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TWELVE MEN OF BENGAL

the disposal of every good cause. In support of education and in the relief of suffering his purse was always open. To the Calcutta University he gave the handsome donation of fifty thousand rupees to form a fund for the creation of scholarships in various schools and colleges throughout Bengal. To the District Charitable Association and the Suvarna Banik Charitable Association of which he was President, his subscriptions at various times amounted to large sums. He was a Governor of the Mayo Hospital to which he also largely contributed, one of the Wards being named after him in memory to his liberal endowments. His private charities were very numerous, a large number of schools and hospitals throughout his extensive estates being entirely maintained by him. In Calcutta he took a prominent part in all the great charitable and philanthropic movements of the day, no scheme of public utility failing to receive his hearty sympathy and financial support.

The Maharaja was one of the largest landholders in Bengal. He possessed estates in several districts and in all of them he proved a model landlord, firm and businesslike and heartily solicitous of the welfare of his tenants. Many of his estates he personally acquired at auction and saved from ruin, placing them by capable management on a sound and stable basis. The history of some of these estates furnishes a romantic record of the advancement of civilisation in Bengal. Among those acquired by the Maharaja