The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-03-05

government having, it was alleged, pledged
itself never to interfere in any question OF
inheritance, marriage, or divorce. The al
legation was untrue, no such pledge having
been given; but it is true that for one hun
dred yearc the government invariably in
serted in any social act provision of that
kind, and also true that all such cases have
been left exclusively to the Interpreters OF
religious law.
Still, as every Hindoo in Bengal proper
could make will, disposing of his own
accumulations, and has a nearly complete
right of wastry, and as conversions are in
frequent, the old Hindoos did not resist
The refOrmers thereupon took another step
forward. They argued that as restrictions
and inheritance were disallowed restric-
tions on marriage ought to be disallowed
also that every man should be allowed to
marry any woman without reference to
creed. The Brahmos in particular, an ac-
tive and intelligent sect of H;ndoo THESIS
who believe that sentient Being gov
ems but has not revealed his will in docu-
ments-found their marriages all illegal
They could not go through the proper forms,
which, besides being to modern ideas graf
uitously indecent, involve that very wor-
ship of idols or visible deities which the
Brahmos reject. They therefore prayed for
relief, arguing with perfect truth that the
omission of clause about marriage in act
81 OF 1850 was an oversight. The Govern
ment listened to their petition, and resolved
to Introduce broad and simple act max
ing any marriage before a registrar legal
in other words, to pass bill permitting all
persons at will to throw off caste for them
selves and their descendants.
To most Europeans who have accepted
that very principle the reform will seem a
very simple matter, but in India it involves
difficulties so extraordinary that they obvi-
| ously perplex and almost daunt the Vice
roy's Government. They are in fact, suf1i-
GENTLY formidable apart from any possibil-
ity of national discomfort. In the first
place, is marriage between children of diff.
ferent castles to be allowed If it is not
the law will be useless, for nothing will
induce Hindoo of any caste or sect what
ever to allow girl to grow up to puberty
unmarried. Yet if it is there is grave rea
son to doubt the justice of allowing a child
to be separated from its mothers caste, and
made to- her unclean without its own con-
sent, and still graver reason to fear that the
Koolin abomination, the sale ofbasely-born
ney would infect all castles. Again, poly
gamy in India is for most creeds legal; but
Is it quite fair that the child of a monoga-
nous race should be as it were forced into
a Mussulman harem which, the caste law
once swept away, will be common occur
renee. Then to which creed is the wife to
belong, her own or her husbands point
involving curious questions. A Mahom-
medan woman marrying q Christian, if le-
gally Mahommedan, could hardly prose-
cute him for bigamy, as if legally Chris
tian she could. That point will, of course,
be settled by declaring the wife legally of
the husbands creed; but in u land of per-
feet religious liberty, beyond anything
thought of in Europe, all creeds are
subjected to the same State law, and a
Mormon could not plead his religious con-
victions in bar of a conviction for bigamy,
even that is a very strong law to enact
The wife may prefer her own law, which,
for example, prohibits the Christian form
of oath. Then what is to be done about
rules of consanguinity2 These are extraor-
dinarily minute and cumbrous, most Hin
docs accepting as cardinal dogma the
idea that descent from the same ancestor
prohibits marriage. Most castles absolute
ly prohibit it among fourth, and some
among eighth cousins, and have based their
social relations upon the prohibition, rela-
tives within those degrees all living in one
house, as only relatives within the prohibit
ted degrees could live. Then there is the
grand question of caste.
A woman or man marrying out of caste,
however slightly, is out of caste too; but,
as he or she retains all rights of property,
he or she may have claims to live within
the patrimonial dwelling, and to bring the
husband or wife there too-a claim which
in Hindoo eyes is an absurd blasphemy,
involving damnation, and which would be
met, there is no doubt, if seriously enforced,
by silent but effective sentence of death.
So formidable is the opposition created by
this question OF consanguinity, and the re-
sulting difficulty of caste, that Mr.. Maine
has been compelled to give way, and has
himself proposed that clause be added
to his bill declaring that mo person be-
allowed to marry under this law who might
not have married if it had not passed.
clause which, even if he can limit it to de-
grees of consanguinity alone, and it is
much wider in words, materially weakens
the bill. We suspect that as the object of
the measure becomes known throughout
India the opposition will become yet
stronger, and that the project will either be
postponed, or that the bill will become still
broader than it is-a distinct lcgalization
of any marriage whatsoever between I'M
married persons, without reference to any
restriction except their own consent or that
of their authorized guardians. That might
be carried without more opposition than
the present project will involve it; but
Mr.. Maine was obliged to state formally
that government did not intend to pro-
pose law of divorce for Hindoos, and
that the Brahmos thought themselves not
yet advanced enough to have u law of di-
vorce"-the truth being, that to grant the
power or even possibility of divorce would
be to pulverize the whole social life of the
people, who as yet have never held the
consent of either bride or bridegroom es-
sential to the contract
H A laughable incident occurred the
other day in railroad car. Shortly after
the train had left the depot an old lady
jumped up and addressed gentleman
seated behind her, with
"How dare you What are you att"
The astonished gentleman replied that
he had done nothing. The lady again
seated herself, but, in few minutes arose,