewer, 31, reviews Sir W. W. Hunter’s Ammaſ; of Rural Bengal, 3 I, becomes Principal of the Calcutta Training Academy, 3 I, his associates then, 32, becomes Private Secre- tary to the Raja of Kashipur, 33, a boar-hunt * (... and its consequences, 33, leaves the Raja's service, 34, recommended by him to the Nawab of Rampur, 34, nobly refuses to discontinue rela- cions with the Nawab's brother, 35, recalled to Calcutta by news of his wife's illness, 35, ſounds Mookerjee's Magazine, 36, the “Baroda Yellow- ( INDEX. s xvii Book, ” 36, liſe of the Begum of Bhopal, 36- 37 and note, his daughter's marriage, 37, makes the acquaintance of the Maharaja of Jaipur, 38 and , note, becomes Diwan of Hill Tippera, 4 I, declines to humour the Maharaja’s ambition as to caste, 42, quarrels with his master, 43, leaves Tippera, 44, appointed paid adviser by the Maha- raja, 44, correspondence with Mr. F. H. Skrine, ex-officio Political Agent, Hill Tippera, 45-46, appointed Commissioner for the partition of the estate of the late Rani Rashmani, 46, starts the weekly journal Reiſ and Rayyet, 47, writes . Trave/ and Voyages in Bengal, 48, an aſter dinner speaker, 5 I, his health gives way, 52, attitude as regards the last Burmese war, 52, serious illness, 53, death, 54, character, 55, a Hindu of Hindus, but here- ditary bias profoundly mºdified by his western culture, 56, sympathy with the Mahomedans, 56, prºmotes a meeting of congratulation on Turkish successes at Plevna, 57, dislike of the Congress agitation, 57, a firm friend to British rule, 58, national pride, Sumptuous tastes, 59, love of his fellow creatures, 59, inquisitiveness, 60-61, con- sideration for his servants, 61, unselfishness, 61, C. xviii • INDEX. disinterestedness, 63, the centre of a group of warm friends, 63, love of animals, 64-65, intense appreciation for poetry, 66, essentially a journal- ist, 66, his “Essays,” 68, Mookerjee as a letter- writer, 70, his correspondents, 70, his correspond- ence, 73-448, his portrait, ſrontispiece. r Mookerjee, Babu Surendranath, letter, 463. Mookerjee, Babu Thakur Das, the late revered, 427. Morning Chronicle, of Calcutta, edited by Mookerjee, 11, rupture with the proprietor, I I. Mouat, Sir F., late Inspector General of Jails, Bengal, his estimate of the Bengali character, 59 (note). Murshidabad, Mookerjee becomes Diwan oſ, 29, in- trigues amongst the Nazim's followers, 29, 30. Murshidabad, H. H. Sir Hassan Ali Mirza, Bahadur, Nawab of, his presentation to H. R. H. the late Prince Albert victor, 315, letter, 351, 359, tele- gram, 456. - Nana Sahib of Bithur, contemplated tragedy On, 97, IO I. t Naoroji, Mr. Dadabhai, 84, 90, 186, 187. Nazim, the last Nawab, 28, his character and mode of life, 28 (note.) New ul Kishore, the late Munshi, of Lucknow, [. INDEX. xix C. I. E., 209. Nirvana Mukti, is it attained by non-Hindus who die at Benares 409. Northbrook, Earl of, his able speech on the Home Charges, 428. - - Nyayaratna, Mahamahopadhyaya Mahes Chandra, C. I. E., late Principal, Sanskrit College, letter, 198, opposes the Age of Consent Bill, 384. Nyayaratna, the late Pandit Raj Kumar, of Hatibagan, his opinion on the restilt to non-Hindus of death at $enares, 409. Oonalaska, 405. Opium habit, Mookerjee acquires the, 17. Osborn, the late Colonel R. D., letter, 2 12. Oudh Taluqdars Association, 25, Io9. Padshah, Mr., journalist, 287. Paikpara, the late Kumar I. C. Singh Bahadur, dinner in honour of M. Joubert, organizer of the Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883-84, 49. Pal, the late Rai Bahadur Kristodas, Editor of the Hindoo Patriot, Io, 26, 1 of, 170. Panioty, the late Mr. D., permanent Assistant Private Secretary to the Viceroy, 254. Parliament, advantages of a seat in, 91. XX INDEX. Paul, Sir Charles, K. C. I. E., Advocate General, Bengal, 372. Peerage, an Indian, comtemplated by Mookerjee, I I 5. Petheram, Sir Comer, Kt., Chief Justice of Bengal, 399. Phear, Sir John Budd, 187. Poetry, Mookerjee’s love for, 65, art of, 142-47, 286-95. Poiſon Tree, novel by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, I 73, I 74. {.. Police, fracas between Mookerjee's servant and, 247. Popularity, Sir A. Colvin on, 236. Portrait, Mookerjee's, frontiſpiece. Poſtscript, 478. Pratt, the late Mr. Hodgson, 1 39. Press, injury done to India by the disloyal section of the, 45 (note), attacks on Lord Dufferin's Burma policy, 53. illiberal tone of the, 196,227- 28, function of the, 239.42, origin of, 383, 392-93. Prince in India, by Mookerjee, Io;. Prose composition, Mookerjee on, 397-98. Fuffs, Mookerjee's aversion to, 416. Puri, a dispute in, 44 I. Raha, Babu Nabokumar, distinguished theatrical INDEX. xxi manager, 4 I O. Rampur, the late Nawab Kulb Ali Khan of, engages Mookerjee as Personal Assistant, 34, 35, quarrels with him, 35, I Lo. Rao, Mr. G. Syamala, letter, 285. Rao, Mr. Vencata Appa, letter, 145, 148, I 5 I, I 58. Rashmani, the late Rani, her estate under partition, 46, her character, 47. Rattigan, Sir W. H., St., letter, 391, 4oo. Reis and Rayyet, weekly journal started by Mookerjee, 47, 263, 338, 368, warmly praised by Liverpool and Manchester papers, 4:4. enterprise of, 431, spirit of 436. Q) Richardson, the late Captain D. L., Principal, Metro- politan College, 9, attracted to Mookerjee, Io, 3 off. Ripon, Marquis of, 296, 297. Robespierre, his incorruptibility, 63. Rome, as a health resort, Lord Dufferin On, 343. Rosebery, Earl oſ, letter, 2 I I. Rost, Dr. Reinhold, C. I. E., Librarian at the India Office, his enforced retirement, 443, 445. Routledge, Mr. James, letter, 324, 363, 474. Roy, Babu E. C., letter, 461. Roy, Raja Rajendra Narain, of Bhawal, 387. xxii INDEX. Roy, Babu Sarat Chunder, letter, 457. Russell, Sir Howard, king of war correspondents, I 34, letter, I 35. sacrifice, human, I 17, 128. Samachar Hinduſtami, edited by Mookerjee, 25. Sanyal, Babu Dinabandhu, letter, 460. Sastri, Hon’ble A. Sashia, letter, 422. Savitri Library, letter, 454. Schopenhauer, compares thought to a maiden, 3. Sen, Babu Abala Kanta, 433, 435. “Sharma, Ram,” poet of Rei. and Rayyet, letter, 406, 452, 460. Shori Miah, the Indian Verdi, 26. Silsbee, Mr., 267, 268. - Sinha, Babu Brahmananda, letter, 344, 368. Sircar, Dr. Mahendralal, C. I. E., 54, 350, letter, 322. ,- Skrine, Mr. F. H., C.S., ex-officio Political Agent, Hill Tippera, 45-46, corresponds with Mookerjee, 46, meets him, '49-50, mediates between the late Mr. R. Knight and his prosecutor, 176. , Spectator, London, quoted, 105-6. Stamp Law, may be called periodical enhancements of the Stamp Tax, 381. INDEX. xxiii Stanley, Lord, of Alderley, letter, 3oz. Sultan Saheb, aliaſ Prince Iskundar Ali Mirza, the late, 28 (note). Tagore, Maharaja Sir Jotindra Mohan, Bahadur, K.C.S.I., II 2. Tarkaratna, Pandit Ramnath, of Santipur, travelling Pandit, Bengal Asiatic Society, 383, unfairly dis- missed, 385, his great poem Vaſudeva Vijayam, 385, 4 I 2, meets Proſe'ssor Deussen, 4 Io, writes A ll ode on the Calcutta ſh;ernational Exhibition, 413, accused of plagiarism, 4 I 3, charge supported by a forged M.S.S., 414, prosecutes ſor libel, , 414, vindicates his character, 415, the defendant denies having made any adverse imputations, 4. I 5, his retaliation, 418, defended in Rei, and Rayyet, 419. Taylor, Sir H., on obedience, 18. Tippera, Hill, state of, 41, Mookerjee Dewan of, 41, the Maharaja's ſoibles, 42-44, Mookerjee leaves, 474, (1. Mookerjee appointed paid adviser to the Maharaja, 44, Mr. Skrine, Political Agent of, 45, 3 O I. Tippera, the Bara Thakur oſ, telegram, 469. Titles, offered to but refused by Mookerjee, 391. Tocqueville de, on the danger attending reſorms, 24. xxiv INDEX. Townsend, Mr. Meredith, letter, I 3 I, 13 I-34. Underwood, Captain T. O., letter, 93, IoI. Vambéry, Proſessor Arminius, 282, letter, 306, 3 Io, 469, 47.o. Vencataramaniah, Mr. G., letter, 142. Vizianagram, Maharaja of, 317, 320, letter, 349, telegram, 461. Wallace, Sir Donald Mackenzie, K.C.I.E., Private Secretary to the Viceroy, Fetter, 229, 245, 253, 264, 337. Waller, the Poet, 407. Q. Wilson, Hon. A., Puisne Judge, Bengal, 378. Wilson, Right Hon’ble James, Financial Minister, his financial policy, *. 23. Wilson, Mr. James, late Editor, Indian Daily News, 365. Wood-Mason, the late Professor J., letter, 331. DEDICATION. DEDICATION. United Service Club, Calcutta, the 2nd September, 1895. MY DEAR HUNTER, F, as the Greeks said, a huge book is a huge evil, a lengthy preface is a greater one. Mine, therefore, shall have the merit of brevity. Gratitude was amongst the motives which led me to undertake the biogra- phy of my distinguished Bengali friend ; for he gave me sympathy and kindness at a time when I stood in need of both. I felt, too, that his career was one which should not be allowed to pass into oblyion. He came of a race which has undergone presistent vituper- ation from people forgetful of Burke's apho- rism that a nation may not be impeach- ed. The detractors of the Bengalis belong to two classes. The first know nothing of the seventy millions of the Lower Provinces; and’ have been dazzled by the brilliant sophistries of XXV AJE/D/CA 7TWOAV. Macaulay. The second judge Bengalis, as Macaulay did, by the cringing sycophants who dance attendance in high officials' anterooms or belong to families who, during a century of intercourse with us in the capital, have lost some of their native virtues without ac- quiring ours. It is a remarkable fact that one seldom finds this attitude of contempt in Englishmen who are intimately acquainted with the Bengali language and character. The Bengalis have their faults, and serious ones. A want of moral courage is the chief one. Most of their failings, however, are due to defective education—an absence of healthy home life and of the thorough training for thews and sinews which English lads enjoy. Bengalis who have been vouchsafed such ad- vantages compare not unfavourably with the average Englishman. Mookerjee was an in- stance of a Bengali with “backbone"—from what ancestral strain derived I know not. The story of his life, told with its shadows as well as its lights, is pregnant with lessons DE DACA TYOM. xxvii for us all. There is a peculiar fitness in the association of your name with this narrative. I commenced it at your beautiful Berkshire home. Well do I remember how, while viewing thence the wide stretch of woodlands and pasture over which the spirit of our Saxon Alfred still seems to hover, I thought that the fortunes of the much-maligned Bengalis might have been far different if their annals had included a name such as his. The life of a nation is inspired and sustained by the ex- amples of its great men. The subject of this biography was prompt to recognize your genius, and his review of its first fruits, the Anna's of Rural Bengal, was sympathetic and appreciative. I cannot but be grateful for the permission accorded me to dedicate my little book to you. s - Believe me, Your's sincerely, F. H. SKRINE. SIR W. W. HUNTER, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., &C., &c., Oaken Holt, Cumnor. HIS LIFE STORY. H IS LIFE STORY. HERE is something inexpressibly touching in the eagerness with which we strive to rend the veil concealing the personality of dis- tinguished men. We love to see them in dis- habille, so to speak : to know their in most thoughts, the trivial incidents of their daily lives. No biographers retain a lasting hold on the public taste but those, who gratify this universal passion. Like all our sentiments it is haseda on mixed motives. Curiosity is among them : but there is also a secret desire to com- pare our own sensations and impulses with those of our hero. And in contemplating the tº weaknesses besetting the noblest natures we are consoled for our own, as a token of the *D I 2 BMEA SOAV O/W B YOGAAA’ H V. kinship which binds together all human beings. Emerson notes this deep-seated instinct. “Great geniuses,” he says, “ have the shortest biogra- phies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them. They live in their writings. And so their home and school life are trivial and common- place. If you would know their tastes and com- plexions, the most admiring of their readers most resemble them.” This dictum, pace tant: viri, is wanting in truth as well as in originality. Men of the highest intellect are not gregarious. A craving for intercCºurse with others comes of a vacant mind ; and the little knot who, in every age, hold high the lamp of progress shun the babble of the comraon herd. The world, wrote one of them, has never given me anything so good but that, in probing the depths of my own - nature, I have found something far better there. Those outpourings of soul in which a faithful biographer rejoices are never indulged in by (Q men who have acquired the reverence of their fellows. There are natures as pure, as dazzling, WHY is 17 POPULAR 2 3 and as inaccessible as the highest peaks of the Himalayas ; and not material for their life-story but a historian capable of assimilating it is generally wanting. And it is surely seldom the case that a great original thinker puts his best work in his books. Schopenhauer compares thought to a lovely maiden. He who is visited by the one must hasten to commit it to paper, or it will vanish to return no more ; just as he must make the other his own by a betrothal on pain of seeing her become a rival's bride. The world is governed by ideas ; and many which might have changed the world's history have been thrown out in the careless intercourse of daily life, and, wanting, a chronicler, have been clean forgotten. Johnson lives in the pagea of his faithful Boswell when his Rasse/as and his Dictionary itself are nought but names. It is equally untrue that we most resemble the objects of our veneration. The converse is the case : for men admire in others the very quali ties which they are secretly conscious of not {D 4 - PHIS AAVCES TR Y. possessing themselves. The impulse which leads us to seek closer acquaintance with the lives of men of genius is a natural and a whole- some one. My lamented friend Dr Sambhu Chunder Mookerjee possessed the divine spark: and the story of his life, however imperfectly it may be told, is full of interest. & He came of the purest Brähman stock : having been thirty-fourth in descent from Sriharsa, one of the five “twice-born " whom Raja Adisur of Gaur summoned from Kanauj to give laws and religion to hiſ subjects. This remote ancestor was himself a man of letters and is the reputed author of the last Indian Epic poem— Naisadh Charita, the history of King Nala who reigned in Nishadah, the modern Beder. That epoch-making doctrine, heredity, a finds support in this instance of the transmission of intellectual power through five centuries. It must be admitted that the pursuit of Sambhu Chunder's immediate progenitors were hardly favourable to the conservation of literary energy. 