Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/185

Rh Of temperance work Keshub had seen much in England and this also he took up with renewed energy on his return. He had long been aware how firm a hold intemperance threatened to gain upon a certain section of his fellow-countrymen and he set himself to combat the evil by every means in his power. Here as elsewhere in the cause of progress he set his hopes chiefly upon the rising generation and realising that the young men of his day were growing up largely without the restraints, which the old caste system had exercised over its members, he endeavoured to instill into them a horror of intemperance and the degradation that it brought inevitably in its train.

One of the greatest permanent measures that Keshub was able to accomplish was the passing of the Brahmo Marriage Act of 1872. The difficult question of intermarriage among members of the Brahmo community had for years awaited a definite solution. The Advocate-General when referred to had pronounced against the legality of such marriages on the ground that they complied with no recognised form of marriage ceremony. It was apparent that only legislation could set such marriages on a safe and legal footing. But many difficulties had to be overcome before the Bill became law. The Adi-Brahmo Samaj, the old section of the Brahmo community under Devendra Nath Tagore, considered its own marriage ceremonies