Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/75

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66 LIFE OP HURISH CHUNDER MT7KHEBJBI. own, now known as the Hindu Patriot press. What afterwards took place is this described in our life of Babu K. D. Pal. The ostensible proprietor was his brother Babu Haran Chunder Mukherjee, who was appointed manager. The annual subscription was then Rs. 10 ; but even at this rate the Hindoo Patriot had scarcely a hundred subscribers. But as might be easily inferred the "get up" of the paper was not very satis- factory. With the removal of the Press, however, to the neigh- bourhood of the late Sudder Dewany Adalut, its financial pros- pects became more assuring. The educated Bhowanipore public and the native gentlemen connected with the bar and the office of the Sudder Court, (who mostly resided in that neigh- bourhood) felt a sort of local interest and pride in the paper and began to patronize it At that time there was no other English weekly in Bengal, conducted by natives, except the Hindoo Intelligencer, edited by Babu Kashi Prosad Ghosh; and the only journals of the same kind, in the other Indian Presidencies were the Madras Rising Sun, and the Hindoo Harbinger of Bombay. Amongst the earliest subscribers to the Hindoo Patriot was the well-known • Indian statesman Mr. Sashia Shastri, now Regent of Puddocotta. From the year 1853 down to the close of the year 1855, Hurish Chunder con- conducted bis paper with great ability, and considerable sacri- fice of time and money. In 1856 the Widow- Marriage ques- tion occupied much public attention and Hurish Chunder lent his powerful pen to the advocacy of reform. But though the independence with which the Patriot was not conducted was exactly calculated to secure the good will of the public — parti- cularly the Indian public who,in matters of reform, are strongly conservative — the Editor never swerved from what he considered to be his path of duty. No considerations, however important, ever led him to sell his conscience, and notwithstanding the frequent pecuniary losses he had to bear, he uniformly refused