1887.] Dr. B. Mitras remarks on Mr. A. Grote. 101 



he often reminded me of a remark of Mr. John Colvin, for some time 

 Lieutenant-Governor of the North Western Provinces, who, on a similar 

 occasion, once publicly said :— " When I am in the rooms of this Society 

 I am not a servant of Government." It has often been a matter of re- 

 gret to me that this is a principle which is not often acted upon by officers 

 of Government. 



Mr. Grote was very much opposed to the Presidency of the Society 

 being held for a long time by any one individual, and it Was through his 

 earnest exertion, and against the wish of his colleagues, that the old 

 practice was set aside, and frequent changes in the personnel of the office 

 rendered imperative. His profound erudition, vast experience, high 

 official rank, and prominent social position gave him a commanding voice 

 in the affairs of the Society, but no one ever enjoyed such advantages in 

 a more mild, modest, genial, conciliatory, and winning way than he did ; 

 he never made an enemy. 



Taking a deep interest in Natural History, he was early selected as 

 the best qualified person for the Presidency of the Agri-horticultural 

 Society of India. He held the office for ten years, and, on his retire- 

 ment, the Society elected him an Honorary Member, and voted a portrait 

 for its meeting room. 



The kindliness of his nature and sympathy for living beings recom- 

 mended Mr. Grote to the Presidency of the Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals, and he did much to promote the usefulness of that 

 body. He was also for a time the leading member of the late Verna- 

 cular Literature Society, which benefitted largely by his advice and co- 

 operation. 



He was a man of remarkable width and grasp of mind, and few sub- 

 jects came before him in which he was not able to take the part of a 

 master. Besides his vernacnlar, he knew French, German, Latin, Greek, 

 Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian, in the first three of which he 

 wrote with ease and elegance. Of Indian languages he had mastered 

 Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, Hindi, Sanskrit, Bengali and Uriya, mak- 

 ing in all sixteen languages. In Bengali he was for some time a regular 

 reader of our leading newspapers, and he often startled me by giving infor- 

 mation which he had picked up from some of our then most recent books. 

 But he was particularly attached to Greek, and never missed an oppor- 

 tunity of cultivating the literature of that language. By way of illus- 

 tration of this remark I may mention that on the day before his depar- 

 ture from India, when most people are busy about packing and other 

 domestic details, I found him when I called to bid him good-bye, sitting 

 with a copy of the Aves of Aristophanes in his hands. 



Literature, however, did not hold entire monopoly of his versatile 



