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One more incident will illustrate the generous impulses of the man. On the occasion of the visit of Prince Albert Victor to Calcutta in 1889, a great controversy took place as to how the money that had been raised should be spent. There was a strong party, and they represented the wealth of the city, who wanted to confine the demonstrations mainly to tamashas and entertainments. We were in favour of a permanent memorial in the form of a leper asylum in commemoration of the visit. I moved an amendment at the Town Hall meeting embodying this view. The amendment was carried, to the great disgust and indignation of the official party and their friends. A Maharaja, as he was leaving the meeting, happened to meet me, and exclaimed, 'Lo and behold! here is your work. You have wrecked. the meeting and insulted the Lieutenant- Governor.' The Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Stewart Bayley, was evidently not of that view, nor felt himself insulted; for he encour- aged the idea of a permanent memorial in honour of the Royal Visit. However that may be, I was soon made to feel the weight of official displeasure. A deputation was to wait upon Prince Albert Victor in connexion with the permanent memorial. My name was submitted as a member of the deputation, but it was eliminated by the officials who had the manipulation of the arrangements. Further, I learnt that my name had been sent up to the Government of India for nomination as a member of the Senate of the Calcutta University. Then came the incident of the Albert Victor Memorial meeting; and my name was omitted from the list.

The vote in favour of the permanent memorial at a meeting presided over by the Lieutenant-Governor of the province, organized under official auspices, and backed by the authority of the European Chamber of Commerce, was a triumph of middle class public opinion too marked to be mistaken. Those who had a leading part in this vote incurred the full measure of official and semi-official displeasure. But the vote was there, and the question was, where was the money for the permanent memorial to come from? Those who had money to spare would not subscribe a pice. The Maharaja of Vizianagram came to our rescue. He was the first to offer ten thousand rupees for a permanent memorial. He wrote a letter to me offering this sum, almost immediately after the meeting was over. We raised Rs. 25,000 in all, and we made it over to the Leper Asylum, this being named after Prince Albert Victor. I was made a member of the governing body; and, when I retired several years later, I nominated Babu Bhupendra Nath Basu