Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/33

Rh yet sensibly on the decline. The gradual enlightenment of the people would take years, perhaps generations, and hundreds of innocent human lives would meanwhile be wantonly sacrificed. To Lord William Bentinck's credit it will always be remembered that he boldly took the course he considered to be right, a course which, though it met with much opposition at the time, has received the full approval of posterity. On December the 4th, 1829, was published the decree that finally abolished Sati throughout British India. Henceforward it was punishable as a criminal offence. All persons who aided or abetted it, whether the widow consented or not, were declared guilty of culpable homicide, and where violence was used against the victim it was in the power of the court to pass sentence of death. To Ram Mohan Roy, convinced of its wisdom and necessity, the measure was a welcome one and in the address presented by him and his friends to the Governor-General shortly afterwards was expressed their 'deepest gratitude for the ever-lasting obligation conferred on the Hindu community at large,' for which they were 'at a loss to find language sufficiently indicative even of a small portion of the sentiments they desired to express.' The services that Ram Mohan had rendered in the cause of abolition were fully recognised. It was his insistence on the fact that Sati was nowhere enjoined as a compulsory duty in the Shastras and that there