GHOSE, LALMOHUN lawyer, statesman, orator and scholar, was born at Krishnagur, Bengal, on Dec. 1849. He was the second son of Rai Ram Lochun Ghose Bahadur, Principal Sadar Amin of the district. Ghose was called to the bar in England in 1873, and on his return to India began to prac tise in the Calcutta High Court. Ghose was honorary secretary and principal speaker of a deputation on Indian administration to the Marquess of Hartington. The result was repeal of the Vernacular Press Act and the establishment of a Statutory Indian Civil Service.
Early in 188o, he returned to India, but two months later the Indian Association again sent him to England to continue their opposition to Lord Lytton's policy. Returning in November the same year, he resumed practice at the Bar, and devoted the next two years to various political measures, such as the Vernacular Press Act, Criminal Procedure Code Amendment Bill, etc.
In 1883, he again proceeded to England in order to assist in an appeal of Surendranath Banerjea before the Privy Council. From August 1883 to August 1884, he addressed meetings in Lon don and elsewhere in support of Ripon's policy in the Ilbert Bill and the representation of Indian interests in Parliament. He was the first Indian to seek election to Parliament; in 1885 and again in 1886 the Liberals of Deptford invited him to become their candidate, but on both occasions he was defeated—the second time owing to his support of the Irish Home Rule Bill. He returned to India in 1887.
In 1892, he was elected a member of the Bengal Legislative Council from which he retired in 1895. In 1903, he was elected president of the Indian National Congress at Madras and for some years took an important part in its deliberations. Ghose's last poli tical speech was delivered as chairman of a public meeting called in 1906 at Calcutta to protest against Lord Curzon's partition of Bengal. Ill-health prevented him from taking any further active part in political work, and he died at Calcutta on Sept. 18, 1909.
Ghose was a thorough Constitutionalist and the whole spirit of his utterances was loyal to the British Government. He was the greatest orator of his time in India. As a member of the Bar he was rather an advocate than a lawyer, and commanded the fullest respect of Bench and Bar alike.