Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/698

Rh to pay them eight annas monthly tor their house-rent.

During his stay at Chandernagore, he used now and then to take strolls in the neighbouring places. On one occasion, he paid a visit to a Brahman of Bhadresvar, at his earnest request, accompanied by his third brother, Sambhu Chandra Vidyaratna. The host's son, who was a leper, offered our hero a hookha prepared with his Own hands. Vidyasagar ungrudgingly took the hookha front his hands, and smoked it as usual. On their way back, Sambhu Chandra remonstrated with him, and asked him how he could persuade himself to smoke the tobacco prepared by a leper's hands. Vidyasagar very seriously said,—'God forbid, supposing you or I myself had been a leper, what would I do?' Sambhu Chandra had nothing to say against it.

Some time before this, a Bill had been introduced into the Legislature Council for amendment of the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code on certain sections relating to the Age of Consent on the part of females to sexual intercourse. The Government, as on all important matters of legislation, asked Vidyasagar for his opinion on the point. In this connection, he had to leave Chandernagore and return to Calcutta for a week. He studied deeply the different Sastras on religious points, and on the 16th February, 1891, gave his opinion opposing the