Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/83

Rh Ramtanu's sincere desire for an English education appointed him to a free scholarship in the Hare school.

Ramtanu at this time was thirteen years of age. His elder brother, having removed from Calcutta, a home was found for him in the house of Ram Kanta Khan, a cousin of his father's, at Shampukur. Here he met with much kindness, and enjoyed the companionship of Digambar Mittra, the future Raja, who had been entered at the Hare school on the same day as himself. The moral atmosphere of Calcutta was unfortunately then at its lowest ebb. The young men of the city had begun to throw off the restraints which had so long held them in check under the strict Hindu code, and were indulging in every form of vice. Retaining the outward observances of their religion, they were shamelessly abandoning its principles and living lives that outwardly conformed but inwardly violated every moral code. It was infinitely to Ramtanu's credit that he passed unscathed through these evil influences among which as a student he was necessarily thrown.

After two years at the Hare School, Ramtanu had pursued his studies with such deligence [sic] that he won a scholarship at the Hindu College. This College had been established in 1817 as the outcome of the exertions of David Hare, Baidyanath Mukherjee, Ram Mohan Roy and others, supported by the Chief Justice of Bengal, Sir Hyde East. It