Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/97

 '83 LIFE OF HURISH CHUNDER MUKHERJEl. Patriot,. Pficenix, and Hurkura, and denounced the conduct of the men of his own race. Then were those few noble-hearted civilians of old bye-gone days, and prominent among them were Sir John Peter Grant, the late Sir Ashley Eden., W. J. Herschel, Esq., E. De Latour Esq., c. s M then district Judge of the 24-Pergunahs,and Mr. Tottenham now a High Court Judge of Calcutta. And these ho- nest, upright civilians, without any political considera- tion, set a stern face against the wrong-doings of the oppressors. It was Sir Ashley Eden, be it record- ed to his credit, who issued the famous Parwanna from the sub-district of Baraset, declaring to the ryots that they were free agents, and that the cultivation of Indk go was quite optional with them. And at last we .find, the few educated Native gentlemen who sup? -plied Hurish Chunder with authentic facts about the .Indigo oppressions, as his mufusil correspondents. The late Babu Dino Bondhoo Miter, Babu Radhika Prasuna Mukherjee, then Deputy-Inspector of Schools at Nuddea, Babu Grish Chunder Bose, then a Police Paroga of Krishnaghur, Mr. Mano Mohun Ghose, then a student of Krishnaghur, and several other gentlemen anonymously wrote to the Hindoo Patriot, on this all-absorbing topic of the day. HIS CHARACTER, Self-sacrifice and self-abnegation were the great guiding principle and motto of his life. All through out his marvellous but short career in life he made tremendous sacrifices for the sake of his countrymen. His public career began in 1853 and came to an abrupt and lamentable close in 1861 ; and within this comparatively short period when the whole of India passed .through ihe fiery ordeal of a Revolution second in importance only xo the one of France, and when m