Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/43

 birth to four daughters. His joy, however, was soon marred when he lost another of his younger brothers, a darling of eight.

His interest in female education dated from about this time when he came into intimate contact with the Hon'ble J. E. Drinkwater Bethune, member of the Legislative Council and President of the Council of Education. Mr. Bethune started a girls' school in Calcutta and made him its honorary secretary, which post he filled with exceptional ability for twenty years. There were about fifty other girls' schools in Calcutta at the time, mostly the result of missionary effort; and they followed western principles. People had begun a furious agitation, finding that some of the pupils had embraced Christianity. Responding to popular demands, Mr. Bethune set up the school in 1849 to impart purely secular education. Its original name was Hindu Girls' School, subsequently changed into Bethune School to perpetuate the memory of its founder. Since then it has