Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/123

Rh decade of the nineteenth century. Among the many changes that he saw pass over the face of Bengal by no means the least important to him as a great landholder was the Permanent Settlement, which became law as Regulation I of 1793.

Mahtab Chand succeeded his adopted father on the 16th of August 1823 and a year later, when only thirteen years of age, he received a farman from the Governor-General, Lord William Bentick, confirming him in the title of Maharajadhiraj Bahadur. Brought thus into prominence at a very early age, the possessor of a vast estate and great wealth, and the holder of one of the highest titles in Bengal, Mahtab Rai fully realised alike the possibilities and the responsibilities of his high position. Although a young man exposed to all the temptations to which his great wealth and independence rendered him particularly liable, he set himself from the first to administer it wisely and well. Naturally of a quite and retiring disposition, he made no bid for popularity or political eminence. Content with his position as one of the greatest landholders in Bengal and as the representative of one of its most important families, he concentrated all his energies on improving the condition of his tenants and estate, erecting his splendid palaces and laying out his gardens at Burdwan, and worthily maintaining the honourable traditions of his house.

Loyalty, whole hearted and unswerving, was one