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trait of his character that made him the champion of the Hindu widow. At the time he happened to possess great influence with the Government, and succeeded in passing a law legalizing the remarriage of Hindu widows.

I well remember the stir and agitation which the movement produced and how orthodox Hindus were up in arms against it. Young as I was, I felt an interest in what was going on; and one of the earliest recollections of my boyhood is the sense of grief that I felt at the lot of a Brahmin girl, a neighbour of mine who had just lost her husband, and how strongly I wished her to be re-married. I never could pass her house as a boy without the liveliest emotions. The movement, however, made no impression upon the community at the time. My grandfather was violently opposed to it; my father was as eager in its support. For the time being orthodoxy prevailed; and the champion of the Hindu widows died a disappointed man, like so many of those who were in advance of their age, leaving his message, unfulfilled, to a posterity that may yet do justice to his patriotic endeavours. The progress which the movement has made since his death in 1891 has been slow. A new generation has sprung up, but he has found no successor. The mantle of Elijah has not fallen upon Elisha. The lot of the Hindu widow to-day remains very much the same as it was fifty years ago. There are few to wipe her tears and to remove the enforced widowhood that is her lot. The group of sentimental sympathisers have perhaps increased—shouting at public meetings on the Vidyasagar anniversary day, but leaving unredeemed the message of the great champion of the Hindu widow. 'When will that message be fulfilled?', cried I in the days of my youth. Let me repeat it in the evening of my life.