former there is an extra provision that the boy should have had an education up to a certain standard before the marriage would be allowed.

80. T. B. DANI, EDITOR OF THE ARYA VART.-This gentleman advocates, State interference on the ground that education will not remedy the evils in time. "It is impossible. for education to spread to such an extent as to remedy the evils, before an utter destruction of the vitality of the whole community is made.. It is a well-known fact that females have a greater voice in the matter of marriages, and that almost all females in the country are illiterate. There are millions and millions of males who are still illiterate.”

81. SIRDAR GOPALBAO HARI DESHMUKH.-Matriculation or degree examinations, would if limited to bachelors, go a great way to prevent early marriages.

(He also advocates the use of "political influence as far as it may be reasonable", and female education.)

82. KHAN BAHADUR RUSTOMJI KARSHEDJI MODI.—If we have not the bold administrators of the old times of Company Bahadur, who were habituated to taking the bull by the horns, we have none the less wise, less able, or less sympathetic men at the helm of our affairs now, and if as I take it, owing to the altered times, they desire that some august decree that they may shape should be "broad-based" upon the people's will let us by all the means in our power obey their call-let us move the whole country in such noble cause from one end to the other-send petition after petition, and show, in short, by ovewhelming proof what the will of the people really is. There is no doubt that legislation which is far ahead of the intelligence and active sympathy of a people, however righteous and well meant it may be, has many chances of turning out a failure. But on the other hand, there is equally little doubt that when the ideas and practices of a community have, of themselves and unaided, attained the desired goal, legislation is too late, useless or nearly so. As has been truly said

the ideas and practices of a few advanced spirits of today become the common property of a succeeding generation. The true function of legislation, I believe, is to discern the signs and tendencies of the times, and opportunely to put itself at the head of a movement, when it commends itself to the light of right reason; to so gently, if possible, yet none the less decisively, shape its course, smooth away difficulties, and generally guide its action, as to accelerate the attainment of the end in view. All signs tell me that the time is now ripe or nearly so for a decisive coup de grace to be given by our enlightened and merciful legislature to practices and customs which have no real foundation in Hindu religion, which are alike abhorrent to common sense and morality, are utterly prejudicial to the best interests of society at large, and which having already begun to give way and crumble under the silent but sure and powerful influence of public opinion, need but the necessary impetus of legislative condemnation to die the speedy death they deserve.

83. KESHAVLAL MADHOWDAS.-They (the Government) ought to make marriage legal for girls at any time of life beyond 12 years.

84. RUMANUJCHARI M. A. B. L., VICE PRINCIPAL MAHARAJA'S COLLEGE VIJIANAGRAM.-In all the other forms of slavery the law punishes both the seller and the buyer, and dissolves the relation originating from the unrighteous contract, but in the case of connubial slavery the real offenders are not looked upon as criminals at all, and the law is powerless to restore the enthralled to freedom by tearing asunder the fetters forged for her enslavement by the heartless greed of her parents. Can the infamous practice of selling infants be sanctioned under the cloak of matrimony? Can the sacred institution of wedlock, whose influence is highly beneficent and humanizing, be converted into a regular source of illicit profit, revolting to human feelings and brutalizing in its effects upon humanity.... ..I cannot congratulate the

British nation upon having restored mankind to freedom by the complete abolition of slavery, so long as they permit the most aggravated form of it to continue under their very noses.

85. BABU P. C. MUZOOMDAR.-Against the evil of infant marriages there is a steadily growing public opinion......... The difficulty is with the girls. The tremendous difficulties of the vexed question of courtship present themselves as soon as you let the tender sex grow up to a certain age. Young ladies institute the most crucial tests of competency in admitting the claims of any human being to their affections, and, when they are good enough to fall in love they belie those tests so flagrantly as to provoke the strongest revolt against the infallibility of their choice. Parents are in great bewilderment, therefore, when they have a bevy of spirited undergraduate daughters. How you manage it in the Parsi community I should like to know. Infant marriages are doomed, but the problem of finding out suitable matches for over-grown young ladies is as far from solution as ever. I have already alluded to the puritanism of Hindu conceptions. We cannot afford to have love letters, flirtations, rejections and amorous fancies in our households. If we can help it, we will not permit the importation of these usages. What then, are we to do? I would advocate betrothals long before marriage. The parents, according to Hindu notions, should propose and arrange the matches, but the daughter or son shall have the power to veto the selection. But if the selection once meet with the approval of parent and child, the match shall never be set aside, unless either of the contracting parties show a physical or moral unfitness.

