Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/539

492 of village Aismali in the Nuddea district. As Hemlata was a girl of accomplishments, so her husband was also a young man of very good attainments, and to Vidyasagar's mind.

Sometime after this, a great misfortune befell our noble hero. His greatest friend and co-adjutor, Ram Gopal Ghosh, expired at about 11.30 A. M. on the 21st January, 1868. The deceased was a great orator and staunch advocate of widow marriage. The loss of such a sincere friend gave our hero a great shock, and moved him to a flood of tears. Speaking of Ram Gopal Ghosh, the Hindoo Patriot of the 27th January of that year said:—"He was a warm advocate of widow marriage and assisted the noble cause with money as well as personal labour."

The Hon'ble C. E. Buckland, in his 'Bengal under the Lieutenant-Governors' says:—"In politics, Babu Ram Gopal Ghose was a zealous and indefatigable reformer. He was a leading member of the British Indian Association, which was established in 1851, and took the most prominent part in every political movement of the day: such subjects as the admission of Natives into the Legislative Council of India and the Civil Service, the extension of reproductive public works, were agitated, largely at his instigation. It was he who first matured a plan and established a Society for political agitation in England, with the assistance of Mr. Adams, for the purpose of