'O AIA TH. 5 -i- Stern necessity had degraded them from the altar to the shop. His father Mothoor Mohun Mookerjee, far from posing as a visible mani- festation of divinity, supported himself as a manufacturer and trader in the Calcutta Bazar. Nor on the other side were things more propitious. His mother was the daughter of Babu Raj Chahdra Banarji, a Srotriya Brahman of Tara Atpºr in Hugli, who sold fire- wood and oilseeds at Chitpore. Sambhu Chun- der was born in May 1839 at his father's resi- dence in Barnagore. He "was an only son, and became the object of that idolatry which is lavi- shed on such everywhere. The absence of early discipline will account for the waywardness which marred his highest endeavours in after life. At the age of five he was sent to a day-school kept in the house of a local zemindar. Here he was more remarkable for his pranks than for application to the rudiments of learning. The teacher, unable to correct his masterful pupil, reported him to his landlord, who is said to have 3D 6 EA R/. V A. DUCA 7TWO/W. punished the little rebel by putting him into a sack full of huge black ants. The child brood- ed over this insult and revenged it by privately inserting chillies and other noxious adulterants into the contents of the village tyrant's hookah. Play is the redundant energy given us for the support of the organism. Arnold of Rugby, the greatest of our modern pedagogues, said that he had great hopes" for a really “naughty boy ;” meaning that the intense vitality dis- played in rebellious acts might be directed to useful ends. He would have been de- lighted with such a pupil as Sambhu Chunder. Mothoor Mohun Mookerjee was a Hindu of the fine old crusted typé, who saw in the study of the mlechcha's tongue a potentiality for the seduction of his darling from the straight path of religious duty. But for a mere accident Sambhu Chunder might have lived and died a respectable merchant, and the Indian Press would have been far the poorer. One Summer's day in 1848 he was led by curio- A T GA RANHATTA SCHOOL, 7 sity to watch the pupils at the local mis- sionary school playing a sort of rudimentary cricket. He was accosted by some of the seniors, and led to join the school. This defec- tion aroused the paternal ire, but it had his mother's support ; and, after a warm domestic debate, Sambhu Chunder was allowed to conti- nue his studies at the sectarian seminary. But Mothoor Mohun's fears were soon excited by the conversion to Christianity of four Brahman - pupils. Sambhu Chunder was hurried away from the dangerous meditim and placed at the Oriental Seminary at Garanhatta in Calcutta. Here his natural quickness of intellect soon made itself felt. His father insisted on accom- panying him to school daily, thence proceeding to his shop. But, as a Brahman of the strait- est sect, he had various religious observances to get through before mundane affairs could claim his attention. Hence it was often high noon ere the lad entered the schoolroom. As a laggard he took his place at the tail of his º 8 YoUTHFUL DIALECTICS. class ; but he invariably closed the day's work at its head. Mothoor Mohun Mookerjee, unlike Charles Lamb, made amends for his tardy arrival on the scene of duty by staying there long after the ordinary business hours. The little Sambhu Chunder beguiled his long wait- ings at the residence of the Ghose family of Bagh Bazar. Some of its younger members were preparing for the Minor Scholarship Ex- amination, and were wont to discuss knotty points amongst themselves in Butler's Analogy, Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare's plays. There is no more powerful stimulus to a plastic brain than the companionship of others more advanc- ed who are of a May 24, 1888. My dear Sir Auckland,-It is so long since I dropped correspondence that I am ashamed and at a loss how to begin again. On your part the duties of a supreme office left you little inclination to think of, and less leisure to write to poor Mookerjee, unless Etiquette —that minor tyrant of civilized life—had some little share, in preventing you from calling me to account for my láches yourself. How I came not to write ever since our cordi- al parting at Government House in this city, is a wonder and not quite easy to explain at this distance. Shall I plead the weather You had a taste of the purgatory too, I believe, before you made for the Kumaon hills. Health would be a better excuse, but I was never so ill as to be disabled from cor- respondence. As far as I recollect at this moment I meditated a surprise, coming sudden- ly in probia persona upon you, on a tour TO SIR A UCKLAND COL VIN. 233 for health, having had no change for years. For a single-handed editor, it is easier to indulge visions of a Long Vacation than to realize them. I was delayed in making arrangements for the office. Meanwhile, the dream developed into a vision of the Vale of Cash mere. I would kill more than two birds with one stone. By one expenditure I would do Cashmere, improve my health, enjoy grand tamashas, report for my paper, and obtain the nucleus of a book, provided I was in the Valley during the Viceroy's visit. All these fond reflections were dashed to the ground by the cholera which scared Lord Dufferin away from his intended tour. Then, as a last resource, I thought there might be inspiring” scenes and picturesque ceremonials at the Rampore Investiture, but still thought it prudent to enquire before undertaking a long journey in fearful weather. Your tele- gram from Lucknow gave the quietus to my roving fancy. But at this rate my preface 334 J. E. TTERS. will leave no room for my book. So I must plunge in medias res. What you predicted respecting the attitude of the native press towards Sir Steuart Bayley is about coming to pass. The " " , the true representative of the loud unthinking mass of native politicians, has already hinted that Sir Steuart is worse than Sir Rivers Thomp- son, and the latter is a sort of Mephistopheles in the native mind—a miserable psalm-Sing- ing political sinner. This revulsion of feeling is due to the Tāngail Resolution, but chiefly to the Calcutta Municipality Bill. But how comes the prophet to fail in wisdom in his own case ? The sagacity to make a correct forecast of a brother ruler ought to be a preservative against one's own liabili- ties. I deeply lament the estrangement between yourself and the Nationalist party. I am Sure you have done nothing to cause it ; but couldn't you, veteran as you are in governing, in diplomacy as in administration, FROM SIR A UCKLAND COL VIN. 235 prevent it, if you cared enough P Our people— the Boys of the Period, in the Press and on the platform—are rather difficult to please. I myself don’t. But I don't care. My first duty is to my country and to truth. Though a Liberal by education, I am a thorough Oriental for a’ that. Representative of the old Rishis, I am by instinct Conservative. I am deliber- ately of opinion that the safety of Our country lies, and will lie for many many years to come, in subjection and cordial loyalty to Britain. I do not believe in a French Re- volution for India. Your business is to rule, to keep all parties straight, and to satisfy all, if possible. It is not so impossible for you. More anon. J Yours sincerely, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. From Sir Auckland Colvin. Government House, Naini-Tal, June 22, 1888. Dear Dr. Mookerjee,_Your letter of 24th May 236 JLA: TTEA’S. is unanswered, and as I see in the papers that - the Calcutta sun is slowly consuming the Calcutta city, I propose to temper your last hours by a few words from these cooler re- gions. Not but that what we too are in a dust haze, slowly drifting through breathless hour into the rainy months ahead of us. - We are very quiet at present. & * Have you seen a very good article by George Curzon in the Wineteenth Century on the Scien- tific Frontier P It is excellent and gives one - very precise and accurate information as to the measures which have been taken in the last three years to strengthen the frontier. It is well worth re-publishing in your paper. So Sir Steuart Bayley is losing popularity Popularity is an accident. I would not do anything deliberately to throw it away ; but I would not go out of my way to secure it, if the price of securing it was going Out of the way I believed the necessary one. I hope you are keeping well in spite f TO LORD DUFFERIN. 2237 of the heat. What is the last Calcutta sensation ? Yours very truly, - A. COLVIN. 7To A/?s Excellency the Æarl of Dufferin. Calcutta, June 20, 1888. My Lord-I would have liked to write sooner, the more so as some points in your Lordship's most kind and interesting letter of the 17th May seemed to require an answer, but that I was anxious to avoid al appearance of taking undue advantage. In India we have to be very careful, we of the subject race in particular. The immediate impulse to break silence today is supplied by the news, abroad that your Lordship is going to Cashmere after all 'in October, and to ascertain if that is true. The evidence before the Parliamentary Com- mittee must cause your Lordship no little Sur- prise. It not only shows the perfunctory, easy- going fashion in which high official; perform 238. J. ETTERS. their duties, but also the greed which cha- racterizes so many who have made their fortunes and virtually retired from active life. I hope some good will come out of the unpleasant revelations. . It ought at any rate to open the eyes of Parliament and the public to the corruption that taints the administration at every stage. That corrup- tion is universal, though certainly not so barefaced as before the Government of Lord W. Bentinck—who suppressed what was called the Dalee system—to say nothing of the days of Clive and Hastings and the & ( Nabobs." The root of the evil lies in the tribal personnel of the Indian services. The destruction of Haileybury and Addis- combe and throwing open of the Services to public competition would, it was hoped, im- prove their morale. But under the new system, the old Indian families still maintain their preponderance, while the fresh admissions Soon imbibe the esprit de corps of the exist- To LoRD DUFFERIN. .239. ing body. “Society " winks at its members profiting at the expense of Government, and even enjoys their fleecing Natives. It is a pity that Europeans do not associate with native gentlemen of education and character, or they might at one time or another hear the names of the black sheep in the services and the contempt in which they are held. In the absence of any healthy intercourse be- tween the two races, the native press, what ever its failings, undoubtedly performs a parti- cularly important function. That press has been a more effectual check than almost any other agency. Of course, the distance at which its conductors are kept from all sources of authentic information and, above all, from the betteſ intellectual and moral influences of European society, cripples its capacity for usefulness. Still, when Europeans are irritated, and justly irritated, by the sins of the Native Press, and denounce it for its manifold im- perfections and faults, it is but just to re- 24O • J. ETTERS. member the important function it fulfils or essays to fulfil, in a country without recognized representative institutions—a dependency of a distant Power. In numerable instances might be adduced, over and above a priori arguments, to prove the actual benefit of our imperfect Press. # $: # The terror naturally inspired by it in those whose practices will not bear scrutiny is the chief cause of the passionate animosity towards the Press of many Anglo-Indians. If, instead, they took more kindly to it, they would do better, to themselves as to those within their influence. The pity is that they do not care to study the press. Without taking the trouble to know, they take a violent pre- judice against it. All native papers are equally and infinitely bad in the opinion of those who never look at any. There are papers and papers, however, and if officials made their choice and habitually con- sulted th; more reputable organs of native TO LORD DUFFERIN. ' '24. I thought, they would be saved a good deal of indiscretion and save themselves and Government trouble. It is in the complete absence of touch with the native population that the generality of officers in the civil and political administration so lamentably fail. The Governments themselves are in these days