Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/199

190 LIFE OF BABU RAM COPAL CHOSE. directly leads to the throwing of corpses into the He-ogly, it wr illogical" • • * * • * * HIS SPEECH ON THE MEMORIAL OF SIR HENRY" HABDINGE, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. A large meeting of the Inhabitants of Calcutta assembled at the Town Hall on the 24th December, 1847 to take into consideratih the propriety of presenting an address to the GovcrnorrGeneral upon,, the occasion of his departure from India, and also for the purpose of obtaining some personal memorial to commemorate his eminent serv- ices to th e Empire. — The address being read, the Reverend K. M. Bannerjea proposed to add to it a few more lines distinctly indicative of the gratitude of the native community for the interest which the Governor-General had ever taken in the cause of their edncaton. The proposed amend- ment elicited a warm discussion in which Messrs*. Turton, Hume, and Colville on one aide, and Revd. K. M. Bannerjea, and Babu Ram Gopal Ghose on the other, took the most prominent part. Babu Ram Gopal said : — Gentlemen, I regret that there should'be a discussion upon the merits of the address. I, for one, think that in an address from the inhabitants of Calcutta, the want of any prominent allusion to the conduct of Lord Hardinge as the friend of native Education is an omission which I cannot but regret. This difference of opinion might have been avoided, if the heads of the native community—by far the larger portion of the inhabitants — had been consulted in an address , of this description, lam however willing to admit that the time has been too limited for taking the proper steps. If the addition proposed cannot be appended as it stands — at all events, some plan may be adopted whereby we shall be enabled to put matters in their true! light, so that Lord Hardinge may see that the character he maintained as the friend of education endears him in the eyes of the nation as the best friend of their interests. We all feel that in. extending the blessings of the British Government, the prosperity arid