Rām Moni had three sons, of whom the celebrated Dwarikā Nath Tagore was the second, and Roma Nath Tagore the third.

Rām Lochan, having no child of his own, adopted Dwārikā Nath Tagore, an excellent account of whose career was published by the late Babu Kishori Chand Mittra.

DWARIKĀ NATH TAGORE.

Like his illustrious cousin, Prosunna Coomar Tagore, Dwarikā Nath Tagore was indebted for the elements of an English education to Mr. Sherbourne, who in those days kept a school in the Chitpore Road, Calcutta. The course of study pursued at this institution seems, however, to have been of a very humble character, and Dwarikā Nāth probably owed much more to the instruction of the Rev. William Adams, who subsequently acted as his tutor, and to the friendly intercourse which, even as a young man, he maintained with Europeans of education and position.

A circumstance which had a still greater share in the formation of his character, was his early association with the great Hindu reformer, Rām Mohun Roy.

The active philanthropy which characterised his career was, no doubt, the expression of his own inborn beneficence of temperament; but in the catholicity with which that philanthropy was exercised, as well as in the entire freedom from bigotry or narrowness which his own personal conduct exhibited, the influence of the new teacher may be clearly traced.

Dwarikā Nāth's first experience of the practical business of life was in the management of the modest estates inherited by him from his father. Brought thus into frequent contact with the courts of the country, he became a diligent student of the law; and, having attained to extraordinary proficiency in this branch of learning, he after a time established himself as a law agent. In this capacity he rapidly achieved a reputation which brought him a numerous and

wealthy clientèle among the landed proprietary both of Bengal and of the North-Western Provinces.

So great, however, was his capacity for work, and so many-sided was his genius, that he was able to conduct at the same time, and with no less conspicuous success, an extensive commercial agency.

In the midst of all this prosperity the post of Serishtadar to the Salt Agent and Collector of the Twenty-four Parganehs became vacant, and, tempted by the prestige which service under the Government conferred, Dwarikā Nāth was induced to accept it. How completely he gained the confidence of his superiors is shown by his promotion, six years later, to the Diwānship of the Board of Customs, Salt, and Revenue, which office he filled for several years with distinguished credit.

Such a career, however, was too contracted and too fettered for a man of Dwārikā Nath's large designs and independent character. In 1834, on the ground of the pres

sure of private business, he, to the great regret of the Board, resigned an appointment which he had filled with exceptional ability; and soon after, in partnership with Mr. William Carr and Mr. William Prinsep, established the firm of Carr, Tagore, and Co.

He was thus the first native gentleman to enter into mercantile business in Calcutta on the European model; and the GovernorGeneral of the day, Lord William Bentinck, considered the event of sufficient importance to make it the subject of a congratulatory letter to the author of so praiseworthy an example.

With the original partners in the new firm were subsequently associated, at one time or another, Major H. B. Henderson, Mr. W. C. M. Plowden, Dr. Macpherson, Captain Taylor, Babu Debendra Nath Tagore, and Babu Girendra Nath Tagore; while Babu Prosunna Coomar Tagore was for some time one of its assistants.

Previously to the establishment of the firm of Carr, Tagore, and Co., Dwarikā

Nath had been associated with Messrs. J. G. Gordon, J. Calder, John Palmer, and Colonel James Young in founding the famous and ill-fated Union Bank, of which Babu Ramanath Tagore was treasurer, and which during his lifetime enjoyed a career of remarkable and almost unchequered prosperity, to collapse hopelessly not long after his death. Of the only two other banks, besides the Bank of Bengal, then existing in Calcutta, the Calcutta Bank was absorbed by the Union, and the Commercial Bank was closed, on the failure of Messrs. Macintosh and Co. in 1829, Dwārikā Nāth, as the only solvent partner, having to meet all the claims against it.

Dwärikā Nāth was the mainstay of the Union Bank, and on more than one occasion interposed with his ample purse to save it from losses which would have injured its credit, if not landed it in ruin.

The firm of Carr, Tagore, and Co. at once took a place in the front rank of Calcutta houses, and embarked largely, after the