advanced enough to recognize the power and usefulness of native opinion, but the rank and file of officialdom still persist in ignorance and disregard of it. * * * Our paper is the only one that has had the courage and honesty to notice the charge of bribery and corruption against the Collect- or of Calcutta, now under investigation. $ * * A native Indian journal may be regarded by journálists and politicians in England and even quoted in Parliament, yet Indian officers may be unfamiliar with its very name. It is the natives that entirely support the native press. That is natural and proper, but it ought not to be wholly so. This , limitation I6 242 ° LETTERS. of constituency has the effect of intensifying the partizanship of the press and gradually estranging both press and people from Gov- ernment and the Europeans. A great deal of unnecessary friction of late years is due to this cause. I think heads of Government might, in a quiet way, specially in their tours, enquire into the sources of information of officials, what native gentlemen of light and leading they see, which papers they consult, &c. The subject is a delicate one, and being my- self interested I am not so sure whether my own judgment is so unclouded that I could suggest any regular Official step. Your Lordship might know better. But the politi- cal Agencies are so ill-manned and are situat- ed so far from all sources of healthy"influence and from all knowledge of general Indian opinion, that a return may be called for of the publications received at every such office of whatever dignity or insignificance. TO LORD DUFFERIN. • 243 The heat is unprecedented, and simply intolerable—even for us of the soil. veri. ly, the agitation against the “Exodus” has been avenged I remain, with great esteem, my dear Lord, Yours sincerely, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. To His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin. I, Uckoor Dutt's Lane, Calcutta, October 2, 1888. My Lord, Months have elapsed since I last had had the pleasure and privilege of address- ing your Lordship. My health has not been good. I have been much too long confined at a stretch to this Calcutta atmosphere. Still, as I found time for less important things, I could certainly make time for a correspondence which, besides the honour of it, gave me the inestimable advantage of bringing me, an un- official politician at best, to the foot of the fountain of British Policy and political action in the East. But I was afraid of pverdoing 244. " LETTER.S. it. It were a shame to have taken advantage of such a kindness. So much by way of ex- planation—which is always embarrassing to the giver and tedious to the receiver. After this length of time, I may be excused for desire for knowing the true state of your Lordship's health. At one time the rumours in Calcutta European society caused consider- able anxiety. Whatever foundation there may have been for it, I trust all is now right. It is a pity your Lordship has given up the idea of going to Cashmere. I need scarcely say with what pleasure I look forward to your coming again to Calcutta. $ * §: There is great anxiety in Gwalior about the Presidency, specially since Mr. "Henvey's departure from Simla. It was expected that the minor Prince's grandfather would be con- firmed in the office, but no orders having fol- lowed, the rumour of a British Superintend- ence has, revived, I hope no such move is in TO SIR D. M. WALLACE. 245 contemplation. The public are already prone enough to believe that Government are intent on a policy of anglicisation. That may be con- sidered a little matter, but it is not expedient to alienate the feelings of the great Mahratta State. Nor would the forcing on it of an English Vizier be consistent with the wise policy of restoring the fort of Gwalior. % # 3% I have the honour to remain, my Lord, With sincere esteem and humble attachment, * Yours sincerely, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. To Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. o July 3, 1888. My dear Wallace,—I hear the temperature of Simla th?s season is much too high for com- fort. On the 22nd June, Sir Auckland Colvin wrote from Naini-Tal to say that they too were in a dust haze. Down here the heat was frightful, and all the more intolerable for being long continued. But God, is graci- 246 J. E7'TERS. ous and forsakes not his own. The most tedious night is exhausted after all, and at last morrow comes. And so the monsoon has finally burst in right earnest. It is rain- ing delightfully. All nature is dancing again with life. By the bye, have you ever seen the rains in the Tropics? Few things to my mind are so charming as a copious persistent downpour, though of course continual re- petition makes a nuisance of it, as of every other thing. Now I have submitted to the inexorable law of your Society by descanting on the weather, I may turn to business. - * t And first of the subject nearest to us Ditchers—the Municipality Bill which awaits viceregal sanction. I do not see how, without insulting the Chairman of the Cor- poration, and the Legislature, and the Ben- gal Government, the oppositionists can be gratified. I hear the plea of absence of juris- diction in the Council to alter the boundaries TO SIR D. M. WALLACE. . 247 has been referred to the Advocate General. The opposition to the measure in native society is universal. There is a feeling of consternation at the prospect of its becoming law. And there is justification enough for it. The Bill passed is revolutionary as I plainly said in Reis, notwithstanding my personal kindness for Sir Henry Harrison and Dr. Simpson, and though personally I rather like the sanitary provisions, feeling that some stiff dose is re- quired to modify the arrangements of Indian homes and domestic organization. The idea Of inquisition into the family sanctum by outsiders is horrible to the Oriental mind I confess I am no exceptión. A few years back, my servants at my family house at Baranagere, in the north suburban town, thrashed some surveyor who, armed with an order of Government, had trespassed into the “Gardens of the Seraglio " of the poor Brahman, and I supported them. The Survey Department complained to the head of O & 248 . LETTERS. the District and the Police were set upon me. The District Superintendent himself came, but instead of coming to me he sent for me in the Police way and I did not go. Pro- bably his instructions were to come to me, so after long waiting in the road under the sun he at last came to my house. Instead, however, of coming to my room, as I had asked him to do through his Inspector, he remained downstairs in the courtyard which he filled with his rabble and the rabble of the street in a sort of enquiry that he pre- tended to hold, thinking perhaps he had done me as much honour as he could by invading my house and the peace of my family with his myrmidons, and that my turn was then to go down on all fours before the Majes- ty of the Police. I had a great mind to drive out the impudent beggar for his noisy demonstration, but I was not Strong enough and thought one criminal case was enough at a time. The D. S. of course Q TO SIR D. M. WALLACE. , 249 vowed vengeance and soon proceedings were instituted in the name of the Queen against the rebel, and my valet was fined, after no little anxiety and expense to me. There was not the slightest possibility of implicating me personally in the business. I was not on the scene, and my face is not familiar to the Police of Baranagore where I rarely go, or they would have named me a defendant in view of annoying me. If, in- stead of wasting several hours in the court of my house, the officer had tome and asked me, he would have got all the facts that had come to my notice and my servants would have been open to prosecution all the same I have gone into all this detail to give you and His Excellency an idea of how matters are ordered in this blessed country. Only the other day, in my house at Calcutta, a surveyor and his men came and tried to break into it in the discharge of their duty by order of Government. They were J 25O , A.E 77"E.R.S. naturally repulsed by my servant—the same who had guarded his master's honour at Baranagore and had suffered for it (for though his fine was paid by me as well as his counsel found, he suffered enough anxie- ty and trouble.) The strangers were imperti- ment, saying they had the Sircar's hookum and were entering all zenanas, but my man was firm and said that the dustoor in that family was different from those they had hitherto visited. They retired that day, but came again and "again with the same object, their insolence rather increasing at every visit. On two occasions I overheard from my office what was going on. And again there seemed a prospect of my servant getting into trouble. But those who have a nice sense of honour cannot restrain them- selves. Notwithstanding the credentials of the surveying party, the pretension to enter my zenana seemed such an insult that when the matter was reported to me I told them Q TO SIR D. M. WALLACE. , 25 I to call again, after they had been several times before, and when they came again their bearing so vexed me that I was near committ- ing myself as a "mild Hindu" wat Tyler. And in point of fact I am naturally a very mild man, as I believe most brave men are. That will give you the feeling in such matters. It is different with the natives who have returned from England, but they do not repre- sent the people, in these matters at any rate. I shall not be surprised if this mea- sure brought Government into trouble. There is only one way in which the con- flicting interests might be in some measure harmonised, but it will easily suggest itself to His Excellency and, as I have already taken up too ſhuch space in this matter, I pass on to others. - What are the reports about the new Dewan of Indore ? $ # 3% Have you noticed the allegation that the Resident took the Maharaja of Mysore to task ſ 252 . . IETTERS. —-4 for taking an interest in the National Congress and paying a thousand rupees towards the ex- penses of that held at Madras 2 Is it possible P ) S You have doubtless seen the younger . letter on his and his father's connection with the Residency of Hyderabad. What an ass Is it true that the Government of India are agreed and have recommended the reconstitu- tion of the Legislative Councils on a repre- sentative basis This letter was commenced late last night. I read in the papers today that there is to be an operation on the Viceroy's hand. What is the matter P Nothing serious, I hope. © Yours very sincerely, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. P.S.–Is the Hyderabad Committee consi- dered to have worked satisfactorily They seem to be jubilitating in the Deccan as if a great victory has been won or a gold mine discovered. $ $ S. C. M. FROM SIR D. M. WALLACE. 253 From Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. Private Secretary’s Office, viceregal Lodge, Simla, July 6, 1888. Dear Mr. Mookerjee,_I am directed by the Viceroy to acknowledge with thanks the re- ceipt of your letter of the 20th June. His Excellency has read it with much interest and intended to reply to it at some length, but his time is at present so fully occupied that I think there is very little chance of his being able to carry out his intention? You can readi- ly understand that a Viceroy's official duties leave him very little time for the friendly dis- cussion of big questions in private letters. & $ 3. As for the native press, if I began to discuss that subject I should be in danger of writing a volume. Suffice it to say that here it is not by any means so neglect- ed and ignored as you seem to suppose and that whilst its follies and sins are deplored, - 2. 254 . IETTERS. its merits and services are duly recognized. As yet it is still in its infancy, and we may hope that its wisdom and public usefulness will increase with its years. Yours sincerely, DONALD MACKENZIE WALLACE. P. S.—I have just noticed with regret in the Reis and Rayet an attack on my worthy and esteemed assistant, Mr. Panioty. I can- not suppose that it is from your pen, because it displays a personal animosity to which your pen, so far as I know it, is a stranger. Per- haps some day when we get down to Calcutta you will honour the premises with a visit and judge for yourself For the lease of the premises it is I who am responsible and I flatter myself I made a very good bargaifi, I was careful however whilst securing the benefits for my successor not to bind him in the mat- ter. He cannot be ejected or have the rent raised on him, but he may give up the pre- mises, if he likes, on reasonable notice being \ - TO SIR A UCKLAND COL VIN. . 