Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/32

20 prohibited in all cases where it had not the sanction of Hindu law, that is, where the victim was unwilling. In January 1815 a further step was reached when the Sati of a widow with very young children was forbidden, while two years later a further Letter of Instruction was issued. Meanwhile it was a fact to which Government could not shut its eyes that, since the year 1813 when the first instructions to officers had been issued, the practice, so far from diminishing, had increased to an alarming extent. During the four years 1815 to 1818, in which statistics were taken, the number of Satis was more than doubled. Government, deeply concerned in the matter, still hesitated, in view of the general prevalence and acceptance of the practice, to decree its abolition, Lord Amherst the Governor-General still trusting that 'general instruction and the unostentatious exertions of local officers would gradually bring about the extinction of this barbarous rite.' Lord William Bentinck, however, who succeeded Lord Amherst as Governor-General in 1828 was of another opinion. While believing no less than Ram Mohan Roy, whom he personally consulted on the subject, in the advantages of persuasion over force, he was unwilling to wait indefinitely for a reform that he considered urgently needed. Statistics still showed that, however much had been hoped from a gradual spread of education and a quiet insistence on the part of local officials, the practice was not