Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/345



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"That your Petitioners have read with much concern the Draft of a Bill entitled, "A Bill to remove all legal obstacles to the marriage of Hindu Widows," which was read by your Honorable Council for the first time on the 17th November last, and for the second time, on the 19th January. Your Petitioners are aware, from the printed papers of your Honorable Council, that the said Bill has been brought in, on the Petition of certain Hindus who desire that Widow Marriage should be legalized. Your Petitioners are also sensible that the principle of the said Bill is consonant with the social system of their English fellow-subjects, and therefore Is likely to be acceptable to your Honorable Council; yet your Petitioners cannot but feel it as a duty, as well to themselves as Hindus as to their countrymen in general, to submit their objections to the proposed law.

"2. The preamble to the Bill states that, whereas it is known that by the law as administered in the Civil Courts established in the territories in the possession and under the government of the East India Company, Hindu Widows with some exceptions are held to be, by reason of their having been once married, incapable of contracting a second valid marriage, and the offspring of such widows by