255 given to the proprietor. If he can find at the same price anything half as Suitable as re- gards locality and other conveniences he will be more fortunate than I have been, and I trust for his own sake and for the sake of the public interests that he may be able to retain Mr. Panioty’s services. In a paragraph in the same number I notice it is said: “We mean to return to the subject.” If it is intended to make an onslaught on the leasing of present premises, it is at me and not at Mr. Panioty that the 'shafts should be directed. D. M. W. To Szz Azuckland Colvin. Calcutta, December 18, 1888. My dear" Sir Auckland-Pray excuse me this delay in entering epistolary appearance. It were foolish in one in my situation to plead to you want of leisure, seeing how much you have always to do and how you manage to do it all, but it has been a very JJ 256 • LETTERS. busy time with me, so much so that I have not been able to give the necessary amount of attention to my paper. Last week, I was glad enough to ask at the last moment an- other to do the welcome “leader” and had not time to give it the finishing strokes to rescue it from the commonplace, being engaged on the other articles, one written to help the poor tenantry of the Midnapore estate of the Burdwan Raj and the other at the particular request of friends. A part of the delay was caused by the mysterious disappearance —to use the dialect of the Agony column of British newspapers—of my bunch of keys of my correspondence boxes (I never leave your letters and such like papers on the table but always keep them under ‘lock and key) for more than a week. Thank God the Prodigal has returned home safe and sound, though after infinite trouble taken in vain. Office and sleeping apartments and sitting room and library and zenana were all ran- \\ - To SIR AUCKLAND COLVIN. 257 sacked—all my books and papers and things . overhauled for the missing keys in vain. They turned up accidentally on Monday. You have no idea of the crowded state Of my place and cannot sympathise with me for the disturbance caused by the search. I may here mention that Mr. William Digby, the Congress agent in England, came to see me by appointment on Mon- day. The first remark he made, “after compliments," was that he found me in just the kind of apartment he had pictured me occupying in his mind,-surrounded by books and papers and prints—books O Il the table, books, &c. on the side-table and shelves, books in heaps lying on the floor, pictures "on the wall, unframed paintings laid against the wall from the floor. I wonder what he thought of the smoking apparatuses of sorts which were lying about, all dif- ferent from the snake-piped Jeypore hookak from which I was drawing the Odoriferous 17 258 LETTERS, fumes of tobacco doctored with all the spices of Araby the Blest and the Far- ther East. - Your letter to Mr, Hume is brilliant and incisive. Its main drift is sound and its force irresistible. In despair the Congressists gave out that the Viceroy had disowned you, but at last it transpired at the St. Andrew's Dinner that Lord Dufferin had taken your cue. He paid you an unusual compliment, very honourable to him, by quoting you in his historic oration. His peroration is enriched by one of your best passages. I was talking on the subject in private with him and said that you might have made your case stronger and he seemed to agree, but in what view , I could not ascertain. You had no assistance, evidently. º - * 3. Now that the session is at hand, I feel that I ought to go and see the Congress, the more so as after the event I could not rely, on anybody's report. The diffi- TO SIR AUCKLAND COL VIN. 259 culty is to find accommodation, I cannot stop at Lowther Castle, and would not live there, huddled together with so many, even if I went as a delegate. All my friends are mad about the Congress and Congress- ists, besides all have been long since en- gaged. If I asked, perhaps I could get a separate tent away from the bustle of our Indian Runnymede, but I would not ask Hume or Bonnerjee, I am making some negociations. Should they succeed, I expect to pass some days with you if you are in an accessible country. Yours sincerely, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. Whenever Dr. Mookerjee noticed a piece of superior writing in any of the papers, he tried to unearth the author. He often said that we had so few writers amongst us that any one who discovered power above the average should be sought out and encouraged. In this way hº made 26O - JLB TTERS. Ç the acquaintance of many novices and ex- horted them to persevere. His advice to such was to , endeavour to express them- selves neatly, without using sesquipedalian words; and above all to avoid quotations from the British poets. The excision of superfluous words in a sentence was the foremost characteristic of a good style. He was equally averse to the use of phrases from the Greek and Latin classics when the homely Anglo-Saxon would serve as well. From Babu Sarada Kanta Guha. - 47, Sangattola, Dacca, November 25, 1888. Dear Sir-I have to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your kind and affectionate letter of the 21st instant. I consider it'a privilege to receive communications from an important person like you. First of all, I deem it proper to confess that I am a “school boy." but it is the school boys who are generally found to be ambitious of a journalistic FROM BABU. S. K. GUHA. , 261 career, because so indifferent are our coun- trymen to public interests that no sooner do they begin the world than all their connection with literature, politics, &c., ceases to exist. The “Indian Nation,” the “Bengalee” and other weeklies of the metropolis have their corres- pondents here; and on that score I asked you to appoint me your Dacca correspond- ent. Though a school boy myself, I have the pleasure to assure you that I am in a position to know everything that occurs in our town. I hope that my letters will all contain fresh and important events that may interest your subscribers. You have expressed a desire always to “encourage the young.” This is as it should be. Because there would be but few men to look after the young generation of India, if our true-hearted and generous countrymen (unfortunately whose number is not very large) do not care to encourage them. 262 LETTERS. * I indeed cherish the ambition to be a good writer and I have made up my mind to follow in the footsteps of some recognised literary man ; hence my strong desire to read your paper. I intended to attend Levées, Evening Parties, &c., to enable myself to give you a faithful account of His Excellency's move- ments here. However I have managed by some other means which I need not mention. That I have any connection with your paper is known to very few and shall not be known to many. At the pressing request of a gentleman I have sent you a letter which is too long to be published in the columns of “Reis and Rayyet.” I hope you will excuse me this time ; don’t think that I agree with all the views of the writer thereof. It would be unbecoming on my part to indulge in a criticism of the administration of Lord Dufferin or to condemn the policy by which he was guided. FROM MR. S. E. J. CLARKE., 263 I hope you will always take a tender interest in me and favour me with kind instructions from time to time. l Yours faithfully, SARADA KANTA GUHA. From Mr. S. E. J. Clarke. Bengal Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta, December 24, 1888. My dear Dr. Mookerjee, I gladly pay my tribute to the courage and wisdom of your leader of today. You are a brave man who sees whát is wanted in the Native Press and sets a fine example. Such an article must be productive of good, for it must lead thoughtful and In- dia-loving natives into a better path on a higher Yevel than most of the journalism around us. I felt proud of Reis and Rayet when I read the article. - * Yours sincerely, S. E. J. CLARKE. - o 264 ZETTERS. From Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace. Government House, Calcutta, February 16, 1889. Nſy dear Mookerjee,_ * & * I quite understand your old reluctance to mix much with Europeans, but now that you have to some extent come out of your shell I hope you will not crawl into it again. We greatly want men of your stamp as a connecting link and I trust that your example of manly independence may not be without effect on your countrymen. In any case, please to remember me as one of your friends though a semi-official European, and believe me, l - Yours sincerely, DONALD MACKENZIE WALLACE. Dr. FitzEdward Hall, on his arrival in India, made the acquaintance of the well-known Dutt family of Wellington Square, whose name was a synonym for culture and hearty recognition of literary merit. Babu Rajinder Dutt was { 7"O /O R. H A L/L. , 265 j struck with his learning and ability ; and in- troduced him to the then Bishop of Calcutta through whose influence he obtained a post in the Educational Service of the North- Western Provinces. He subsequently became Principal of the Benares College ; established a reputation, for sound Oriental scholarship, and, on his well-merited retirement, was ap- pointed an examiner by the Civil Service Commissioners. - * To Dr. Fitz Edzward Hall. Dear Sir, Allow me to introduce myself to you as an Oriental admirer of one of the very first of Orientalists. It is now twenty- eight years since I had thé first and last opportunity of being thrown into your com- pany. But I had known you by repute, and I am pretty familiar with your Oriental writings and have always valued them. The fact is that I am a most intimate friend of your friends the Dutts. Although a high Prahman myself, I have these thirty years / 266 IETTERS. { regarded them and been regarded by them, to most intents and purposes, as a blood relation. Hence I early came to know or at least to know of their connections, native and European. When you last went to see them I was summoned from my home at Baranagore in the northern suburbs, to meet you, as you had expressed a desire to see the late KaliproSunno Singh so famous for his Bengali translation of the Mahabharata, who was a particular friend of mine. I found you in Woomesh Chunder's little room in the corner of the Baitakkhana house, as it is called, and I took you over to Jorasanko to see Singh, Woomesh's younger brother, Sooresh Chunder accompanying. You had a pretty long animated conversation with Singh which much interested and edified me. September 17, 1889. I wrote so far sometime ago with a faltering * hand, to apprise you of the death of our t TO DR, HALL. J 267 common friend, Rajinder Dutt, but was interrupted and did not finish, and forgot all about it, until I received your kind note. by last mail. Even then my first idea was that I had sent my letter and that yours was a reply and I actually asked Babu Jogesh Chunder Dutt (the only surviving son of the late Doorga Churn Dutt, and brother of Woomesh Chunder, Grish Chun- der and Sooresh Chunder whom you knew, who besides literary assistance manages this paper, sitting at the sande table with me) whether that was not so P. He replied that no letter had been sent you, but only the paper. An examination of your epistle also disclosed no terms of acknowledgment of my correspondence. I have now discovered the unfinished letter. You will have seen that we published. Theodore Neal's last letter to Rajinder dated so far back as 1867 and two of May last from Mr. Silsbee to Jogesh's nephew Prakash / 268 , J. ETTERS. who is at school, the latter containing refer- ences to yourself. May we make similiar use of the last letter that you wrote to the deceased ? It was very kind of Mr. Silsbee after more than thirty years to come to see Rajinder and the Dutts. He took his quarters at a neighbour- ing hotel and used to pass all day either at the family house down the lane or in this Baitakkhana house where I write and in which our office and press are housed. He made 3. great impressioti on us all, I myself being not the least affected. We are, whatever our faults, an affectionate people. I was deeply moved when he left us and ever after think of him from time to time, and I dare say the same is the case with others of us.' If you write to him, please give him the kindest re- gards of “the Editor ’’ by which title he loved to designate me. We are all much affected by your hearty tribute to Rajinder's worth in the New York - { TO COLONEL /. C. ARDAGH. , 269 Mation. Mr. Silsbee told me of your connec- tion with the paper, of which he spoke highly as one of the leading organs of the country. I find it of high calibre too and should be mauch obliged if you could conveniently send over the copies in which your writings appear. As you seem to have got my name in ad- vance of my address, from the advertisement Of my little book, I am bound to send you a copy, which I do with all the gratitude of expectancy. * a Q: Yours most faithfully, SAMBHU C. MookERJEE. To Colonel J. C. Ardagh, - - Private Secretary to the Viceroy. Telegram, dated September 17, 1889. Cannºt the Currency Office be closed during Pooja P All Bengal will be ever grateful. Financial letter 452 of '80, Bengal 328 of ’82. To Colonel J. C. Ardagh. - September 20, 1889. My dear Colonel Saheb, Urged by the state ſ 27O LETTERS. of public feeling around me among my countrymen, I have taken the liberty to send you a telegram on a public question. Under ordinary circumstances I would have written a regular letter, but the goddess is already upon us—the preliminary ceremonies have in + many families begun, and if anything is to be done about the Pooja Holidays it must be done at once. The distance between Simla and the Viceroy's deserted capital in the plains is so great that I availed myself of the mighty machinery of the electric post which your own civilization had put in my hands. The matter is of the greatest importance to native society in Bengal, without distinction of creed, though, of course, it is only Hindus with rare excep- tions that worship Doorga, For, irrespective of its religious connection, this Pooja is the recognized Long Vacation of the people, when men return home from great dis- tances and all parts, when relatives and friends meet, when once in the year the { TO COLONEL J. C. ARDA GH. 271 exiles come not only in obedience to the dictates of kinship and affection but also to settle accounts, repair their homesteads and altogether, as the saying goes, put their houses in order, Any detraction from the integrity of such an institution cannot but be greviously felt throughout the country, If His Ex- cellency could see his way to preserve it for the people, he might depend upon the blessings of millions. Other rulers are gratefully remembered for their solicitude in their behalf, for the question has been settled repeatedly. September 23. I was writing on Friday last when I re- ceived your letter. I stopped in order to enquire whether instructions had been receiv- ed at the Currency Office and what effect they would have there. I put myself in com- munication with the head of the Accounts Department and have learnt that a few clerks only will be required to attend, but the same - ( © LE TTERS. 