Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/338

295 Mr. P. W. LeGeyt, among other things, said:—"I have collected enough from what the Honourable Mover of the Bill (i. e. Grant) said, to feel assured that a large majority of the higher classes of Hindus will receive with gratitude the relief which this Bill will afford them of releasing the females of their families from a cruel and miserable thraldom which has produced the same lamentable results in Western India that the Honourable Mover of the Bill stated it has done in Bengal. I have seen in Hindu families of no mean rank in Bombay the pitiable condition of women suffering under the effects of this social tyranny."

The Italics are ours, What did LeGeyt mean by his "higher classes of Hindus?" Did he mean by it 'Vidyasagar and those who thought with him?' We have then nothing to say. But if he meant by it general Hindus of the upper section then we must emphatically say that he was quite mistaken; for there were a number of petitions subscribed by over 60,000 Hindus of the higher class against the Bill, as the reader will see presently.

The Bill was read for the second time on the 19th January 1856. In moving the second reading, Grant said:—"I have allowed the Bill to be over for some time, because I have thought it right that a measure of this nature should not have the appearance of being hurried through the Council.