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

278 AIISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. Vv. as

with suffering, and honest admiration for British Justice, have a better claim to a full and indulgent consideration of their needs than the Parsi community of Bombay and the Mofussil.”

The valuable labours of this Commission resulted in the passing of the Succession and Marriage Acts in the form in which they are given in Appendices B and C. In a work like this relating to the Parsis, who, from the time of their arrival in India up to 1865, a period of twelve hundred years, had no recognised laws to govern their social relations, the author has deemed it right to devote a few pages to tracing the history of the various efforts made from time to time to obtain legislative sanction to their mode of regulating intestate succession and marriage and divorce, and

ready and willing to discharge their duties, They have been always punctual in their attendance, and there has never been an instance in which the administration of justice has been delayed by their nonattendance. I must particularly thank you for the very intelligent interest you have always taken in our deliberations, I have often been struck by the shrewd questions put by delegates to a witness, after he has undergone a rigorous examination, eross-examination, and re-examination by counsel, the answers to which have frequently changed the tenor and worth of the evidence given. It is seldom that I have had to disagree with the verdict of the delegates, and when I had, it is very likely that I was wrong and they were right. And this degree of intelligence is to be expected as long as the selection of delegates continues to be made with such watchful and careful discretion as is happily now the case. Personally I have ever received the greatest courtesy at your hands, and to me it is a matter of regret that this will be the last time I shall sit with you in this court; for although I hope to return, yet even of this I am uncertain ; but it is certain that, even if I do return, the arrangements made in my absence will not be disturbed.”