272 men will, fairly enough, not be required to come all the days. It is calculated that more than half the Currency establishment will thus have their Doorga Pooja interfered with. This is a great pity. The effect already is that the Indian Mirror, in expressing the feelings of the people, foolishly talks in a style that should never be indulged in, or at any rate ought to be reserved for the last extremity. For my part, I am trying to pour oil on the troubled waters and reason my people into the belief that the evil will not prove so very great after all; that at all events Government have done as much as they could, under the circumstances, and that they ought to feel thankful to His Excel- lency the Viceroy. O I certainly am indebted to him for the prompt notice of my appeal, and request you will convey to His Excellency my best thanks. Yours truly, SAMBHU C. MookERJEE. TO MR. E. F. T. A TKINSON. . 273 To Mr. E. F. T. A #277 song. September 20, 1889. My dear Atkinson, You cannot be unaware of the strong feeling in the country on the Subject of the Pooja holidays. It is a genuine feeling, due to a real grievance, and no sham product of wire-pulling patriots and publi- cists. It is not the political classes that are agitated but the true country and enlight- ened middle class of Bengali society. Had our politicals been concerned you would have heard a good deal more about it, and the smaller merchants and speculators who are behaving so ungenerously by their poor office drudges would have been astonished at the hornets' nest they had lightly disturbed. I confess I was pained to hear that you had threatened the eighty odd clerks who had presumed to represent their grievance in- dividually with pains and penalties unless they withdrew their respective representations. I certainly thought that you, having so long .* I8 O 274 - J. E. TTERS. been in these Provinces, would show more sympathy with these poor helpless assistants of your great department. At any rate, they might be left without molestation to try the effect of their appeal for mercy to the generosity of higher authority. I have no personal interest in the question. I am not and never have been in Govern- Iment pay, and I have no relation or con- nection or friend whatever in any Govern- ment office or even mercantile firm, except perhaps a poor, very poor but most worthy friend drawing a few rupees—some Rs. 20 or Rs. 30, I believe—in' a trading business. But living in the country among my people I cannot be callous to the hardships of my countrymen. The new departure has been a blow to them and they justifiably regard the policy of which it is the outcome with consternation. I have been at the pains to appeal to the Viceroy in their behalf, and, although the time º TO MR. E. F. T. ATKINSON. , 275 is short, I am not without hope that you may receive some communication by telegraph. If you do, I hope you will give it merciful con- struction. Whether, indeed, any suggestion from head-quarters come or not, I earnestly beg you will relent and do as much as now lies in your power to minish the severity of the blow and sweeten the pill. Hoping you will appreciate the frankness of this communication, I remain, most faithfully yours, SAMBHÚ C. MOOKERJEE. To Mr. E. F. T. A #272sonz. September 27, 1889. My dear Mr. Atkinson—Pray excuse the delay in acknowledging, beyond the peon book, re- ceipt of your courteous communication. I was relieved to receive your emphatic contradiction of the rumour that had got abroad about the coercion exercised on the petitioning clerks by the Accountant General Bahadur himself. We of the press are, I con- º } 276 , LETTERS. fess, given to suspicion, still I had my doubts. Whatever might be your attitude on the ques- tion, I could not well believe that a great functionary in your position would so commit himself to partizanship with Keranees or against them. I told people accordingly, but thought it as well to enquire at the fountain-head. I am glad to hear that your sympathies are with the clerks in this business, and indeed you have since given the public the best proof of it by withdrawing the obnoxious order. It seems as if you were only waiting for permis- sion from higher authority to cancel the act of the Comptroller-General. Your asseveration of personal sympathy with the people was hardly required, except for the suspicion to which, under trying circuenstances, the best friends are liable. Sympathy comes naturally of knowledge, and your knowledge was known to me. I refer not only to your long experience of the country, but to the conversation that I had with you at your { TO MR. E. F. T. A TKINSON. 277 official residence, some years back, on the history and localities of Upper India. But you are one that loves to hide his light under a bushel. Such a character specially claims the regard of one who in his own way has been content to pursue his studies and do his duty by the world in obscurity, while fussy hypocrites and sciolists have been lauded to the skies and recognized as the only true men. I am, however, glad to have drawn you out, though in a confidential way, and extracted a copy of your interesting monograph on the Religions of the Himalyas. Many, many thanks for it. , I will read it during the holidays and let you know. Mean- time, allow me to subscribe myself, in haste, J Yours very sincerely, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. P.S.–From the delay in your issuing the last orders on the Holidays it seems that you received a fresh communication from Simla. Was it so? S. C. M. 278 LETTERS. From Colonel Ardagh, Viceregal Lodge, Simla, September 1889. Dear Dr. Mookerjee,_I trust that the ques- tion of the Doorga Pooja Holidays upon which you have telegraphed and written to me, has, for this occasion at least, been closed to the satisfaction of those interested. There is, however, a paragraph in your letter to me on which I wish to make a few remarks. \ My telegram informed you that the Currency Offices were to be closed during the holidays with the reservation that a few clerks were to attend on certain days so that arrange- ments might be made for the convenience of s the mercantile community. You téll me in your letter that it was calculated that the result of the order would be that “more than one half of the Currency establishment will thus have their Doorga Pooja interfer- ed with." FROM COLONEL ARDAGH. , 279 I can perceive from the rest of your letter that you yourself fully appreciate the motives which actuated the Viceroy in issuing his orders upon a case which came before him unexpectedly for immediate solution, and in which it was necessary to consider and safe- guard antagonistic interests ; and I am there- fore somewhat surprised at your acceptance without question of an interpretation so entire- ly opposed to the letter and spirit of the telegram ; for it appears to me, that even by exercising the most perverse and malicious ingenuity in carrying out the order, it would still have been impossible to attain the con- sequences ascribed to it. $ With regard to the reservation, it appeared superfluous to explain at length in the telegram that there was a possible difficulty in the way of closing altogether, dependent on certain legal obligations con- nected with the payment of money, which it is indispensable to guard against ; and } 280 . J.A. TTERS. it did not appear necessary or advisable to state that instructions had been issued that the few clerks whose presence might be needful were to be selected from those who were not Hindus, in order that 1) On 6 of that religion might be deprived of their holiday. In short, no greater solicitude for those concerned could possibly have been shown. I think it may be pointed out that the claim to the entire suspension of the busi- ness of the State in public departments on religious holidays of whatever creed, has never been admitted ; and a little, consideration will convince you that it would be impracticable. I need only mention the Army, the Railways, and the Postal Department, in order to in- dicate the intolerable inconvenience which would arise from pushing such a principle to its logical conclusions. These questions must be dealt with in practice by compromises, devised in a spirit of mutual forbearance, for the general convenience of all ;-and it { TO MR. E. JENKINS, , 28 I is to be hoped that before this question crops up again, a satisfactory arrangement may be arrived at by reasonable concessions on both sides. -- I remain, yours faithfully, J. C. ARDAGH. To Mr. Edward Jenkins. “Reis and Rayyet” Office, Calcutta, October 8, 1889. My dear Sir, I duly received your favour of June with the valuable series of articles on the Congress. I am also receiving regularly the Overland Mail. I hope you get Reis and Rayyet by every mail, though I have yet seen no sign in your journal. I reproduced your able article on the Mahomedan Move. ment in connection with the Calcutta Maho- medan Literary Society. The Founder-Sec- retary, Nawab Abdool Luteef Bahadoor, is my intimate life-long friend. Although he is a staunch Mussalman and I am a Brahman —a Brahman of Brahmans as Dr. W. H. ) 282 . LETTERS. Russell, who had been in India, once called me—we have for thirty years been as brothers. It was a great pleasure to me to read your sympathetic views in respect of the Maho- medans with whom, alone among Hindu poli- ticians, I have ever sympathised. That plea- SUlre was enhanced by wonder at the freedom of your pretty long piece of writing from error of any kind such as is almost inevitable in foreign productions. Even Professor Vambéry writing to the Nawab has not been able to avoid it —he who is not only a great Orientalist but has travelled almost to the frontiers of India. One notable instance I remember. He talks of coming out to India where he hopes to address the Mahomedans in Persian, as if it were their own tongue. So far from Persian being one of the Indian vernaculars, none but learned Mussalmans of the old class know it, and few of those who have read Persian can speak it or understand it when spoken. The Pro- fessor might just as well address an Indian ( • TO MR. E. JEWKINS, , 283 Mahomedan audience in Hungarian | Lord Dufferin committed the same mistake. He told me that he learnt Persian because he was informed that it was the lingua franca of Asia and he hoped to be able to com- municate direct with the people. But he found to his disappointment that not even the best of Mahomedans understood him or could converse in Persian. The Hindustani has better claims to be regarded as al Sort of lingua franca, but even that is not generally understood as people are apt to imagine. Why don't you collect your articles on the Indian Congress and the reform of the Legis- lative Councils P. They quite merit separate pub- lication fr a permanent form. I have myself from the first been of opinion that the move- ment set on foot by Mr. Allan Hume and his native followers—some of them men of great accomplishments and ability and, what is better, of real patriotism, however misguided— } 284 LETTERS. was premature. And of course I am the butt of their abuse and ill will. They will find out their mistake when they succeed in obtaining any large measure of representation by election. Already, we don't find men for our municipal boards. How will they fill a Chamber of Deputies P Allow me to send for your kind accept- ance a copy of a small book of travels at home. • & 3. My book has not been published in England. It bears no Indian publishers' name even, being issued from this office. Nor is it for sale at any booksellers' in this country or in any other. I need scarcely say how thankful I shall be to have any suggestions or corrections from so famous a ſhaster of the craft. I remain, My dear Sir, Most truly yours, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW. , 285 To Mr. G. Syamala Row. - October 8, 1889. My dear Mr. Syamala Row, You have knocked at an auspicious season and, indeed, on the very Day of Luck. This is the evening of the full moon (after the Dusserah) on which the Goddess of Fortune, Lakshmi is worshipped. We are in the chronolo- gical centre of Our Doorga Pooja Long Vaca- tion. The whole weekly journalism of Bengal Proper is in abeyance. There is still work enough for me at any rate-º-more than ever perhaps—but it is not of an exigent kind, Your first letter missed fire by coming at an unfortunate moment. The fact is, I did not see it in time ; but months after I picked up an open letter which was yours. It is difficult—I may at once say impossible to attend to all the letters received by an editor. But it is not the young or the obscure that are neglected in this office. I am at once a bad and good correspondent : 286. LAETTERS. I am irregular and forgetful, but when I do write I pour out my mind, writing at length and conversing on paper. I am afraid I bore my correspondents, as at this moment, with my long-windedness. I am unfortunately a prey to a monologous and discursive habit. I love to encourage the young, and so they are pretty sure of hearing from me, however much I may offend exalted per- sonages. Just now I might be addressing more than one noble Lord both here and in England, but” I prefer Mr. G. V. Syamala Row. So far so good. And now for the bad. For business, you know, is business—usually a hard, dry, disagreeable thing—at best a mi- serable yarn. iſ truly regret that I cannot give you an answer after your heart. Your productions so far as I have read the pieces forwarded, are not poetry. They are not good verse, either ; sometimes no verse at all. For TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW. . 