86. K. N. RANE.-A conservative people like ours do not care to profit by the signs of the times, and their thick skin could be pricked only by the stern hand of law.

87. K. VENCATRAO ESQ., FIRST GRADE PLEADER BELLARY.-It can be satisfactorily shown that the Shastras do not prohibit the postponement of the marriage of a girl till she

attains her 12th year, and of a boy till 16. As for caste or custom it does not seem to condemn the persons concerned in the marriage of a girl and boy aged respectively 12 and 16 or above. Hence it is clear that legislative interference in fixing the minimum of the marriageable ages of girls and boys, with penal clauses for punishing the parents or other guardians for violating the said law, will not shock the feelings of the people nor set in motion the torrent of reaction against the cause, nor be inconsistent with the non-interfering policy of Government in religious matters. As the people do not in 90 per cent of the marriages that now take place, adhere to the ages laid down in our Shastras, perhaps under the impression that those were the maximum ages permitted by our Hindu law, or for want of proper authorities to enforce the same, the necessity for securing legislative sanction for a moderate limit of minimum age, both for boys and girls, is very great. Those that deprecate legislation in such matters seem to hold that as female education advances, these prejudices perish of their own accord. If that be the case, there would have been no legislation on the subject in the civilised countries of Europe.........I think we are not without a precedent......The Indian Majority Act now determines the age of majority of a Hindu, and prolongs the period of nonage fixed by Hindu law. While the above Act interferes with the Hindu law of succession and contract as regards the capacity of the persons concerned, the one now asked for will merely declare the temporary incapacity of the persons entering into marriage life, or rather marital contracts.

88. HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SCOTT JUDGE OF THE BOMBAY HIGH COURT.-I think you could not do better than adopt the rule that now obtains in most of the civilised countries of the world, which may be stated as follows: "A male person is enabled by law to consent to matrimony at the age of 14 and a female at the age of 12. Even though the male be under 14 or the girl under 12, the marriage is not absolutely void, but is only inchoate and imperfect. Either of the parties upon coming to the proper age, for his or her consent, may declare

the marriage void. This rule would provide for the Hindu system of betrothals, or rather it would substitute irrevocable betrothals for the present irrevocable infant marriage.

If you wait till individual Hindus take up and carry through single-handed, without outside aid, any great change in their social system, you will realise the fable of the countryman who sat by the river bank and waited for the stream to run dry before he crossed over to the other side. It is not in human nature to expect great changes to be effected in a society by its own members, when the advocates of change have to face family estrangement, social ostracism, and caste excommunication, as a probable result of their efforts. You must in such circumstances take some middle course. Mr. Melvill suggests a Modus operandi: “A few representatives of each caste" he says "must take the lead." I fully endorse that view, but I would add that the action these leaders must take is not on the lines of purely internal reform, but rather in favour of internal reform helped by a very moderate amount of Government interference. I believe that if a petition to Government were signed by all those leaders of native opinion who have already signified to you in one way or another their adherence to the reforms in question, the natural hesitation of those in authority to interfere with the religious or social institutions of those they govern would be removed. Deference and respect for native religion and usage is the basis of the English rule in India. But whilst the Government, steadily refuses to regulate belief or alter custom by law, it can still consistently and safely assist reform by cautious legislation, when the leaders of native opinion testify clearly to the wish of the people for progress.................

My experience of these things, gained in an Eastern country, though not in India, is that they are best done piece-meal. Every fresh change propossd disturbs a fresh set of prejudices and stirs up the animosity of special vested interests, and all