JULY— SEPT. 1857.] 
for India. 
207 
pen constantly, for want of some positive law on the subject, and 
the evil cannot be remedied by a mere Proclamation, which is not 
binding. It is now 10 years since the Madras Proclamation was 
published, and models distributed over the country with injunc- 
tions to the Public Officers to press their adoption ; but, with very 
few exceptions, the attemj^t has failed, and those very exceptions 
only add to the discordance already prevailing. It is to little pur- 
pose for Government to proclaim a Standard, if its use is not en- 
forced, or if it is not to be considered as decisive in case of dis- 
pute. It appears obvious, that where such inconvenient discre- 
pancy and uncerf Jinty exist, it is the duty of Government to decide 
upon some StandarcP, and having once decided, not to allow the 
people the option of accepting it or not. It will often happen 
that when a practice is insisted on by law, and penalties attach- 
ed to its infraction, no resistance will be made ; whereas if the peo- 
ple are aware that there is no law, and no means of enforcement, 
their opposition will be most pertinacious, and if they can only 
hold out long enough it must be effectual. 
It may be said that in some of the Bombay provinces a new 
Standard (referred to in para. 55) has been introduced with suc- 
cess without legal compulsion. That a reform in the Weights — 
that is, selecting the best known of those already in use — ^has 
been partially carried out by the personal influence of some ener- 
getic magistrates, is no doubt the case ; but as regards the Measures 
of Capacity, a most important branch of metrology to the people 
of India, the attempt has only succeeded apparently, in one or two 
instances ; and to show hovr little is to be expected from the pro- 
gress of education, and march of intellect, the reform has been found 
impracticable (there being no law to enforce it) in the towns of 
Bombay and Surat, where it might be supposed that official influ- 
ence and educational enlightenment would have aided the desired 
object.* » 
Even in those cases where the shopkeepers are said to have 
adopted the new "Weights and Measures, assertions are not suf- 
* The total failure of the late Municipal Act, in the Madias Presidency, may- 
be cited as another instance of the iusulficieucy of a non-compulsory Euactmeut 
to effect social reform, however needed. 
I 
