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nity whicli is affected by the legislation. In the case imme- 

 diately under discussion, the Hindu members of the Local 

 Fund Boards in the Malabar district might be regarded as a 

 legally constituted standing committee for the consideration 

 of questions as to the expediency of undertaking legislation 

 of this character. Members of the community who feel keenly 

 the evils of the present state of the law as regards marital 

 relations and wish for a reform should be at liberty to bring 

 the question before the committee. If they did not succeed 

 in getting a majority of the committee to pass a resolution, 

 making a demand on the legislature for legislation, that would 

 be proof of the fact that the time was not ripe for carrying 

 out the contemplated reform. Those interested in the reform 

 would not, however, be discouraged by a single unsuccessful 

 effort ; they would try to educate public opinion on the sub- 

 ject, and endeavour to get persons elected as members of 

 Local Fund Boards who would support the cause of reform, 

 and they would bring the question again and again before the 

 committee. In course of time if the reform was a desirable 

 one, the good sense of the community would prevail even 

 over deep-rooted prejudices and the reform party would 

 doubtless be able to get a majority of the committee to 

 make a demand on the legislature. If the majority was a 

 narrow one, the Government might still consider it unsafe to 

 undertake legislation until the will of the more enlightened 

 and influential portion of the community had more unmis- 

 takably declared itself. If after further lapse of time the 

 demand was made by a large majority of the committee, 

 the Government would be in a position to undertake legis- 

 lation with confidence. It is true that there is nothing to 

 prevent voluntary associations formed with a view to promote 

 particular objects, petitioning Government for legislation for 

 carrying out those objects, but such associations cannot 

 command the same confidence as Local Fund Boards having 

 a legal status, and further it would be impossible to gauge 

 the relative strength of rival voluntary associations and 

 determine how far each represented the feelings and wishes 

 of the community. In matters affecting the community as 

 a whole, the whole Board would represent the community, 

 and in cases where the interests of particular sections of 

 the community were concerned, the committee composed of 

 members belonging to such sections would have these powers. 

 The right conferred on these Boards of discussing such ques- 

 tions would infuse life and spirit into them, and they can, if 

 necessary, be enlarged so as to secure adequate representa- 

 tion of different sections of the community. A very great 



