Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/109

Rh whom he came in contact, he was never till the day of his death able to converse in the English language. His first appointment was that of pleader in the Civil Court at Patna in 1832. Two years later he went down to Calcutta where he was appointed one of the assistants to the Envoy despatched to the Court of Naziruddin Haider, King of Oudh. Here amid the intrigues and petty jealousies of an Indian court he first showed that tact and discretion which was later to enable him to occupy so responsible and difficult position with dignity and credit. He remained at the Court of Oudh until the King's death in 1838, being then appointed a Deputy Assistant Superintendent in the Presidency Special Commissioner's Court at Calcutta, where it was his duty to plead on behalf of government in all cases of claims to resumption of lands held rent free on defection of want of title. In 1854 he became government pleader in the same court, leaving it a few years later to practice in the old Sudder Dewani Adalat. So far his career, though of no special distinction had been marked by conspicuous ability, high legal attainments and genial and tactful manners. These first appointments however, were but the preliminary training for the important work that still awaited him.

Loyalty had always been the watch-word of the Barh family and it ever remained one of the most conspicuous traits in the character of Amir Ali Khan.