287 all that, you may find many openings for publication in the Native Press. Indeed, some of the pieces—the Lines to Allan Hume and the Greeting to Norton and Bonnerjee, have already appeared in the Hindu–So much the worse for that excellent paper | I am sorry that my brother editors do not know better. It is evidence of that want of culture and of that absence of the Critical faculty that degrades our press in the opinion of European society. The truth un- fortunately is that with the 'exception of two Parsis, Mr. Padshah of Calcutta and Mr. Malabari of Bombay, our journalists are singu- larly deficient in literature. Even the Anglo- Indian Press is weak to a degree in this res- pect, as "was confessed last year when the editor of a leading Calcutta daily sent over to this Press Mr. Locke Richardson, the Shakespearean reciter, with a note of in- troduction to me, to be examined in his pre- tensions. It is passing strange that the ex- 288 . J. ETTERS. —x perienced editors of the Hindu, who are unquestionably clever and able men, do not see the utter inanity, the halting verbosity, and the defective construction of such a piece as your Greeting fond to “ magnificent seditionists.” These faults are so glaring that you yourself ought to see them. You have evidently not matter and language enough for heroics. Accordingly, the gaps are mecha- nically filled up with expletives and useless epithets, and you are reduced to frequent repetition and idre interrogation. The same difficulty, for the same reason, you experience with your stanzas. Take the first : It is one mass of repetition of a single salutation— “Hail, Norton and Bonnerjee " For these four words you have employed twenty. You were met by a difficulty at the outset—to make up eight syllables of your first line. So you called your “mild Hindu ’’ “meek”—which certainly does not advance the matter. The stanza is open to a more serious objection. TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW, 289 It causes a “derangement of epitaphs.” There - is no knowing Who's is who 2 An English reader would take Norton to be the mild Hindu, and Bonnerjee to be England's worthy child. So you see that, notwithstanding your lavish expenditure of words, you have not made your ordinary opening Salutation clear and have confused the identity of its objects. The second stanza opens promisingly, but the promise is broken be- fore reaching the semicolon. From “A na- tion's gratitude and love "e what a fall is “in this place"—a perfectly irrelevant phrase whose impertinence you suffer meek- ly, nay, actually invite, in * order to secure the benefit of the answering rhyme. Well for you pould you keep clear of both place and race / But for these, perhaps, you might escape the lamentable sinking of your verse. You might then possibly avoid such an awkward sentiment—" Naught can our thankful- ness remove.” Then you could not possibly I9 29O Q. J.E 7TTERS. write “we are a grateful race.” I wonder you do not see the solemn ridiculousness of that dictum in the connection. All your rhymes are of the same character, not flow- 'ing naturally from the thought, but com- manding it. You have matter, such as it is, for no more than a couple of stanzas, at most three. This you spread out into eight. Vi- gorous writing in prose and metre is out of the question under such circumstances. You have either a defective notion of metrical diction, or, in striving to make bricks without straw, you suppress your critical sense for the norce. The latter is, of course, the true theory, and you unnecessarily reduce me to remind you that “in this place,” “returning here,” and such like words and phrases can only sink the fair bark of Lyric Poesy. Besides the tautology, the opening line is marred by the adjective “-able,” a word which has no business in verse. Shall I tell you 6. TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW. , 291 that the only decent thing in your Greeting —at any rate in your eight stanzas—is a single adjective—“peerless,” “Peerless Norton” is excellent. The whole line is very good, “Our peerless Norton come !” and the best of the eight lines. - . So there is yet hope for you, if you give your higher self play and be in no hurry to be a famous poet before you have gone through the necessary discipline—of which this letter may well be regarded as a part—and acquired the requisite fund of observation and ideas. This latter is a question of time, except for a few favoured souls who seem to descend on our earth fully equipped. But how came you to write such stuff as the opening lines of your heroic couplets 2 “All hail to you, my country's faithful friends, From Britain's isle, on which our ideal depends, And where you worked so well for Bharat-land, That we can, sure, achieve a success grand.” The very punctuation, carefully as you ‘A 292 LETTERS. have, in obedience to metrical necessity, punctuated the passage, is faulty. There is not, in an opening salutation, a single mark of admiration, either at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end. The grammar is not better in other respects. What does “And * connect P It is a mere stop-gap. “Can '' ought to be “ might.” There is no end to the filling-in process. What a succes- sion of pleonasms in “Britain's isle” and “Bharat-land ſ” Say you that it is Bharat—and not Bhārat P Does that mend the matter P Do you ordinarily say—Johnson-land or Goldsmith-land P Why not say at once Bha- rat's land 2 Of course, without Special warn- ing, most readers will read “ Bharat-land" as if it were Bhārat-land. The crowning blunder is in the scanning of the last line. Are our brethren in the South accustomed to pronounce the penultimate word as suc-cess 2 Or, how came the Hindu to admit such a VerSe P TO MR. G. S YAMALA RO W. , 293 Your ballad is better, because therein you have something like a story to tell and that form is more easy to imitate. But do, like a good boy, eschew all attempts at blank verse. You can produce only bad and queer prose in the effort to write poetry. Even Southey and Wordsworth are frequently prosaic to the last degree. The sonnet is not only a difficult but also a delicate business, which has been beyond many true poets and men of genius. You ought to have recognised the fact in the in- stance you quote. Boccage's sonnet may be good in the Portuguese, but what a poor thing in the English version . It is well written, and dare say, faithful enough. Your imita- t tion is gotbd, perhaps better. But what, after all, is there in it 2 October 9. An imitation cannot substantially go beyond the original. What is there in the original, I ask 2 Nelson comes bleeding from the field 2 294 J. ETTER e '*** ,w of battle to Elysium, makes an indifferent, not to say foolish, speech to the poor affrighted ghosts, bragging of having raised Europe from thraldom, a pretence finally reduced by the speaker himself to his having thrown a bolt against France for which his own countrymen were mighty glad and thankful to him ; then Alexander, the Macedonian military lunatic, after his juvenile habit, weeps and envies the new comer, although the latter had defeated only one nation on the seas. Such is the substance; nor is it set out by drapery and accessories. It is quite possible that Boccage's Portuguese is good, even fine, but the English rendering is not so All the spirit and spiritu- ality have evaporated in the process of transferring literature from one tongue to another The truth is, translation is an im- possibility. It is usually a sort of literary murder. % $: % Your friend, I dare say, is a clever, even a brilliant young man, and I shall be glad to { TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW. , 295 tº ... hear of him and from him if he likes it. But you pay Reis and Rayet a poor compliment by Stating so confidently that his ballad de- serves a place in its columns. Indeed, you seem, in the fervour of a youthful friendship, to have conceived an exaggerated opinion of its excellence. In point of fact, it is not so very distinctly or specifically above the level of your own compositions in manuscript that you send me. If you wish to see what bril- liant university men and medallists can do, take up the Cambridge Prize Poems. But, for a foreigner, your friend's piece and, indeed, your own ones not in print are creditable. His “Dufferin '' is a trifle superior, perhaps, in neatness, being short, but it is essentially of the same class with yours. Both are effusions of not only unfledged poets but also juvenile politicians. It is strange the unreality of your productions and the absurdity of the ideas did not strike you. It is possible to dislike Lord Dufferin and avoid these faults. 2 But why still “rub it into” the poor Marquis of Dufferin and Ava Is he never to be forgiven for having saved an empire stranded by his predecessor P Why, your very leaders, who started the dead set against him, are themselves ashamed of their injustice. In fact, the word has been passed, to praise Lord Dufferin as a seasoned, masterful and Sagacious statesman, without bias, and to fight for the reforms he recommended. Your friend sings:— “. He found ...the Rishis’ sacred land United all in love, The Turk and Brahman, hand in hand, With blessing from above.” That may be poetry. But is it truth P Was the Rishis' land even so very united? Then how did it cease to be the Rishis"and to become the Mlechhas' dependency P If by the blessing of God, the Turk or IMussalman and Brahman were in any sense “hand in hand ” in these latter days, was it Lord Dufferin that “set them by the TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW. , 297 ears,” or was it your own dear Ripon P Was it not rather that Lord Dufferin did his best to heal the differences caused by the stupid and weak bungling of his predecessor and succeeded ? Surely, the cultivation of poetry does not absolve us from the obligation of justice. Justice is due to the D–l. Is Dufferin alone to go without it? After all, your and your friend's verses have considerable merit as exercises, if not suffici- ent for public acceptance. You must not suffer yourselves to be discouraged. You have everything for success except age and experience, and these , are bound to Come—they are already upon you, hasten- ing to greet you as I write. You both are reſharkably clever young men. I wish we had some such products of Our Calcutta University. I am astonished at your command of English. Your letter under reply would not be disowned by many educat- ed Englishmen. Poetry is an exceptional 298 . M.A. TTEA’S. product, and some of the greatest men have failed in it. I would not say one word to dissuade you from the practice of verse. It will go off without anybody's interference, or you will burst upon the world as a true singer. Meanwhile, I would ask you to write prose 2S well, as much as you can. There is a poetry in prose too—a rhythm and melody as well as a passion and sentiment akin to those of the masters of song. But I would not have you attempt that even. If it come naturally you will not be able to help it. Write natur- ally and straightforwardly, whether in prose or verse—with honest manliness, using your own thoughts and your own language, without try- ing to write after somebody else. However, all this is superfluous advice. You havé already acquired a singular facility in writing English. I wish I could ask you to eschew politics. But this is impossible. You cannot even keep clear of the degrading local and party politics of the day. At all events, try to make TO MR. G. S YAMALA ROW. , 299 them Secondary to higher studies—Jurisprudence and the Science of Government and History. Need I ask your pardon for this long des- patch and its severity ? I address a surprizing intelligence, and I hope my letter justifies itself. I love you and your friend as my country's hope. I love you in special for your connection with Appa Row. I could not give you better proof than the trouble I have taken in appraising your work and the trouble I am taking in giving judgment. You scarcely deserve such consideration. See how scurvily your other Row treated me ! After having roused in me the greatest interest and even affection, he gave me up without notice. For long I was in great anxiety about his fate.” I was glad to learn from your first letter that he has settled down to a profession. God bless him Does he continue his addresses to the Muses P. He has the stuff in him. Your sincere friend and well-wisher, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. 3OO . LETTERS. P.S.