on January 5, 1835, to petition Lord William Bentinck for its abolition, we find him one of the principal speakers.

He it was who seconded the resolution moved by Mr. T. Dickens, that the petition be adopted.

In rising to second the resolution that this petition be adopted,' he said, 'I am only doing that which I did ten years ago. When this Regulation was first promulgated, I, with three of my own relations, and my lamented friend the late Rām Mohun Roy, were the only persons who petitioned the Supreme Court against it; but most sincerely do I congratulate the community at large that I now see the whole room of the Town Hall filled both with Europeans and Natives for the purpose of protesting against the Regulation. At that time I did not ask any European to sign a petition, his signature to which might have subjected him to transportation. The same objection, however, did not exist in the case of the natives, for the Government, even at that day, could

hardly have transported them. But none of the natives could I prevail upon to join me, and I believe it was thought that I should be hanged the next day for my bold

ness.

'I think the present is the very time we ought to petition against the Regulation, because for the last eight years we have, under the rule of Lord William Bentinck, enjoyed a really free Press in spite of its provisions. If we could only secure Lord William Bentinck as a Governor-General, there would be no need of a petition, for with him this law is a dead letter, as well as many of the Court of Directors' laws; but we do not know whom we may get next, and, for anything we can. tell to the contrary, Mr. Sutherland and Mr. Stocqueler may be turned out by the next Governor-General. This, then, is the time when we ought to petition; and I have every hope, from the known character of Lord William Bentinck, and from the interest he has always taken in the welfare of the Natives, and in that of the community at

large, that he will repeal the Regulation; and, when once it is repealed, I think it will be difficult for any future Governor-General to get it enacted again.'

Though the Regulation was not repealed before Lord William Bentinck laid down the reins of office, the fear that his successor might prove less liberal was not realised; and, just five months later, another public meeting, in which Babu Dwārikā Nath Tagore again took a prominent part, was held at the Town Hall, to thank the new GovernorGeneral, Sir Charles Metcalfe, for the removal of all legal restrictions on the freedom of the Press.

At the dinner given in 1838 to commemorate this measure, the health of Dwārikā Nāth was proposed by Mr. Parker, as one whose name was inseparably connected with the cause whose triumph they had met that night to celebrate.

It is to the suggestion of Dwārikā Nāth Tagore, put forward in his evidence before the Committee on the Reform of the Mufasal

Police, that Bengal owes the creation of the office of deputy-magistrate, in which so many of his fellow-countrymen have since been able to perform valuable service in the cause of law and order. The suggestion was heartily approved of by the Government and soon after carried into effect, several native gentlemen of good family and distinguished pupils of the Hindoo College being appointed to the new office.

In the agitation against what was called the Black Act,' Babu Dwarikā Nath Tagore took a prominent part, and he was one of the principal speakers at the public meeting held in the Town Hall on June 18, 1836, for the purpose of memorialising the Court of Directors and Board of Control to repeal Act XI. of that year, by which EuropeanBritish subjects were deprived of their right of appeal to the supreme courts against the decisions of the Mufasal tribunals.

By his vehement denunciation of the state of the latter on this occasion, he did quite as

great a service to his own countrymen as to the class whose interests were specially affected by the obnoxious Act in question.

It may be regarded as a proof of the estimation in which Dwarikā Nāth was held by the Government, that he was the first native of India who was appointed a Justice of the Peace, an honour which possessed a much greater significance in those days than it does now. As a matter of fact, he was constantly consulted by Lord Auckland as an exponent of native opinion, and was a frequent guest of the Governor-General at his country-house at Barrackpore.

His own hospitality, which was largely extended to Europeans of position, was as highly appreciated as it was profuse, and the entertainments which he was in the habit of giving, on a grand scale, at his villa at Belgatchia, were without rival in their day.

At the close of the year 1841, Dwārikā Nath made up his mind to visit England, for which country he embarked on January 9