332 



advantage of this system would be that a legal machinery 

 would be provided for educating local public opinion in 

 favour of legislation affecting social ^^^ relations. 



lis. In the above remarks I do not by any means wish to 

 „ ^, , isrnore the unequal advance in knowledge 



Further remarks o ^ o .i i i- r t-r ' 



regarding legislation on and intelligence Oi the popuJatiou OI dll- 

 sociai matters, &c. fercut parts of tl;ie Presidency and of the 



consequent improbability of the Local Fund Boards in some 

 parts being able to discuss questions as regards legislation 

 with intelligence and to arrive at a correct opinion regarding 

 them. I can only reply that what I have stated is the ideal 

 to be aimed at and gradually worked up to, and that the ar- 

 rangements made at the outset should be such as will allow 

 of Boards which are sufficiently advanced to deal with such 

 questions. The more advanced parts of the country ought 

 to be allowed their legitimate influence in raising up the less 

 advanced parts and not be compulsorily kept at the level of the 

 latter. And after all, the arrangements are intended merely 

 to enable Government to determine whether legislation on 

 matters affecting social usages can be undertaken with safety ; 

 the final responsibility for undertaking or refusing legislation 

 will still rest with Government. The Local Fund Boards 

 will in fact be constituted bodies which have limited execu- 

 tive powers in certain directions to act of their own autho- 

 rity, but possessing unlimited powers for making representa- 

 tions on all other matters of general administration, the final 

 decision of which is vested in the central Government. 



119. There is one other subject which may be appropri- 

 ately noticed here, viz., the unsatisfactory 



Unsatisfactory state , , c ,-i -t tii j 



of the law relating to stato 01 the law regarding the management 

 native religions endow- Q,Jid supcrvisiou of rcHgious endowments 

 and the urgent necessity for reform in this 

 direction. There is here an immense national property which, 

 in course of time, might be devoted to many beneficial pur- 

 poses, such as provision of religious instruction, of art edu- 

 cation, &c., and which is now largely misappropriated. One of 

 . the most popular acts of Government would be to provide for 

 the efficient supervision of the management of these properties 

 to ensure their being devoted in the main to the uses for which 

 they were intended, by means of responsible committees which, 

 without doing violence to public feeling, would be able gradu- 

 ally and insensibly to introduce such changes as would tend to 



'^^ The second and third bills relate to complicated questions of Hindu Law, a 

 discussion of which will take up more space than can be afforded here, and I have 

 therefore merely contented myself with alluding to them. 



