Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎470r] (64/238)

The Progress of the Municipal Idea in India. 277
could rarely be raised to more than support even the most
modest scale of clerical assistance. Larger municipal
groups are thus an absolute necessity. It would be an
inducement for the heads of villages to give their time and
labour to such institutions if some distinctive title were
given to them to distinguish them from their fellows, and
some small fee given them for attendance at meetings. In
the present constitution of rural society it is too much to
expect that men should give up gratuitously much of the
time they require to gain their own living by agriculture to
such extraneous duties without any return. In any case, it
must be a case of patience and constant attention on the
part of the local revenue and magisterial authorities to
foster the requisite local public spirit, but there can be little
doubt of its creation in course of time. When once created,
the powers of such local bodies could cautiously and by
degrees be extended, and the superintendence of police,
minor criminal, civil, and educational matters, entrusted to
them, to the relief of the Collectors and Magistrates, whose
time is now too much taken up with looking after such
matters. Our maxim in all attempts at progress in this
direction should, of course, be the old and true one of festina
lente, for, as in other undertakings, it is often the pace that
kills.
Since writing the above paper, I have examined the
official returns of the municipalities in Bengal, the North-
West Provinces and Oudh, and the Central Provinces, for
the same year, and although on the whole the reports are
fairly satisfactory in the matter of attendance at meetings,
the actual progress made was not what one might look for,
considering the length of time municipal administration had
been in force.
In Bengal, for instance, there were 153 municipalities, of
which twenty-five failed to hold one meeting a month ; and
out of a total of 2,515 meetings, 243 were unsuccessful, and
had to be put off for various causes. The municipality of