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[ i6 3 ] RASHBEHARI GHOSE. As a jurist, a legislator, an advocate and a scholar Dr. Rasbehari Ghose is the foremost man of his generation in his country, and a glory not only to Bengal, but to the whole of India. He was bom on the ajrd December, 1845, in an obscure village in the district of Bankura. He received his early training in the town of Bankura, and passed the Entrance Examination in i860 in the second divi- sion. The success was far below his merit, as he was compelled to appear at the examination while yet in the second class, there being no student in the Entrance class fit to be sent up for the examina- tion that year. He then came to Calcutta and joined the Presi- dency College, whence he headed the list of successful candidates in the F. A. examination. He graduated in 1865 and the next year he took nis M. A. degree in English with first class honours, he being the first Indian student who received that distinction. During his college days he did not confine himself within the narrow limits of the prescribed course, but diligently studied English classics, — Shakespeare being his most favourite author — and even at present happy quotations and appropriate illustrations from Shakes- peare are a graceful feature of his speeches. He took his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1867 and in the same year was enrolled as a vakil of the High Court Bar of Calcutta. He attracted the notice of that great man, Dwarkanath Mitter, eminent, like himself, in scholarship and law, who was then on the eve of his retirement to the Bench. Rashbehari, however, did not, in the first few years of his practice, fare well. He had his fits of depression, but wisely enough, he utilised his leisure in diligently studying, Indian and English law, not only as a practitioner, but also as a student of jurisprudence — mastering the technicalities by grasping the central principles. After four years of laborious and uninterrupted study, he appeared and succeeded in the Honours in Law examination — one of the most difficult examinations in the world. Four years later, he was selected to fill the chafr of Tagore ..Law (established by the munificence of another greater lawyer, Prasanna Kumar Tagore c. s, 1.) the special subject on which he