july— sEPr. 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 attempt 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 uncertainty exist, it is the duty of Government to decide 

 upon some Standard, 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 how 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 Madras Presidency, may- 

 be cited as another instance of the insufficiency of a non-compulsory Enactment 

 to effect social reform, however needed. 



