Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/61

 to assert, and the practice of Brahmacharyya was, according to him, unnatural and absurd. He was, however, prepared to admit that the custom of the country had been universally against the marriage of Hindu widows amongst the higher classes and that the opinion of the Sadar Courts at all the four Presidencies of India was entirely unfavourable to the proposed change. None the less, he assured the public that he desired only a permissive law as distinct from a compulsory law like that prohibiting Sati. After going through all its stages without difficulty, the bill received the assent of the Governor-General on the 26th July 1856 and passed into law.

Vidyasagar had now the enactment he sought, but his labours were not over. For four months none came forward to take the initiative. While the Rulers were with him, the sympathy of the general population was against him. The one thousand persons whose signature he had procured must have signed from love of novelty or