—Your “Tantia" is interesting and will appear on the 26th. t - S. C. M. The succeeding letter was written by the veteran editor of the Szałesman when racked with ill-health which he sought in vain to alle- viate by a visit to Darjeeling. Mr. Knight's allusion to “Tippera” refers to the arrears of salary as paid adviser, which are mentioned at page 44 of the memoir. It is much to be wish- ed that the Durbar may acknowledge the services of their old and faithful servant by paying his widow a portion at least of these long due arrears. From Mr. R. Knight. Darjeeling, October 25, 1889. Dear Mookerjee,_It was most kind of you to Send me that letter from Barakhar, and although I can not reply to it, accept the will for the deed, and my grateful acknowledg- ments for remembering how gladly I should hear from you. . It is very distressing to me f AºA'O// //R. R. A. W/GATT. , 3O I to hear that pecuniary anxiety of any kind is burdening you. You do not tell me whether the Maharaja of Tippera made any response to my appeal to him to liquidate your claims ? If he does not reply, I shall write sharply to him on the subject when I hear from you - again. Your description of the Fornaro Bungalow amused and interested me greatly. May God generously restore your health, and enable you to continue the “Reis and Rayyet" with the extraordinary literary abili- ty and moral force that distinguish its columns ! I look upon you as a sort of “ballast" in the ship in which new India is embarked, and the need there is of this moderating and steadying force is conspicuous enough ; but upon the whole I wonder greatly at the strides that young India are making and feel that it is the native press that will erelong be the control- ling force in the country. :* 1& Yours very sincerely, R. KNIGHT. 302, LETTERS. From Lord S tanley of Alderley. October 31, 1889. Dear Mr. Mookerjee,_A short time ago I received a copy of the “Empress" of Calcutta, for which I suppose I have to thank you, as it contained a portrait of yourself and a bio- graphical sketch : the latter was what I ex- pected and might have written myself, but the portrait was quite different from the idea I had formed of you, for I had not heard any description of you. I am glad to see you in those Oriental garments, for I should not have thought you had worn such since you left Tippera, and they must be in- convenient amongst the “Reis and Rayyet” printing presses. $ - * #, To Dr. Fifº Edward Hall. November 26, 1889. Dear Sir, I am in receipt of your letter of the 18th October. Coming from a veteran Pandit, it is one to be thankful for, but being ( TO DR, HALL. . 303 an answer it hardly leaves room for excuse for boring you again. I should, however, like to put in just a word. You are not right in supposing that I have little interest for ques- tions in English philology. I take great interest in them. One of the points that drew me to you is my respect for you as one entitled to authority in that department of learning. As a reader of the journal of the Asiatic So- ciety of Bengal I noticed your speciality long since. Some of your foot notes to your con- tributions appeared to me most interesting and your criticisms therein showed know- ledge as well as acuteness. Formerly, when Dr. Rajendralala Mitra was a simple scholar and we were friends (he was a contributor to my Mookerjee's Magazine, now defunct, and I re- vised the first volume of his Orissa), meeting almost every evening, I used to tease him by referring to your handling of his writings. A haughty, disdainful man, he could never bear my speaking of you as the most accurate 3o4. J. ETTERS. Sanskritist since the death of Colebrooke, who had read more Sanskrit books and MSS. than any other scholar, American, British or Con- tinental, and had a more critical knowledge of the English language into the bargain. But he never could say anything to alter my judgment, always contenting himself with alleging your comparative ill success in the literary world. Of course, I omit the expres- sions of mere personal vexation with which he embellished his conversation about you. Per- haps I am not right in reporting this even in the confidence of a private correspondence. For, though we have long ceased to be on speaking terms, I would not do anything dishonourable to even my worst enemy. I mention the matter to show that I have long been familiar with you and your writings, though unknown to you personally. I have since followed your career as far as I have been able according to my opportunities. I have never been able to see your book on To DR, HALL. . so; ~gº English, but I read your article in the AVăneteenth Century. . I am not ‘strong in Old English, because the researches into the subject were started after I left College, and I have not had time to take it up since. Our Principal, Captain Richardson, (whom you may remember as the “D. L. R.” of Anglo-Indian Literature) was well versed in the language from Chaucer and Gower downwards, and he was a great critic of the old Jeffrey, Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt school. I have devoted myself with passionate fondness to your literature and have marked the successive changes in the language since it has had a literature properly speaking. If you ever write anything which you think might interest me—now I have ac- quainted eyou with my turn—I shall be much obliged by your putting me in the way of reading it, at least by giving me the reference, I once thought of communicating some glean- ings from my note books to Dr. Murray for the new Dictionary. But I had so many distrac- 2O * * 306 LETTERS. —2– tions that I did not carry Out my intention. The thing is, I pursue too many studies and have no concentration. Otherwise, perhaps, I might have made some mark. I see inferior men who know much less do it. Yours most truly, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. To Professor A. Vambéry. Bnda Pest University, Buda Pest, Austria. - December Io, I889. Honoured Professor, I am an Oriental and so are you—by persºnal sympathy and primitive origin. Although you have travelled far in Asia you have not yet been far enough in this direction to reach these shores. Your Eastern peregrinations and experiences have been con- fined to the lands and peoples of Islam. Yet I feel confident that you cannot but ſeek kindly to the other countries and races of this vast continent—the original home of your own ancient ancestry. Though a Hindu my- self, indeed a Brahman of Brahmans, I have TO PROFESSOR A. WAMBER Y. 307 always watched your career with interest and admiration. Perhaps, I am an exceptional person who has always loved the Mahomedans as brethren and has earnestly tried to inter- pret between Hindus and Mahomedans and effect a union of hearts between two peoples - whose social and political interests in India are identical. This rôle of go-between has come natural to me from my intimate as- sociation with Mahomedans and my know- ledge of them and their literature and history. It is with a sense of personal pain that I have viewed how the influence of English prejudice against those from whom the Bri- tish wrested the government of the country and of the education given by them to the people heae, was creating an estrangement between the two most important elements in the population. There has of late been a reaction among the British so far as to make them look kindly upon the Mahomedans as a possible support of their power against the pre- M 308, A. E. TTERS. tensions of the Hindus, the tall talk of whose leaders, trained by European instruction, has caused them alarm. But then, unfortunately, they are trying, in their fancied immediate object, to sow dissensions between the two bodies. My ideal is to form a nation by a harmonious social fusion of the two component parts of the population under the British Crown, which has given us such a strong and equitable Government as we could never hope to form ourselves ; which has advanced us to a new life, and is daily improving us, and which I devoutly pray will keep us in hand until the time comes under God’s Providence when we are in a position to help ourselves. Pardon this egotistic rigmarole. It is neces- sary to give you an idea of intersectional politics in British India and of my relation to them as a condition sºme gua non of any useful or intelligible correspondence. Your letter to my friend Nawab Abdool Luteef Bahadoor of the 13th August ap- TO PROFESSOR A. VAMBER Y. 309 peared in most of the Indian papers and was commented upon in many. I devoted a leading article to it in my issue of the 7th September and directed a copy to be sent to you. At the Nawab's instance the article with your letter was reprinted in a separate sheet for circulation. I took the opportunity to make some slight corrections, which I hope improved the thing. I dare say you received Some copies from the Nawab direct. On the Ioth November I published an article on “The Sultan and his views on the Eastern Question ” in which I made the ac- count of your interview with, His Majesty which appeared in a Pesth newspaper my text. I have since been troubled by seeing a Maho- medan from Constantinople giving in a London journal a dismal report of the state of matters at the Turkish capital. According to him, the Sultan is a weak-brained man now on the verge of madness, freakish, taking counsel of menials, interfering in the minutest 3 IO J. E. 7'7"A.R.S. details of administration, and changing his ministers on frivolous pretexts, while his shelved brother has recovered his health and wits and is ready to resume office and power, with the concurrence of the Ulema and the Pashas. That goes counter to your testimony, as I read it. What is the truth P or what the ex- planation ? . Yours faithfully, SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. From Professor A. Vamóéry. - C. Budapest University, Budapest, December 31, 1889. Dear Sir-I have received your letter dated December the Ioth with great interest, hav- ing had the pleasure in finding in your views and intentions the experimental “solution of a question which has long time engaged my full attention. In presenting yourself aS “an exceptional person who has always loved the Mahomedans as brethren and has earnestly tried to interpret between Hindus { - FROM PROFESSOR A. WAMBERY. 311 and Mahomedans and effect a union of hearts between two peoples whose social and politi- cal interests in India are identical,” you have certainly put before yourself a very useful, but at the same time a very arduous task. As far as my limited experience and unpretentious notions go, the solution of this problem in Asia has always seemed to me an unanswerable difficulty. You evi- dently know better than myself, that in Asia the partition wall between mankind is not the nationality, but religion. The Mahome- dan scripture says—“All true believers a1‘e brethren,” as well as that unbelievers are one nation, a saying which implies a strict unity between the followers of one faith, and does not admit any partition by race or nationali- ty. . I am, therefore, at a loss to understand how your idea to form a nation by a harmonious social fusion of the two component parts of the population, sublime and high-minded as that idea is, could be carried out without J 31.2 . LETTERS. shaking the very foundation of the respec- tive communities of course you are on the best way in proposing to effect that idea. “under the British Crown, which has given us such a strong and equitable Government as we could never hope to form ourselves ; which has advanced us to a new life, and is daily improving us, and which I devoutly pray will keep us in hand until the time comes under God's Providence when we are in a position to help ourselves.” This argument speaks decidedly whole volumes in favour of the soundness of your views. The time will and must come when many of your countrymen and co-religionists will share in these healthy views, but I beg leave to say that this time is yet very, very far and that it would be much easier to make all Europe one community * of a common interest and aim, than to mould the different nationalities and creeds of Hindustan into one nation. What you have to do is to proceed on the way inaugurat- ( FROM PROFESSOR A. V.A.MBER V, 313 ‘ed by your British teachers without any premature aspirations unfit and eventually dangerous to the present stage of culture of the great mass of the peoples of India. What you have achieved hitherto under the guidance of Great Britain and assisted by the innate splendid mental capacities of your people, is quite unique in the history of civilization of mankind. Your hitherto made progress appears the best guarantee for the future development of India. You enjoy liberties which are the object of envy not only of all Asia and Russia, but also of many parts of Europe, and the benignant rays of liberty will certainly in- crease in the measure as the sun of en- lightenment rises over the horizon of your vast and glorious country. - This is the humble advice I can give you, as one who is not influenced by political, national, or religious interests, but who, bear- ing the welfare and prosperity of poor Asia D 314, LETTERS. *— at heart, has always felt happy On See- ing down-trodden mankind raised to a better future. As to your question about the discrepan- cy between my statements in reference to the character of Sultan Abdul Hamid and those of a Mahomedan correspondent in the Daily News, I beg leave to say that the writer in the last-named paper is not a Turk but evidently an Ottoman subject living in London and discontented with the rule of the Sultah—and further I beg leave to call to your memory the fact that the said newspaper is the mouthpiece of a political party in England shortsighted enough to declare open war against 50 millions of their fellow citizens and ready to find fault with the Ottomans whom they have styled the un- speakable Turk worthy to be driven bag and baggage out of Europe. Whilst my experience of the character of the present ruler of Turkey is taken from a personal intercourse with