Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/157

 Indian Advocate, and large sums of money to help their champions in England.

Events have brought us at length to 1842. It was in this year that Babu Dwarkanath Tagore, who ranked among the nobility of the country, and who was one of the foremost in intellectual gifts, embarked for England. He was noted for his munificence. He did not hesitate to make very large donations to such useful projects as the founding of the District Charitable Society and the construction of the Medical College Hospital. There was no distinction of race, creed, or colour in the gifts he made. It is said that he allowed a lifelong maintenance to Sherbourne, the Eurasian whose school he had attended when young. When in England, he was as much honoured as in his own country. Our late Empress, her Consort, and the King and Queen of France, were among his friends. The East India Company, too, was not backward in honouring him.

Another important though very sad event happened in this year — the death of David Hare. He died of cholera on the evening of the 1st of June. We shall notice more particularly the circumstances attending his illness and death in the short account of his life we intend giving in the Appendix. We here give only the scene before his burial. The morning after his death, when the sun rose and shone on his dead body, the whole city of Calcutta was in mourning. Voices of lamentation were in almost every house. Old or young, rich or poor, all went in crowds to the house where their friend had died. Even Raja Radhakanta Deb, the leader of the Hindu Society, stood by his coffin. His funeral procession consisted of thousands and thousands of men, women, and children, some following his body in carriages, and others on foot. The street now known as College Street was thronged.