Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/269

Rh and a Trustee of the Central Dufferin Fund, a member of the Asiatic Society, a Justice of the Peace and an Honorary Magistrate for the town of Calcutta. These, however, are but a few among his many activities. His charities were unbounded. The possessor of great wealth, he showed himself determined from the first to use it for the public good and there was no charitable scheme in Calcutta for half a century which had not his sympathy and generous support. Though an orthodox Hindu himself, his charities were without distinction of caste or creed. Wherever suffering humanity called for help his response was prompt and unfailing. The relief of physical suffering by organised Hospital work particularly appealed to him. He gave large donations to the District Charitable Society and made a free gift to the trustees of the land on which the Mayo Hospital is built. In the Dufferin Fund from its inception he took a keen and personal interest, being a member of the committee and one of the trustees of the Central Fund. A firm believer in the value of open spaces in the great city he gave, with his brother Raja Surendra Mohan, a piece of land in the heart of Calcutta for a public square to be named after his father. In memory of his mother he founded an endowment, by a gift of one lac of rupees, for the benefit of Hindu widows, to be known as the 'Maharajmata Sivasundari Devi Hindu Widow Fund.' For the permanent maintenance of the Moolajori Temple he made a