the C FROM PROFESSOR A. WAMBERY 315 Sultan and from a long-standing connection with the leading men on the Bosphorus. The difference of means and modes of observation must naturally entail different results. Thanking you for your suggestive letter and Sending my kindest regards to Nawab Abdool Luteef Bahadur, I beg to remain, Yours faithfully, A. VAMBERY, A Gazette of India Extraordinary, giving the programme of reception, on the 3rd January 1890, between 3-30 and 4-30 P. M., at Prinsep's Ghat, Calcutta, of H. R. H. Prince Albert Victor of Wales, was published on the 30th December 1889. According to the programme, only the Maharaja of Kuch Behar, the Nawab Bahaddr of Murshidabad, and Maharaja Jotendro Mohun Tagore were to be presented to His Royal Highness at the Ghat. Their exclusion was naturally resented by the Chiefs from Behar and other provinces who had come to Calcutta to do the Prince honour. Attempts J) 316 . , LETTERS. were made to have the omission rectified. when they failed, Dr. Mookerjee was asked to intercede. On the 2nd January he wrote to the Private Secretary to the then Viceroy and received a reply which was balm to the wounded dignity of the Chiefs. To Col. J. C. Ardagh. * January 2, 1890, My dear Colonel Saheb, Allow me to offer you and your noble Chief my cordial and loyal wishes for a happy New Year and a comfortable and pleasant residence and bright and beneficent career in the East. After compliments, business. I was unwell the last two days, or I might have disturbed you in the midst of the festivities for bidding adieu to the Old Year and welcoming the New. Having recovered, I hasten to per- form my duty of apprising you of the dis- satisfaction caused by the arrangements an- nounced for to-morrow's reception of the Prince. I refer to the provision for three TO COLONEL /. C. A RDA GH, 317 J Indian magnates only being presented to His Royal Highness at the landing. This is re- garded as a slight, not to say insult, to the great Chiefs present in town, some of whom have come at no small sacrifice on purpose to do honour to the Prince. Notwithstanding that His Royal Highness is on a private visit, their sense of duty to one so near to the Throne and so dear to Her Majesty the Empress would not allow them to stay at home, enjoying ease; attending to their own business and saving money. Their presence and their expenditure in honour of the Prince are particularly welcome and will go far to save the credit of the country after the collapse of the public meeting. The Maha- raja of Vizianagram went down to Madras where he gave munificently towards the re- ception and then hurried up to Calcutta where he has been equally liberal. The Maharaja of Durbhanga telegraphed that he would bear the whole cost and followed himself to take * Š I 8 * /.A. ZTTEA’S. part in the ceremonies in person. The Chiefs of Dumraon and Bettia too are here for the purpose. You may well imagine in what a false position they find themselves by being thus pointedly ignored after all, I do not mention the Tippera Prince, for whom I may be supposed to have a partiality. But there are others of lesser note here who are all ambitious of recognition on the OCC al- sion. There is no legitimate ground of com- plaint in their behalf, perhaps But the prin- cipal Chiefs stand on a different and unique footing and they are not accustomed to be ignored. Their grievance is accentuated by the preference shown to a Bengali gentleman of Calcutta who, whatever his personal worth or wealth, was a simple Babu a few years ago, and has no influence, not to say prestige, in the country. The Nawabs of Dacca have an equal claim with him. Burdwan, a far superior one. Durbhanga, Dumraon and Bettia are not FROM COLONEL /. C. ARDA GH. 319 ordinary Zemindars, distinguished only for wealth or the extent of their estates. They are genuine territorial Chiefs and political factors. Above all, Vizianagram is a historic name and almost a Sovereign Prince. I do not know Bettia or Dumraon. I have not seen either Vizianagram or Durbhanga on the subject of the publication of the noti- fication. But I know how these are regarded by them and I am hearing the comments of those who understand them. Hereafter, at all events, you are sure to hear a good deal. I trust the matter will be care- fully considered, and I hope it is not too late to do justice to deserving claims. - - Yours most faithfully, © SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. From Colonel J. C. Ardag/. Government House, Calcutta, January 2, 1890. Dear Dr. Mookerjee,_Many thanks for your good wishes which I heartily reciprocate, 320 LETTERS As regards the principal subject of your letter, I am happily able to give you reas- suring information. When the programme was first made out, it was not either neces- sary or possible to be specific and it was simply laid down that territorial Chiefs, great families and official representatives should at least constitute a portion of the magnates who should be presented to the Prince. . . Typical names were given, e.g., Kuch Behar and Murshidabad, and an idea seems to have : spread abroad that those alone were to be presented. This, however, I am assured, is « quite erroneous. I do not at this moment possess any official list of the names, but from memory I can confidently r say that I recollect the names of Durbhanga, Bettia, Dumraon, Vizinagram and Gidhour, and that there were many besides. It would, of course, be necessary to draw the line somewhere, and it might not be very TO COLONEL J. C. ARDAGH. . 321 easy to draw it ; but I trust it will be found that as many as reasonably could be put in this list, have been so provided for, and that the apprehensions you express will prove groundless. I should regret exceedingly any arrangement such as you hinted at, and I felt that there must have been a misunder- standing, and that the omission of the Chiefs was never contemplated. I write in haste, but hope I have reassur- ed you. - Youts very truly, J. C. ARDAGH. To Colonel /. C. Ardag/. t º © January 3, 1890. My dear Colonel Saheb.-It was a great pleasure to receive your reply of last evening. The personages immediately concerned were doubtless much relieved at the final liberality * & $3. of today's programme. Yours very truly, SAMBHU C, MOOKERJEE, 2 : O 322 LETTERS From Sardar Atar Singh, Chief of Bhadaur. -* - Bhadaur House, Ludhiana, January 31, 1890. My dear Babu Saheb, It is with regret and anxiety that I learnt from my official, who was lately at Calcutta and who twice tried to wait on you before his leaving Calcutta, of the illness of yourself. I, however, trust that you may have recovered your health before long, and therefore beg to be informed at your earliest convenience of the state of your health. Praying for your perfect recovery and continual good health, with long life, for the good of the country, I remain, Yours sincerely, ATAR SINGH. From Dr. Mahendralal Sărcăr. 5i, Sankaritola, Calcutta, March 18, 189C: My dear Sambhu, I do not deserve half of what you have written to Mr. Routledge. What I did for you, what I always do for \- FROM DR. M. L. SIRCAR. , 323 you, is out of the purest affection never alloyed with the remotest thought of any other re- muneration than that of a return of the same affection. Believe me, when I say that your life is no less precious to me than my own. For the preservation of that life, I am prepared to do what is in my power to do. Now, my dear Sambhu, if you have a real affection for me, as I fully believe you have, I must ask you to help forward with your powerful pen the cause of the dearest object of my life. If I mistake nét, in the matter of science cultivation by Our countrymen, you entertain the same strong views that I do. And, therefore, it would be no partiality to an old friend if you plead on behalf of the only Institution? in all India which has inaugurated real, independent, natural, Scientific education, the permanency of which means the regener- ation of this degenerate country. With the sincerest love, ever yours, MAHENDRALAL SIRCAR. J 324 A. ETTERS. To Mr. James Routledge. March 18, 1890. My dear Friend,-You will be delighted to have a line from my own hand I know, after the great illness through which I have pass- ed. I, therefore, hasten to write to you be- fore I commence correspondence with my friends in India. It was a severe visitation —the inflammation of both lungs all over, at my time of life, in a man of sedentary habits and a broken-down constitution. But God the Great Healer granted me a fraternal physician of the highest skill and tact in Dr. Sircar, and He also gave me the prudence and patience to submit myself entirely to him. He came Several times in the 24 hours every day, watched at my bed side and did the needful, though himself in indifferent health and having fifty things to attend to besides his practice. And all this without any hope of remuneration. Nor am I a solitary object of his professional benevolence, ( TO MR. J. ROUTLEDGE. , 325 His house is a hospital for the relief of out- door patients, hundreds of whom besiege it daily. And neighbours and friends he visits at their houses free. Are there many such doctors in England, glorious in many res- pects, moral as well as material, and famous for Organized charity ? I am afraid the struggle for life is far too keen there to encourage this sort of patriarchal benevolence. My illness has been a very protracted business. Although I sat up in bed soon enough, I was literally confined there 'for two months. You must have observed for some weeks past traces of my pen in Reis and Rayet. Before that I could give instructions by word of mouth as to one or two leading topics. I’am very sorry that I was myself passing through the crisis of my disease when the life of not only one of the truest friends of India and humanity, but also a rare man of refined delicacy and overflowing goodness closed within almost a stone's throw of me, T 326. - A. AE 7'7"A. ſº S. so that I was not able to do the last offices of friendship towards Robert Knight. I could not even write the notice Obituary, though I could, and that with difficulty, supply the particulars of his life and my impressions to my excellent friend and disciple Mr. Saroda Prasad Banerjee, a private school- master, who as well my friend and assistant Mr. Jogesh Chunder Dutt, (the same who in- formed you and other friends of my illness,) are conducting the paper. Knight and I differed on many questions of home and foreign or out- side politics. He was a man of strong likes and dislikes. I cultivate only loves and har- bour no hates. o Though enthusiastic to a de- gree by temperament, it was a calm philosophi- cal ardour subordinated to reason afla justice. He could not bear the Mussulmans. I have been trying all my life to make the two sects like each other so as to weld them together into a nation. I have a partiality for the Turks in Europe, the more from the injustice TO MR. J. ROUTLEDGE. , 327 –4 done them by the nations of Christendom since the Osmanli ceased to be a conquering Power. He would “chuck " them into the Bosphorus. I am against the dismemberment of the British Empire. I cannot bear the thought of the separation of the distant Australasian Colo- nies. How much must I be opposed to the cutting away of a vital, member like Ireland, you may imagine. And so on. For all that, we loved each other with the highest esteem. Hundreds, if not thousands, of letters passed between us. He asked my opinion on every difficulty, political or personal. His was the only European table at which I have sat with the family as one of them. Friendship got the better of my Brahmanic prudence. Many’ thanks for your communications to Reis and Rayyet. The more the merrier I have a great horror of vivisection and con- sider all cruelty to animals cowardly. I was out the first time since my illness on Friday last at Government House to see the Viceroy, T. 328. A. E. 77'EA’.S. who received me most kindly, enquiring sym- pathetically about my illness. I asked the Trivate Secretary whether the subject of vivi- section was before the Government of India. Not that he knew of, said he, beyond the Cruelty to Animals Bill before the Viceroy's Council. Yours affectionately, - SAMBHU C. MOOKERJEE. P.S.—We have not seen the Hyderabad Com- mission Report. It has not appeared in India. Q S. C. M. To Mr. Paul Knight. - \ March 20, 1890. Dear Paul-I am not yet out of the Doctor's hands and am still on hospital diet and con- demned all night and day to the Arctic Voyager's woollens without the alleviation of a bath, but for all that I am tolerably well and have long since been out of danger. I have often proposed to write to you or your mother, but have shrunk from the effort as TO MR. A. KAVIGHT. , 329 too much for my feeble health. I have not yet commenced to write to friends, and the few notes I have issued have been under some unavoidable necessity. This one too I would rather have avoided. For, how can I approach you? What words can I find suitable for sympathy in your unparalleled bereavement? It is not only the death of a tender parent—it is the loss of a patriarch “Who loved his charge but never loved to lead, One whose meek flock his people'loved to be, Not lured by any cheat of birth But by his clear-grained human worth And brave old wisdom of sincerity l’’ You lived for Englishmen a unique life, parents ańd children and grown up sons. Sons in the same place and same household, work- ing at the same business, and eating at the same board, all united in the bonds of the love of kinsmen and of the mutual and common interest of partners. Your calamity 33O t ZETTERS.