History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. VI.] ROUSSTAN DESPOTISM. 279

globe have perished in war. Oh, what lamentations and wailings of heart-broken widows and helpless orphans, and destitute old age, have been caused by the butchery of so many husbands, fathers, and sons!

“While all confess, however, that war is an evil, we must consider that it may be a necessary evil, and if necessary, then justifiable. I believe there is but one feeling in the Parsi community regarding the justice of the war which Britain is now waging. We all feel that there never was, in the history of the world, a more honourable spectacle than that which has been exhibited by the British and French nations —the arms of Britain and France raised in combat for the purpose not only of supporting the weak against the strong, but of supporting the sacred principles of international right, the violation of which would have turned the world upside down—the arms of Britain and France raised in combat, not seeking conquests for selfish objects, but for those of the most noble and generous character—for the peace of the world, for the progress of civilisation, and for the interests of freedom. ‘Truly has it been said that, ‘in the great European movement towards free institutions which has been the keynote of history since 1815, Russia has always headed the party of absolutism and reaction. The whole weight of the Russian monarch has been thrown into the scale of despotism ; his aid has always been ready to put down liberty, and it has