Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/79

 INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT 55 liberal views moved far ahead of their age. In spite of the Cornwallis Code and the publie policy Relation between the ৬ রি European and the of exclusion, the ruler and the ruled Bengali community fat thee day. had begun to live in greater amity and fellow-feeling. With the assump- tion’ of the responsibilities of political government, the ruling classes began to take greater interest in the lives of the people committed to their care. In vain do we seek in modern Bengal philanthropists of the type of Colvin, Palmer, Carey, Marshman, and David Hare, whose memory is still gratefully cherished by the Bengali-speaking race. ' No doubt, the Company’s servants hitherto had never re- garded India as their home but they had been always sojourners in a far country whose only ambition was to obtain riches as soon as possible and return home as gentlemen of leisure. This was one of the under!ying causes of the constant disputes between the Company and its self-seeking agents ; and it is no wonder that throughout the 15th century constant complaints of corruption, peculation, and general dishonesty of the agents are to be found in the Letter- Books of the Company. But with stability of British rule, when commercialism was declining as a dominating factor in the Company’s policy, and with the realisation of greater administrative responsibility, this order of things was gradually changing. ‘Two obvious reasons naturally strengthened the ties which bound these foreigners to this country. The first is that in those days of weary and perilous voyage round the Cape, men who came out to India and had a taste for the easy going (sometimes reck- less) life of pleasure and profit in the tropics, had no mind to return home very soon; while in the next place, the হেয়ার কৰ্ধিন্‌ পাষরশ্চ কেরী নার্শমনস্তথ! । পঞ্চ গোরাঃ ম্মরেন্িত্যং মহাপাতকনাশনং।।
 * The couplet goes thus (quoted in Raj-nariyan Basu’s Ekal O Sekal);